July 7, 2014
Infrastructure can greatly influence the well-being of a community, from increasing mobility to ensuring safe drinking water and stable structures. Infrastructure management and research are thus vital to society and were key components of the 10th Annual Inter-University Symposium on Infrastructure Management hosted recently at Virginia Tech.
The inter-university symposium originated in Canada during 2005 and has since been hosted across the United States. The symposium offers the next generation of leaders in the field of infrastructure management an opportunity to exchange knowledge and research ideas, with top graduate students from international colleges and universities in attendance. In conjunction with the symposium, the Advanced Infrastructure Management Bootcamp was held that joined graduate students and instructors from Virginia Tech and other universities and colleges with infrastructure management programs.
The keynote speaker at the 2014 symposium was Brady J. Deaton, a former Virginia Tech professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics (1978 – 1989) and associate director of the Office for International Development (1985 – 1989). Deaton published more than 100 articles during his career and served as chancellor of the University of Missouri until his retirement last year.
Gerardo Flintsch, director of the Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and his team organized the symposium and bootcamp. The event was sponsored by the Connected Vehicle/Infrastructure University Transportation Center.
For more information, please visit the symposium’s website.