Programs & Labs
Spring 2004
Sanderson named Student of the Year
Max Donath, Kate Sanderson, and Gary Davis at the TRB annual meeting
Katherine (Kate) Sanderson, a graduate student enrolled in the University of Minnesota's Civil Engineering Ph.D. program, received the ITS Institute's 2003 Outstanding Student of the Year Award.
Sanderson has served the University and the transportation community in several ways, including as a teaching assistant in several transportation and traffic engineering courses. Dr. Gary Davis, a professor in the Civil Engineering department who has worked closely with Sanderson, describes her as a "can-do" person and a natural leader. Sanderson has demonstrated her leadership abilities as vice-president of the North Central Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers student chapter, as president of the Minnesota chapter of Women's Transportation Seminar, and by spearheading efforts to create the Interdisciplinary Transportation Student Organization (ITSO), now a valued networking group for students interested in transportation.
Sanderson has also been involved in a variety of research efforts at the University. Her thesis research attracted attention for her findings on the extent of highway expansion needed to accommodate future travel demand, and was featured on local television news and in a newspaper editorial.
Sanderson received the award in January at the Transportation Research Board 83rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. "I am honored that the ITS Institute, an organization with such a range of activities and talent, gave me the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., and enabled me to attend the TRB conference," she says. "The conference is a huge event on the transportation calendar, and a great place to meet people with similar interests and learn from the technical sessions and posters."
Sanderson is currently working as a transportation engineer at URS Consultants in Minneapolis. Previously, she received her bachelor of engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia, and her master of science at the University of Minnesota.