Record attendance at IPIT and WisDOT’s annual Southeast Wisconsin Transportation Symposium

A group of eight people - two women and six men -stand in a line looking at the camera. Behind them is a bright yellow wall.
Leadership attending the event included, from left: WisDOT Deputy Secretary Scott Lawry; WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman; Victoria Sheehan, executive director of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; IPIT Director and professor Xiao Qin; CEAS Associate Dean Andy Graettinger; Kris O'Connor, UWM Associate Vice Provost for Research; UWM Graduate School Dean Bryan Porter; and CEAS Dean Brett Peters.

Tall vehicles – those that have a higher ground clearance than sedans – have larger-than-usual blind spots, and it poses a particular risk for pedestrians, according to a study by master’s student Joely Overstreet and her advisor, Professor Xiao Qin, both in civil & environmental engineering at UWM. The two are investigating solutions.

The presentation was among the UWM research in the breakout sessions at the annual Southeastern Wisconsin Transportation Symposium at UWM on Oct. 10.

UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) and WisDOT co-hosted the symposium, now in its fifth year, to bring together researchers, students and transportation professionals to showcase related research and share innovative practices.

A man with glasses on speaks at a podium with a poster behind him.
Xiao Qin, professor and director of UWM’s Institute of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, opens the symposium.
A large room full of people sitting at tables with a podium in the back.
Now in its fourth year, the symposium attracted record attendance with 220 regitrants.
a young women with dark brown hair
Joely Overstreet, master’s student, civil & environmental engineering, presents her work on pedestrian visibility in tall vehicles.
a man with a beard speaks to a group from the podium. A screen displays information next to him.
Bryan Porter, dean of the UWM Graduate School, joined the symposium to present on traffic psychology and behavior.
Two men look at the camera with a poster bathed in blue light between them.
Tom Shi, assistant professor, civil & environmental engineering (left), and PhD student Muhammad Fahad are studying whether illuminating crosswalks with blue light rather and white light affects pedestrian safety. The hypothesis is that blue light at around 7000 Kelvin does a better job of capturing the attention of drivers approaching crosswalks. It’s a data intensive study that also involved Xiao Qin, professor, civil & environmental engineering, and Tian Zhao, associate professor, computer science.

Attendance topped last year’s with over 230 registrants from across the state and multiple disciplines, said Xiao Qin, who also is IPIT director.

IPIT currently has 34 affiliated faculty members across five colleges at UWM. There are 31 active projects addressing issues such as traffic safety, urban mobility, infrastructure preservation.

Symposium breakout sessions covered a wide range of other topics, such as:

  • Artificial Intelligence in Transportation (Xiao Qin, UWM)
  • From Behavior to Breakthroughs: How Technology is Shaping Safer Driving Habits (Bryan Porter, Dean, UWM Graduate School)
  • Transportation Demand Management Opportunities in the Region (Dana Shinners, Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission)
  • Advancing AV/CV Readiness in Wisconsin: Panel discussion and demonstration (Xiaopeng Li, UW-Madison, and Tom Shi, UWM)


Speakers included WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman and Victoria Sheehan, executive director of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. 

Download the symposium presentations here.