Making T. H. E. difference

3/18/2021 Noelle Arbulu

The virtual 107th Illinois Transportation and Highway Engineering conference took place March 2-4, 2021. This year’s conference set a record with more than 1,470 registered attendees, making it the largest T. H. E. conference to date.  READ MORE

Written by Noelle Arbulu

The 107th Illinois Transportation and Highway Engineering conference organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) took place March 2-4, 2021, and was hosted virtually by vFairs.

This year’s conference set a record with more than 1,470 registered attendees, making it the largest T. H. E. conference to date. The conference also welcomed 20 exhibitors, 35 sponsors and 44 presentations, and granted up to 20 hours of professional development.

The three-day program offered presentations on bridges and structures, traffic, operations and safety, local roads and streets, design, construction and environment, and University of Illinois faculty and student research in progress and innovations.

THE Conference plenary speakers
107th T. H. E. plenary speakers, listed from left to right: Omer Osman, Ana Barros, Cheryl Walker, Lora Rensing, Kirk H. Brown, Manar Nashif and Steven L. Stroh.

The plenary speakers included the following leaders from Illinois Department of Transportation, UIUC, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Tollway and industry:

  • Omer Osman, acting secretary, IDOT
  • Ana Barros, department head, CEE, UIUC
  • Cheryl Walker, associate administrator of safety, FHWA
  • Lora Rensing, project implementation engineer, IDOT District 8
  • Kirk H. Brown, program development engineer, IDOT District 8
  • Manar Nashif, deputy chief of program implementation, Illinois Tollway
  • Steven L. Stroh, senior vice president, AECOM

T. H. E’s conference director Jeffery Roesler, CEE professor and Associate Head for Graduate Affairs, said “I am thankful for our forward-looking planning committee and T. H. E. staff for coming up with a well-organized and delivered virtual event in such short notice. We also appreciate all the attendees, moderators, exhibitors and sponsors for taking this journey with us to the first virtual T. H. E. conference and making it a great success.”

All conference presentations are recorded and available for viewing for registered participants until June 2, 2021. Recordings are available to those who missed the conference by registering to view the recordings.

The 108th T. H. E. conference is set for March 1-2, 2022, at the I Hotel & Conference Center. Save the date and contact Megan Everette for more information.


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This story was published March 18, 2021.