Latest / Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations / Raising Them Right: Cultivating the next generation of transportation professionals.
Transcript
- 0:15Bernie Fette (host): Welcome to Thinking Transportation-- conversations about how we get ourselves and what we need from one place to another and what it takes to make that happen.
- 0:26Bernie Fette (host): I'm Bernie Fette with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
- 0:31Bernie Fette: Beverly Kuhn's work is all about connection.
- 0:34Bernie Fette: There's the engineering connection between vehicles and roadways.
- 0:38Bernie Fette: And then there's the personal connection between her generation of professionals and the next generation-- how to cultivate and promote the young practitioners who will grow into the specialists that our expanding transportation needs require.
- 0:52Bernie Fette: Why that's important and how it's done.
- 0:57Bernie Fette: Beverly's focus on mentoring young engineers started when she was herself one of them years ago in college, taking the first steps that would eventually lead to her election as the international president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, an office that she will assume in January.
- 1:16Bernie Fette: Thanks for doing this, Beverly.
- 1:17Bernie Fette: We appreciate it.
- 1:19Beverly Kuhn (guest): Oh, you're welcome.
- 1:19Beverly Kuhn (guest): I'm happy to do it.
- 1:22Bernie Fette: When I was getting ready for our conversation, and I was looking at your background, one of the things that caught my eye was how much of your more recent work is about connection, of a couple of different varieties.
- 1:33Bernie Fette: There's the engineering connection between vehicles and roadways, connected infrastructure.
- 1:39Bernie Fette: And then there's this personal connection between your generation of professionals and the next generation.
- 1:46Bernie Fette: We're focusing today on the generational connection.
- 1:49Bernie Fette: So I just wanted to begin by asking you to describe what's behind that, what it looks like, and what you aspire to do with that generational connection.
- 2:02Beverly Kuhn: So I really have to think back to when I started in the transportation field.
- 2:08Beverly Kuhn: I like to tell the story that when I was at Texas A&M as an undergraduate, I fell into transportation as a profession, or at least as a degree path.
- 2:19Beverly Kuhn: I needed a summer job.
- 2:21Beverly Kuhn: And my parents told me that if I wanted to stay and go to summer school, I needed that job.
- 2:28Beverly Kuhn: So I happened to be in the Civil Engineering Department, getting a schedule signed off like you used to back in those days, and asked the advisor who happened to be an ITE member, also an ITE president--
- 2:42Bernie Fette: Can you, yeah, it's the Institute of Transportation Engineers, right?
- 2:45Beverly Kuhn: Yes.
- 2:45Beverly Kuhn: Institute of Transportation Engineers.
- 2:47Beverly Kuhn: Or as we like to say, we are a community of transportation professionals.
- 2:50Beverly Kuhn: Neil Rowan was the student advisor at that time.
- 2:55Beverly Kuhn: And he later became international president of ITE.
- 2:58Beverly Kuhn: And he worked for TTI(Texas A&M Transportation Institute).
- 3:02Beverly Kuhn: And he said, well, there's a professor out in the hallway who might need student work.
- 3:07Beverly Kuhn: That was Don Woods, another ITE member and transportation faculty member.
- 3:11Beverly Kuhn: And he offered me an opportunity to come work for TTI.
- 3:15Beverly Kuhn: He said, send me a resume.
- 3:17Beverly Kuhn: And I think right then I realized there was this connection between the faculty and the students and their ongoing mentorship of those students to see themselves in the profession, in the future.
- 3:30Beverly Kuhn: And what role do they play in society?
- 3:34Beverly Kuhn: One of the things that I remember learning early on in the undergraduate department was the history of the transportation, the modern transportation infrastructure in the United States.
- 3:44Beverly Kuhn: On its surface, it's not really exciting.
- 3:48Beverly Kuhn: You know, you're learning a lot about the laws that went into place to fund the in the Interstate System.
- 3:55Beverly Kuhn: But one of the things that resonated with me early on was that close connection between what we do as transportation professionals and what impact it has on society-- both positive in terms of offering mobility, but there's also the negative side to the transportation infrastructure.
- 4:15Beverly Kuhn: And a lot of that is actually coming to the forefront now, in terms of looking back and how the infrastructure evolved and what impact it had on communities.
- 4:28Bernie Fette: The impact that you mentioned-- is that the negative side that you were referring to?
- 4:32Beverly Kuhn: I would say yes, the negative side.
- 4:33Beverly Kuhn: When you hear stories about when the interstate was first constructed, that neighborhoods were divided by an interstate that went through a community that's sort of the underbelly of, of our profession.
- 4:48Beverly Kuhn: And I remember it really resonated with me that it was disconcerting.
- 4:52Beverly Kuhn: It bothered me that we had inadvertently, or maybe overtly, depending on your point of view, had this negative impact on something that was really intended to be positive.
- 5:04Beverly Kuhn: We wanted to provide connection.
- 5:05Beverly Kuhn: We wanted to provide mobility.
- 5:07Beverly Kuhn: We had this ability to connect the communities and it had a negative impact that to this day still affects communities.
- 5:17Beverly Kuhn: And so when I finished my undergraduate degree and got a master's degree at Texas A&M, I took some classes in the urban planning department.
- 5:26Beverly Kuhn: We had a close connection between those two departments, and I really wanted to understand that connection, that we cannot do what we do in a vacuum that everything transportation professionals do affects our communities in some way.
- 5:42Beverly Kuhn: And we have to have a really good understanding of that, of what we do.
- 5:46Beverly Kuhn: How does it impact others?
- 5:48Beverly Kuhn: Who do we need to work with to come up with a viable and optimal solution for our community?
- 5:55Beverly Kuhn: Because it may not be what the engineer thinks is the best route.
- 5:58Beverly Kuhn: We may need to work with communities, urban planners, landscape architects, city leaders, to figure out what's truly best for our community.
- 6:08Beverly Kuhn: And so I think that's really where that connection started is understanding that role.
- 6:15Bernie Fette: Yeah.
- 6:15Bernie Fette: I'm so glad that you started out with that because you just skipped forward to my third question that I had in mind.
- 6:21Bernie Fette: I was going to ask you to step into the time machine and go back honestly, and ask you how your experience as a young student might've informed the approach that you're taking now.
- 6:33Beverly Kuhn: I like to tell the story that when I evidently decided in seventh grade, that I wanted to be a civil engineer, I had no idea that this is what I would do.
- 6:45Beverly Kuhn: Thought I wanted to build bridges and buildings.
- 6:49Beverly Kuhn: And once I had the opportunity to work for TTI, I really fell in love with operations.
- 6:58Beverly Kuhn: I just really thought it was exciting to figure out how do we optimize the network that we have?
- 7:05Beverly Kuhn: As I've conducted research and done a lot of really interesting things, I've also found it very satisfying to transfer that knowledge to professionals across the country.
- 7:20Beverly Kuhn: And that's one of my favorite jobs is to go out and teach workshops and help make sure that the research that we do and that our peers do at other institutions gets into practice.
- 7:32Beverly Kuhn: Otherwise we have wasted time and money doing research if nobody's going to benefit from it.
- 7:39Beverly Kuhn: And that's the whole point of the research is to make it better.
- 7:41Beverly Kuhn: And so I just love being able to communicate with professionals about what's something that we've come up with that can help them do their job and can make it better.
- 7:53Bernie Fette: What are you thinking, being where you are now, when you have the opportunity to have a student sitting in front of your desk in the same way that you were those years ago, what are some of the first thoughts that come to mind that you want to impart to that young person?
- 8:09Beverly Kuhn: I have the opportunity of mentoring some young members within ITE, and also we have a number of students here that are either in the undergraduate program or moving through the graduate program.
- 8:23Beverly Kuhn: So actually it's an exciting time to be in transportation.
- 8:27Beverly Kuhn: What I try to convey to them and at least to discuss with them is what is it that moves them?
- 8:34Beverly Kuhn: What is passionate about their view on transportation and the society and what speaks to them?
- 8:44Beverly Kuhn: Is it the connection?
- 8:46Beverly Kuhn: Is it the technology?
- 8:48Beverly Kuhn: Is it sustainability, mobility, offering transportation solutions for all users?
- 8:57Beverly Kuhn: What is it that speaks to them?
- 8:59Beverly Kuhn: Because we all have something deep down that speaks to us that has pushed us to get into this profession.
- 9:05Bernie Fette: Right.
- 9:05Beverly Kuhn: I always like to say transportation professionals and a lot of civil engineers in general are the unsung heroes of our society.
- 9:14Beverly Kuhn: We do our job.
- 9:16Beverly Kuhn: And if we do our job well, nobody knows about it.
- 9:18Beverly Kuhn: The signals operate, the bridges are safe.
- 9:21Beverly Kuhn: There's always power.
- 9:22Beverly Kuhn: There's always clean water.
- 9:24Beverly Kuhn: You get where you need to go in one piece on time and everyone's happy.
- 9:30Bernie Fette: Yeah.
- 9:30Bernie Fette: It's because, you know, we expect things to work right.
- 9:33Bernie Fette: Because all of the people who have put so much effort into the system make them work right.
- 9:39Bernie Fette: So it's, it's so much easier, I guess, to notice when things go wrong?
- 9:43Beverly Kuhn: I think so.
- 9:44Beverly Kuhn: And what is it that motivates us to be in this profession?
- 9:48Beverly Kuhn: And I think sometimes it seems, it's a really simple question to ask, but I think it helps a young student or a young professional, really try to hone in on what they're trying to accomplish.
- 10:02Beverly Kuhn: Sometimes you just need to write it down.
- 10:03Beverly Kuhn: You need to verbalize it and understanding that can help them figure out what path they want to take as they go through their profession.
- 10:13Beverly Kuhn: Several of the young members that I'm mentoring and through the ITE program were all connected to me because they're all thinking about going to graduate school and I've been down that path and I can offer some insights.
- 10:28Beverly Kuhn: And so that's a lot of the conversations that we have on a monthly basis are about what do they intend for their career?
- 10:36Beverly Kuhn: What do they think they want to do?
- 10:39Beverly Kuhn: Do they want to go to graduate school?
- 10:41Beverly Kuhn: Do they not?
- 10:42Beverly Kuhn: What does that look like?
- 10:43Beverly Kuhn: And it's a combination of having that conversation of the topic and the subject matter that you're interested in and whether or not they want to pursue that in graduate school, but also sort of the global view from their personal perspective, because to take that step into graduate school, depending on where you are at in your personal life, can have different impacts on it.
- 11:05Beverly Kuhn: And so I think helping them navigate those questions.
- 11:09Beverly Kuhn: Do they want to go to school?
- 11:11Beverly Kuhn: Is it continue their education?
- 11:13Beverly Kuhn: Do they want to get a professional engineering license?
- 11:15Beverly Kuhn: That's another question that we've talked about with a couple of them.
- 11:18Beverly Kuhn: Do you want to get that PE license and what does it take to get it?
- 11:22Beverly Kuhn: And how do you plan for that?
- 11:25Beverly Kuhn: Because the experience is a separate piece.
- 11:27Beverly Kuhn: So I think that's one of the things I really enjoy about it is just helping them try to formulate that thought in terms of what is it that motivates them, because it really helps them chart their path.
- 11:40Bernie Fette: When you were talking about the little things or the rare things that go wrong in the midst of all the things that are going right, reminded me that just yesterday what I was reading, there was a comment by a surgeon who was talking about when he gets into actually performing surgery and is fixing what is wrong with that patient, that it's very easy to get lost and overlook the multitude of things inside that patient that are going precisely as they're supposed to be, and they're going on their own.
- 12:11Bernie Fette: And it sounds a little like what you're describing there, that you've got this system that is humming along because it was designed and constructed and engineered so well by these young people growing into their careers.
- 12:25Bernie Fette: And it's easy to overlook that whenever some small thing goes wrong,
- 12:30Beverly Kuhn: Right.
- 12:31Beverly Kuhn: We do take it for granted that the whole system is going to work the way it was intended.
- 12:37Beverly Kuhn: And then when something goes wrong or doesn't work the way it's supposed to, we have to step back and examine that.
- 12:43Beverly Kuhn: Is something that we're struggling with right now is the whole safety aspect of it.
- 12:47Beverly Kuhn: During the pandemic, when traffic volumes were drastically reduced, especially in Texas, we still had fatalities every day.
- 12:56Beverly Kuhn: Well, why?
- 12:57Beverly Kuhn: What is it that is contributing to that?
- 12:59Beverly Kuhn: And what is it that we can do to at least mitigate that as much as possible?
- 13:05Beverly Kuhn: We do what we can to design a system that is as safe as possible, but you still have that happen.
- 13:12Beverly Kuhn: So how do we understand?
- 13:15Beverly Kuhn: Is there something we can improve?
- 13:16Beverly Kuhn: But then there's also the whole issue of personal responsibility when you have drivers--
- 13:20Bernie Fette: Yeah, that's another podcast.
- 13:22Beverly Kuhn: That's a whole'nother podcast, but right.
- 13:24Beverly Kuhn: I think we forget that there's so much that works so well and you really don't have any problems with it.
- 13:31Beverly Kuhn: But I think what's, what's really relevant right now is our infrastructure has been humming along for the most part, without any catastrophic incidents for decades, but nothing lasts forever.
- 13:46Beverly Kuhn: And it has to be repaired.
- 13:48Beverly Kuhn: It has to be improved.
- 13:49Beverly Kuhn: It has to be replaced in the worst-case scenario.
- 13:53Beverly Kuhn: And there's a cost associated and there's resources, but it is an exciting time to be a transportation professional, because there are so many other things that we have at our disposal today that we didn't have 75 years ago when the Interstate System began, technology being a backbone of so much of it.
- 14:12Bernie Fette: I'm wondering, does the emerging generation of young professionals that you're working with that you're mentoring, does that generation enjoy any advantages that you didn't have when you started-- never knowing of a world without the internet, for instance?
- 14:26Bernie Fette: Or any other advantages that maybe you didn't have whenever you were getting started?
- 14:31Beverly Kuhn: Most definitely.
- 14:32Beverly Kuhn: I think probably the most valuable asset that they have accessible is data and what that data entails.
- 14:44Beverly Kuhn: I sat in on a presentation last week during the ITE annual meeting, it was a pilot study that some researchers had done to look at understanding the context related to pedestrian fatalities.
- 15:02Beverly Kuhn: We have information that's readily available from crash reports, from law enforcement, and maybe interviews with individuals that were witnesses.
- 15:11Beverly Kuhn: But what these researchers were trying to tap into was information that would be beyond that crash report to understand the context.
- 15:21Beverly Kuhn: And they had gone in and used artificial intelligence to analyze media reports, newspaper articles, Twitter feeds-- any sort of platform to understand what was happening with some of these fatalities.
- 15:39Beverly Kuhn: And it came to light that one example, which happened to be the best example that they could find it since it was a pilot study, was that this elderly woman had been a victim in a motor vehicle accident.
- 15:52Beverly Kuhn: She was a pedestrian.
- 15:53Beverly Kuhn: She was hit by a vehicle.
- 15:55Beverly Kuhn: She had stepped off the curb to get her mail out of her mailbox.
- 15:59Beverly Kuhn: And that was it.
- 16:00Beverly Kuhn: Not intending to be a pedestrian fatality.
- 16:03Beverly Kuhn: She was just going to the curb to get the mail, but she was struck and killed.
- 16:08Beverly Kuhn: And that kind of data mining is so powerful to really understand what is going on in the entire system.
- 16:18Beverly Kuhn: That when you just have somebody at the street corner, counting cars with a handheld counter, which is what we did back in college, it's just really amazing.
- 16:28Beverly Kuhn: And I can only imagine what's going to happen in the future as that data starts to be more readily available.
- 16:35Beverly Kuhn: And it's just voluminous, but having that artificial intelligence to really be able to go in and understand what's going on to help solve some of our challenges, I think is really, really exciting.
- 16:46Bernie Fette: So, the other side of the coin, do they face challenges unique to the time that you didn't have to face?
- 16:54Beverly Kuhn: I think the flip side of that data question, that data availability is the sheer volume of it and understanding how to design a data mining system that can go in and actually extract what's useful because there can be a lot of noise.
- 17:12Beverly Kuhn: There's just so much of it.
- 17:13Beverly Kuhn: You really need to try and hone in on what's important.
- 17:16Beverly Kuhn: But then today we're very cognizant of privacy issues.
- 17:22Beverly Kuhn: That's really in the forefront.
- 17:24Beverly Kuhn: And as technology starts to be part of the vehicle and continues to expand, what is it that the driver or the motorist or the traveler doesn't want shared and lose the control over some of their personal data, whereas before they're just driving their personal vehicle, they're riding transit, they're, you know, walking on the street.
- 17:47Bernie Fette: Right.
- 17:47Bernie Fette: That's a line you're still trying to figure out where to draw.
- 17:51Beverly Kuhn: Right.
- 17:51Beverly Kuhn: And, you know, cameras are everywhere, right?
- 17:54Beverly Kuhn: That's the whole privacy issue; becomes more and more of a concern for just citizens in general, because they do want to maintain some of that privacy.
- 18:04Beverly Kuhn: And yet they're providing data that could be very helpful to us, but how do we get it so their personal information is secure and they're not having to worry about it?
- 18:13Bernie Fette: So, on one hand, not enough information.
- 18:15Bernie Fette: And on the other hand, maybe in some cases, way too much information, huh?
- 18:19Beverly Kuhn: I think so.
- 18:20Beverly Kuhn: And having to balance that is important, yeah.
- 18:24Beverly Kuhn: Another big difference between our profession today and where it was when I started is the number of women that are in decision-making roles and leadership positions within our profession.
- 18:40Beverly Kuhn: When I started in undergraduate school, there were women in the program, but there weren't a large number.
- 18:47Beverly Kuhn: We had one female faculty member in the Civil Engineering Department and she was the first female faculty member, I believe, in the entire College of Engineering at that time.
- 18:58Beverly Kuhn: And so it was difficult to find female role models.
- 19:02Beverly Kuhn: What I did discover is that you had a lot of male faculty members who were an ally for the women in the program, they were the ones that were offering you research opportunities and work opportunities and encourage you to go on to graduate school or just into the profession.
- 19:20Beverly Kuhn: And were there in your corner.
- 19:21Beverly Kuhn: And I think that was very valuable.
- 19:23Beverly Kuhn: And all of the ones that I remember fondly were just wonderful for all of the women that were in the program.
- 19:30Beverly Kuhn: Over time, it has improved.
- 19:34Beverly Kuhn: The last time I taught in the Civil Engineering Department, there were quite a few more women in the classes than there were back when I was there.
- 19:42Beverly Kuhn: And we continue to focus on enhancing that diversity of our profession in general.
- 19:48Beverly Kuhn: And it is so much better than it used to be because one of the things that I think is very important in transportation is we serve our communities, and our profession needs to reflect the communities we serve.
- 20:02Beverly Kuhn: And so, if we are going to work with any kind of community, we need to be able to speak their language.
- 20:09Beverly Kuhn: And for them to see that we understand them, we are one of them and that we understand the challenges that they may face and the needs that they have for the transportation network.
- 20:19Beverly Kuhn: One of the things that's very exciting now within ITE is next year, all three executive members, the vice president, the president, and the immediate past president will all be women, which is the first time in the history of the organization, which is over 90 years old, that that has happened.
- 20:38Beverly Kuhn: And we're so excited because it just reflects a recognition that we're part of the community and that we have the opportunity to lead this organization and our peers.
- 20:52Bernie Fette: That sounds like a genuine takeover opportunity.
- 20:53Bernie Fette: But, you know, listening to you describe what you're trying to do and what everybody else that you're working with is trying to do for the next generation, the sincerity and the genuine nature of what you're trying to do for these young people comes through very clearly.
- 21:12Bernie Fette: But there's also a practical side to this because you have to bring along a group of professionals to follow in your footsteps, if we're going to continue to have a vibrant transportation system in this country.
- 21:26Bernie Fette: Fair to say?
- 21:29Beverly Kuhn: That is very fair to say.
- 21:31Beverly Kuhn: ITE has two initiatives that we are focused on.
- 21:34Beverly Kuhn: And one of them that really gets to the heart of growing the next generation of transportation professionals.
- 21:41Beverly Kuhn: And one of them is our student member to young member program.
- 21:46Beverly Kuhn: And we're trying to make sure we have a connection between the student members in the chapters across the country and ushering them in, into the organization as a full member and getting them engaged in all of our activities so that they find a role they feel at home and that they have a voice in our organization and the profession in general.
- 22:06Beverly Kuhn: One of the other initiatives that we have is focused on diversity and inclusion.
- 22:12Beverly Kuhn: And to my earlier point, that our profession needs to reflect the communities that we serve, I have personally taken on as one of my missions for the next year or two is to tap into professional societies that are primarily targeted at, or engage with minority groups to give them an opportunity to start a dialogue with us.
- 22:39Beverly Kuhn: A couple of them are the American Indian Science and Engineering society, which is for Native Americans, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
- 22:51Beverly Kuhn: So those are three organizations that all have students and professionals, and they are a broader group in terms of professionals that aren't just civil engineers.
- 23:04Beverly Kuhn: And even to a smaller extent, transportation engineers, because we're a subset of civil engineers.
- 23:08Beverly Kuhn: But what we are trying to do is start a discussion with them and partnership opportunities to show that transportation is a viable career path for anyone in their membership.
- 23:23Beverly Kuhn: That if you're interested about providing mobility and safety and connectivity for your communities, we have an opportunity for you that we are involved in our communities.
- 23:35Beverly Kuhn: We're committed to advancing all of our citizens because when we do our jobs, well, everyone succeeds.
- 23:44Beverly Kuhn: Because we provide people with a community, access to jobs, access to health care, access to recreational activities, and we support our communities.
- 23:56Beverly Kuhn: And so that's one of the things that I'm very excited about is starting to get connected with these organizations because we have an opportunity that they can take advantage of.
- 24:08Bernie Fette: Looking at that, what you were just describing, from a slightly different viewpoint, what happens if we don't prepare that next generation of leaders, or if we don't do in your mind a sufficient job, then what happens?
- 24:23Beverly Kuhn: That's a great question.
- 24:25Beverly Kuhn: If we don't make this investment in the next generation of professionals, we're just going to continue down the path of exploding congestion, lack of economic security in communities.
- 24:43Beverly Kuhn: We're going to continue to have 30,000-plus fatalities a year on our roads.
- 24:48Beverly Kuhn: Negative impacts on the environment.
- 24:52Beverly Kuhn: Just so many negative things that are just too catastrophic to think about, if you were to look, you know, 50 years in the future.
- 25:00Beverly Kuhn: If we don't do our job well, then we're just going to continue to struggle.
- 25:04Beverly Kuhn: It's imperative that we really take this holistic view of the infrastructure and how we need to make it better to serve the needs of our communities.
- 25:15Beverly Kuhn: And that may not necessarily be, add three more lanes to an interstate.
- 25:20Bernie Fette: Right.
- 25:20Bernie Fette: And the consequences that you're mentioning are societal.
- 25:24Beverly Kuhn: Yes.
- 25:24Bernie Fette: They are nationwide and on a very large scale, but they also happen on a very personal scale.
- 25:31Bernie Fette: The congestion that you talk about for instance, could impede the trip to the emergency room for a member of your family.
- 25:37Bernie Fette: I mean, everything you've described can be global, or it can be very, very individual.
- 25:43Beverly Kuhn: Exactly.
- 25:43Beverly Kuhn: And I would hazard to guess that there's not a single one among us who hasn't known somebody who's been in a severe traffic accident or has been killed in an accident in our lifetime.
- 25:54Beverly Kuhn: I personally have had multiple family members and friends, either injured or killed in a car wreck for whatever reason.
- 26:03Beverly Kuhn: And it's so personal.
- 26:05Beverly Kuhn: So once it happens to you, it's just devastating.
- 26:08Beverly Kuhn: And you just want to do everything you can to make that go away.
- 26:12Beverly Kuhn: One fatality is too many; but we also want to be able to have our children walk to school or ride their bikes safely in their neighborhood, or be able to go to a park.
- 26:24Beverly Kuhn: You want our neighbors to be able to have jobs and access to those jobs and that if they choose to not own a vehicle, that they can still get to their job and be a contributing member of our society,'cause that's all, any of us want.
- 26:39Beverly Kuhn: We just want to contribute to society and live our lives in the way that we want to.
- 26:44Beverly Kuhn: And when the transportation infrastructure fails at providing that access to them, we're all impacted.
- 26:52Bernie Fette: It sounds like the mentoring work that you do, it's going to take a lot of hours if you do it at the level of quality and dedication that you want to-- maybe even close to a second full-time job at certain times.
- 27:03Bernie Fette: What keeps you motivated to keep pushing?
- 27:08Beverly Kuhn: I think I just see the potential in every new professional and every young student.
- 27:14Beverly Kuhn: I try to remember that how excited I was when I started my career and that there are just a wealth of opportunities and you never know where the next fabulous idea is going to come from and what every young person brings to the profession is different.
- 27:31Beverly Kuhn: They bring a different perspective and may have just some phenomenal solution to a problem that I would have never thought of, but can meet the needs of their neighbors and their family and just anyone navigating society.
- 27:49Beverly Kuhn: I think it's just so exciting and there's so much potential out there.
- 27:54Beverly Kuhn: I think of my great grandmother who, when she was young, still traveled by horse and buggy and she lived to see the space age in her lifetime.
- 28:07Beverly Kuhn: And I just can't even imagine what we're going to see in the next 30, 40, 50 years.
- 28:11Beverly Kuhn: And I just can't wait to see it and hope that maybe I've had an impact on somebody coming up with some really cool widget or transportation solution that solves a lot of problems and helps everyone.
- 28:25Bernie Fette: Yeah.
- 28:26Bernie Fette: 20 years from now, you get to look at somebody standing on a stage, accepting some accolade for some major achievement they've made and you get to think back and say,"ah, I remember her, I remember him."
- 28:40Beverly Kuhn: Yeah!
- 28:40Beverly Kuhn, senior research engineer, and connection guru for TTI.
- 28:48Thank you for doing this, Beverly.
- 28:49This has been fun.
- 28:51Beverly Kuhn: My pleasure.
- 28:52Beverly Kuhn: Thanks for the opportunity.
- 28:55Bernie Fette: Just as roads and bridges periodically need new reinforcements, so do the professionals whose career purpose is to help us all travel safely and smoothly.
- 29:05Bernie Fette: And only by enlisting and training new ranks of practitioners can we ensure that our transportation systems will continue supporting an economy and quality of life that we have come to expect.
- 29:16Bernie Fette: Thanks for listening.
- 29:21Bernie Fette: And please join us again for the next episode, when we visit with Ipek Sener.
- 29:26Bernie Fette: As technology continues to reshape the ways in which we get around every day, Ipek's work focuses on the newest transformative mobility options and how to ensure that marginalized populations don't miss out on their many benefits.
- 29:44Bernie Fette: Thinking Transportation is a production of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a member of the Texas A&M University System.
- 29:53Bernie Fette: The show is edited and produced by Chris Pourteau.
- 29:57Bernie Fette: I'm your writer and host Bernie Fette.
- 29:59Bernie Fette: Thanks again for listening.
- 30:01Bernie Fette: See you next time.