The New Transportation Faculty: the Evolution to Engineering Systems

In 1995 I wrote “Educating the ‘New Transportation Professional’”.1 Inspired by the changes in our field induced by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), it described a broad concept of what knowledge the transportation professional in the 21st century will need to be effective. The paper discussed the “T”-shaped professional; this professional would have a broad understanding of technology, systems and institutions in the transportation domain, represented by the horizontal bar on the “T” and indepth knowledge in one of these specialties, represented by the vertical bar. With this combination of breadth and depth, the New Transportation Professional could contribute substantively to the solution of transportation problems, both through detailed knowledge and through an enhanced understanding of the contributions of other professionals in what is inherently an interdisciplinary field.