InTrans / Aug 19, 2020
Student paper earns accolades
Institute for Transportation (InTrans) graduate student A.M. Tahsin Emtenan has received multiple accolades for a paper he wrote on detector configurations for automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPMs).
The paper most recently was selected for the Student Paper Award for the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Midwestern District, and previously won the Thomas J. Seburn Student Paper Award from the Missouri Valley Section of ITE (MOVITE).
The Midwestern District award is given annually for a significant paper written by a student member; the MOVITE award is offered annually to the student engineering student whose paper is selected as the most significant contribution to transportation engineering.
Emtenan’s paper titled “Impacts of Detector Configuration on Performance Measurement and Signal Operations” was co-authored with InTrans affiliate researcher Chris Day, whom Emtenan is studying under as part of his graduate work.
The paper studied both the impact of stop bar detection zone length and lane- or approach-based detector assignment on the ability of performance measures to identify accurately whether split failures occur and the impact of setback detector distance on the use of a “percentage on green” metric that serves as a proxy measurement of the number of stops.
Past InTrans graduate students previously placed first and second for the Thomas J. Seburn Student Paper Award in 2018.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, Emtenan wasn’t able to accept the awards in person but had them mailed to him instead.