Author: Amar Dhebar

December 2017: Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth and UI Chancellor Robert Jones met with RailTEC members and toured the Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL) on Friday, December 15, 2017. In the top photo, Senator Duckworth, right, listens to UI graduate student Tom Roadcap explain how stresses around the bolt-holes at rail joints can lead to cracking while Marcus Dersch, RailTEC Senior Research Engineer, looks on. In the bottom photograph Chancellor Jones poses with members of the RailTEC Infrastructure Group. Click here to see additional photos from the visit as well as see local press coverage.

December 2017: FRA recently published the two-volume final report on RailTEC’s research project titled: Improved Concrete Crosstie and Fastening Systems for US High Speed Passenger Rail and Joint Corridors. This project included field and laboratory experimentation and finite element modeling (FEM) to quantify the performance of crossties and fastening systems and facilitated the proposal of design practice improvements for concrete crossties in North America, some of which have been included recent versions of the AREMA Manual for Railway Engineering. To read Volume 1, click here and for Volume 2, click here.

November 2017: Approximately 50 civil engineering students and faculty from CEE 408 (Railway Transportation Engineering) and CEE 409 (Railroad Track Engineering) participated in two work days at the Monticello Railway Museum (MRM) in Monticello, Illinois. On both days the team spent time replacing ties at the museum. Thanks to MRM for the opportunity to provide hands on track work experience for RailTEC students. To see other field trips our students have participated in, click here.

October 2017: The 19th Annual Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC), held October 24 – 25 on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, was a success. Almost 500 participants attended two full days of thought-provoking presentations by railroaders, consulting engineers, academics and others involved in all aspects of railroad environmental topics. An article about the conference was featured in the local newspaper, The News-Gazette. To read the article, click here. The 20th RREC dates are October 23-24, 2018. Check back for more details on how this milestone will be celebrated.

September 2017: Eight RailTEC students volunteered to work at the Fall Undergraduate Research Resource Fair on Monday, September 25, 2017 in the Illini Union. This was a great way to spread awareness of the research RailTEC is doing and potentially recruit new students. The resource fair helps engineering undergraduate students gather information on how to get involved in research, meet people from different research laboratories and undergraduate research programs, and listen to their peers talk about their undergraduate research experiences.

September 2017: TC Kao, RailTEC Research Professor and Director – High Speed Rail System, represented RailTEC at the International Union of Railways (UIC) High-Speed Rail Academic Alliance Workshop in London on September 21 – 22, 2017. The conference was organized by Professor Roderick Smith and UIC and was held at Imperial College. TC gave a presentation on the UIUC RailTEC program (as well as NTUs) and participated in the discussions.

September 2017: Congratulations to the 2017 AREMA Quiz Bowl Championship-winning team from the University of Illinois! This is the fourth straight year the UIUC student chapter has won first place. Team members were  Stan Chang, Darkhan Mussanov, Jacob Rajlich, Zezhou Wang and Wesley Chen. Of the top five teams this year, two were NURail member teams and two were NURail affiliates.