Second meeting of the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering at TRB

The Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering, a community of academics involved in teaching and research related to pavement science and engineering, hosted their second annual meeting at the Transportation Research Board conference in Washington D.C. on Jan. 12.

Led by the executive officers (Amit Bhasin, Silvia Caro, Ghassan Chehab, and Elie Hajj), a review of APSE activities during 2018 included an increase in membership at the student and academic professional levels, formal registration as a non-profit organization, and introductory meetings at conferences worldwide, including the International Conference on the Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields (BCRRA) and Advances in Materials and Pavement Performance Prediction (the AM3P Conference).

Particularly, APSE Board of Governors, Professors Imad Al-Qadi (chair), Bjorn Birgisson, John Harvey, Dallas Little, and Tom Scarpas, established three core areas to address the current needs and future direction of the pavement field: Education, Research, and Professional Development. Updates from each task force were presented during the meeting and continued in breakout sessions among the committee leads and members.

The Education Task Force focuses on documenting and surveying the current curriculum of universities worldwide to identify the courses that are currently offered and establish critical changes to the curricula of undergraduate and graduate studies. The Research Task Force plans to identify foundational work and organize a pertinent bibliography that will be essential to current and future researchers. Lastly, the Professional Task Force is working on the demand survey of pavement engineers along with licensing and certification programs. Dr. Kamil Kaloush, from Arizona State University, shared their efforts in integrating pavement-related problems into the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying Professional Engineer exam.

Dr. Sandra Erkens, from the Technical University of Delft at the Netherlands, presented the Outstanding Services by a Student Member (OSSM) award. The OSSM nominations were received and deliberated based on the criteria of contributing significantly in activities related to APSE’s mission and demonstrating independence and proactivity in leading or executing such activities. A unanimous decision by the awards committee identified Johny Habbouche, a Ph.D. student from the University of Nevada, Reno, as the 2019 OSSM recipient.

The meeting concluded with the anticipated deliverables from each task force and future efforts to expand the membership to pavement stakeholders and greater representation globally. For more information about APSE, please visit www.pavements.academy.