ITS America Launches Global Competition to Develop Student Transportation Leaders
Program Aimed at University, High School Students in the U.S. and Across the WorldWashington – Now that the 26th ITS World Congress (ITSWC) in Singapore is over and the ITS community begins looking toward next year’s event, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) announced a new program designed to create opportunities for tomorrow’s intelligent mobility leaders by targeting a diverse group of students in the United States and abroad.
The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), which will culminate at next year’s ITSWC in Los Angeles, hopes to identify potential leaders who will become part of tomorrow’s workforce. The 2020 Los Angeles ITSWC theme is “The New Age of Mobility.”
“As an industry, we need to work harder to engage and develop young professionals who will extend our progress and become the next generation of leaders,” said Beth Kigel, Vice President, HNTB Corp and Chair, Emerging Leaders Program.
The ELP has three components: a Global Challenge for college students with a finals event in Los Angeles at the ITS World Congress; a National Immersion Program for high school students across the country; and a Local Awareness Program, which will provide opportunities for high school students in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to visit the exhibit floor.
The Global Challenge is a new program specifically developed for the 2020 ITSWC. Organizers will recruit teams of university students from across the world to solve a mobility puzzle, potentially related to the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Three teams from differing geographic regions from around the world will be selected in advance and will travel to the ITSWC in Los Angeles for the final competition.
The National Immersion Program will also feature a pre-event competition related to intelligent mobility, this time for high school students throughout the United States. Up to three teams will be selected to showcase their solution at the ITSWC, which will also feature programming specifically developed for these teams.
The Local Awareness Program will offer high school students and their teachers from the Los Angeles Metropolitan area an opportunity to experience hundreds of mobility solutions that will be part of the ITSWC exhibit floor.
The college and high school pre-event competitions will take place during this school year; the onsite activities will be scheduling throughout the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles October 4 – 8, 2020. Learn more at www.itsfutureleaders.org.
Contact: Cathy St. Denis, cstdenis@itsa.org
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About ITS America: The Intelligent Transportation Society of America advances the research and deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility, promote sustainability, and increase efficiency and productivity. Our vision is a better future transformed by intelligent mobility: safer, greener, smarter. For more information, please visit www.itsa.org
