Rocklin Student Helps Lead Cal Poly

San Luis Obispo, Calif. – For the second consecutive year, Cal Poly ITE, a student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, has been named the institute’s international chapter of the year.

The student group  including chapter president Kevin Carstens from Rocklin, Calif.  was honored at the ITE annual conference, held August 2-5 in Hollywood, Fla. (Carstens is pictured third from the right.)

“I don’t know specifically what put us over the top again this year,” said Carstens, “but my guess is that, in addition to our increase in membership and activities, it was our acquisition of the Transportation Engineering Student Project Area. It’s a new space in Cal Poly’s Bonderson Projects Center, which is now dedicated to transportation engineering projects and research.”

In addition to Carstens, the 2014-15 Cal Poly ITE chapter officers included Krista Purser, vice president; Karl Schmidt, treasurer; Alex Chambers, secretary; Kelsey Littell, events coordinator; Monica Fiedler-Ross, firm tours coordinator; Bobby Sidhu, marketing coordinator and Engineering Student Council representative; and Troy Kawahara, historian and webmaster.

Carstens also helped the club win the title and $2,000 in the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl Grand Championships, competing with teams from each district in Canada and the U.S. The University of Manitoba and Purdue University placed second and third, respectively.

“Winning the Traffic Bowl was the cherry on top of this year’s Student Chapter of the Year award,” said Anurag Pande, faculty advisor for the club.

“We may not play schools like Purdue on the gridiron, but this was almost as exciting –  the three finalists turned it into a very close contest,” he said. “The Jeopardy-style event has a traffic and transportation engineering theme, and the winning question was ‘What is a sharrow?'” (Answer: A lane marking that tells drivers where to expect to share the lane with bicyclists).

In addition to Carstens, Cal Poly contestants in the Traffic Bowl competition included chapter officers Purser, Chambers and Sidhu.