Prominent figures in transportation engineering speak at Kent Seminar Series

ICT recently completed a successful season of the Kent Seminar Series, attracting a number of prominent national and international figures in the field of transportation engineering to come to Illinois and share their expertise and knowledge.

Among those invited to the Kent Lecture Series in Spring 2015 were Hadi Madani, UIUC; Carmine Dwyer, Applied Research Associates (ARA); Armando Duarte, UIUC; Michael Darter, ARA; Amit Bhasin, University of Texas at Austin; and Charles Schwartz, University of Maryland.

All presented lectures can be viewed here.

The lecture series is a great opportunity for UIUC students to extend interaction with the visitors and to gain a wide and clear perspective that goes beyond textbook material to incorporate the most pressing challenges facing the transportation industry today.

To allow for further interaction between the seminars’ invited speakers and students, ICT students organized regular “meet ‘n’ greet” sessions. The sessions, complementing the Kent Seminars, included discussions about the presentations, speakers’ research, and ways to achieve professional and academic excellence.

The Paul Fraser Kent Distinguished Lecture, initiated in 2007, honors outstanding leadership in the field of transportation engineering. Paul Kent was a 1920 graduate of the University of Illinois in Civil Engineering. As a highway contractor and materials supplier, he owned and operated two Champaign-based companies, General Paving and Builders Supply. Throughout his professional career, he expressed the highest regard and great esteem for the education in civil engineering he received at the University of Illinois. Mr. Kent dedicated himself to civic service in Illinois and surrounding states. He was the founder and president of the University of Illinois Civil Engineering Alumni Association, and was the recipient of the U of I Loyalty Award and the Civil Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Kent Distinguished Lectures are sponsored by the Paul F. Kent Memorial Fund, established in 1977 to support education in transportation engineering.