The Technology Transfer Program

A. On Assumption’s Campus

Careers in Transportation: During the Fall Term the Center began to work with the Student Development Office on ways to encourage student exploration of career opportunities in the transportation industry. The Student Development Office has acquired print materials to support this effort and with UTC assistance and the Central Massachusetts Transportation Association has continued to network with persons in the industry as well as with the Boston and Central Massachusetts chapters of the Women’s Transportation Seminar. The UTC is cooperating with the Student Development and Alumni Offices in creating a roster of alumni in the industry, a resource that can be used to help students understand the route from B.A. to transportation career.

Campus Ecology Club: Together with the Center’s Associate Director a group of students formed the Campus Ecology Club and petitioned the Student Government Association for recognition. The SGA voted to accept that petition giving the Club official status. The Club’s efforts to encourage the use of bicycles rather than cars on campus has resulted in a maintenance project to place bike racks outside classroom buildings and dorms. Campus clean-up days have been organized as have recycling projects throughout the campus.

Environmental Chemistry Lecture Series: The Center sponsored a series of lectures in environmental chemistry in cooperation with the Department of Natural Sciences. The lecturers and their topics were
- Dr. Shimon Anisfeld, “Views of the River: Exploring the Multiple Controls of Stream Water Quality”
- Dr. James Hauri, “Manipulation of Bioavailable Copper by EDTA Complexation in the LA Basin.”
- Dr. Heather Shafer, “Electron Transfer Interactions at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces”
- Dr. Keith Ryder, “Surface Science at Elevated Pressures Using the Scanning Tunneling Microscope to Examine Model Automobile Catalysis”

Transportation Projects Forum: With the Worcester Municipal Research Bureau the Center sponsored the forum, “The Status of Worcester’s Transportation Projects,” involving presentations by Matthew Amorello, Commissioner of MassHighway, Frank DeFronzo, Senior Project Manager of the MBTA, and Eric Waldron, Director of the Worcester Regional Airport.

Transportation Career Exposition: As a result of a roundtable held October 25, 2000, the Center launched its first Transportation Career Expo for middle and high school students throughout central Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Expo was held in and around Worcester’s Union Station in conjunction with the Northeast Energy Association’s Tour de Sol. Expo exhibitions were mounted by twenty-one organizations representing various aspects of industry careers, the educational resources available and the environmental issues involved with the industry. Tour de Sol brought some fifty alternative energy vehicles to Worcester’s Common just a few blocks away. Upwards of one thousand visitors attended the two events and were served by shuttle buses between the sites.

Conferences: The Center’s Associate Director has been active throughout the year in a variety of outreach activities including meeting with Worcester Public Schools science department heads, exhibiting at the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers Annual meeting, exhibiting at the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society’s Annual meeting, and presenting as well as exhibiting at the annual meeting of the Technology Education Association of Massachusetts.

C. Throughout the Nation

The Center’s Data Base: The data base developed in the Center’s first year has been reorganized and expanded to include educators, environmentalists and transportation professionals beyond the twin-state region. The data base now includes almost 1,500 records representing college and university departments and faculty, schools and educators (K-12), government and non-government organizations and personnel.

The Center’s Website: The website continues to be upgraded in order to act as a national educational resource for teachers, environmentalists and transportation professionals. On-going exploration has increased the number of links on the Educational Resources pages for teachers and expanded the number of links related to the Center’s theme on the Students (K-12) pages for young people. The Technology Transfer pages now contain links to several of the completed research projects that can serve as models for curricular developments in classrooms across the nation. These now include “Exploring Our New Neighborhood – Our Community’s Growth and Changes,” “Worcester Earn-A-Bike,” and “Student Conducted Studies of Catalytic Electrode Surfaces for Fuel Cell Applications.”

Links to descriptions and photos of other Center-sponsored events such as the
in-service program for teachers, “Classroom on Rails,” and the Transportation Career Exposition are also posted on the Technology Transfer pages in order to encourage educators, environmentalists and transportation professionals to consider such projects for their schools and organizations.

Transportation Research Board: The Center’s director and associate director attended the annual meetings of the TRB in Washington, D.C., January 7-11, 2001. At the Student of the Year Awards Reception hosted by the University Transportation Center Program/RSPA, Robert Doe, an Assumption senior majoring in chemistry, received our first Center award.