10 UTA students land coveted transportation fellowships

Ten students from The University of Texas at Arlington have received coveted Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The students come from three UTA colleges:

• College of Engineering
• College of Liberal Arts (COLA)
• College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA)

“Over the last four years, more than 40 highly competitive fellowships have been secured by UTA students, and we expect the fellowship program to continue to grow over the next few years,” said Laureano Hoyos, professor of civil engineering. “This is a very prestigious program, and our students’ success in earning these fellowships speaks to the breadth of excellent research being done in this area at UTA.”

UTA’s recipients include engineering students Ana Maria Coca, Sachini Madanayake, Muhasina Dola, Nyoka Amy Florius, Kate Nguyen, Christian Libebele and Taryn DiLorenzo; political science student Nicholas Allen; and CAPPA students Vivian Fung and Marvelous Echeng.
Coca was awarded $10,000; Madanayake, $8,500; Dola, $7,000; Fung, $5,500; and Florius $4,000. Each of the other students earned $2,500. Awards range from $1,500 to $10,000.

The mission of the Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program is to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation, advance transportation workforce development and retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry. Fellowships are merit-based, and a total of 150-200 are generally distributed nationwide each year.

Hoyos and the Center for Transportation Equity, Decisions and Dollars (CTEDD) administer the program at UTA. CTEDD is a federally designated University Transportation Center led by UTA in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of South Florida.

Recipients of the Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship have pushed for innovative change in areas such as highway construction, aviation, maritime infrastructure and transportation policy, and have pursued careers in academia, private industry and public service
Having 10 more students earn the fellowships this year demonstrates UTA’s commitment to providing opportunities to all students and performing research at the highest levels, said Jim Grover, UTA’s interim vice president for research.

“We are proud that this group of outstanding students has earned these prestigious fellowships,” Grover said. “It speaks volumes of the quality of our research enterprise and underscores the value of UTA’s contributions to education, research and innovation.”

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– Written by Jeremy Agor, College of Engineering