Meet an ICT Investigator: James P. Hall, UIS

James Patrick Hall is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) and the Director of the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program in the College of Business and Management at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS). He is also participating in ICT as the Primary Investigator for two projects, one complete (27-39 Context Sensitive Solutions Online Training Course Development) and one active (27-73 Distance Technology Transfer Course Content Development).

Hall has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from UIUC, a MBA from UIS, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UIUC. He has been a member of the MIS faculty since the Fall 2000 semester. Prior to that, he worked 25 years for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in a variety of engineering and administrative capacities including construction resident engineer, local roads policy chief, pavement technology engineer, and materials tests engineer. In his last IDOT position, as the Chief of Planning Services, he managed statewide activities for road, structure and rail crossing inventory database management, traffic data collection, cartography/mapping, and geographic information system (GIS) implementation.

When asked about his involvement in ICT, Hall says, "Having administered IDOT research projects when I was working for Physical Research at IDOT, I was excited to learn about the formation of ICT which, I believe, has greatly raised the stature and commitment to transportation research in Illinois. I am believer in the significant benefits of project-focused research with active involvement by researchers and practitioners. I have seen first-hand the beneficial results of research on IDOT policy development and long-term decision making. The ICT provides a valuable resource to address major issues which warrant more expertise and a greater time commitment than IDOT can deploy internally."

The objective of his current project, Distance Technology Transfer Course Content Development, is to convert existing on-ground course content to an online environment for several key, high-benefit IDOT technology transfer training courses. The implementation of accessible and flexible distance training enables individuals to take courses anytime and anywhere.

The first course under development through this project is IDOT's Flagger course which provides training to state and local agency personnel on roadway flagging policies and procedures. The project team is in the process of converting the course materials for online access and developing video content of course lectures and demonstrations of proper Flagger techniques. The team is also assisting IDOT in assessing online course delivery systems to determine which would best fit IDOT's needs. Bill Buttlar of UIUC serves as the co-PI.

James and his wife Nancy have three sons, and James has coached youth baseball, soccer, and basketball. They like to travel, and five grandchildren have helped keep them on the road. He also works at staying current with the rapid advances in technology ahead of his students.