Author: LB Frye

RailTEC faculty, staff, and students attended the 2025 Wheel Rail Interaction (WRI) Heavy Haul (HH) conference from 10-12 June 2025 in Kansas City, MO. J. Riley Edwards, Assistant Professor, presented on “Track Structures and Components” at the Principles of Wheel/Rail Interaction Course on 10 June ahead of the conference.

This course was an intensive, full-day class providing an in-depth examination of the primary aspects of wheel/rail and vehicle/track interactions and sponsored by the National University Rail Center for Excellence (NURail CoE). NURail CoE is a nine-university consortium led by RailTEC at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). It is dedicated to advancing rail Research, Education and Workforce Development, and Technology Transfer.

The WRI HH conference is specifically tailored for the heavy haul (freight) sector, focusing on the unique challenges and advancements in the railroad industry. It is devoted to examining wheel/rail and vehicle/track interaction on light rail and subway operations. The conference features a comprehensive principles course crafted to meet the distinct needs of each discipline. Since 1994, Wheel Rail Seminars (WRS) has produced WRI and over many years the conference has become synonymous with high quality, practical presentations and the very best in networking.

WRI HH 2026 will be in Dallas, TX on 22-24 April.

Both CEE 410 (Railway Signaling and Control) and CEE 411 (Railroad Project Design and Construction) participated in field visits this semester.

On Saturday 10 May CEE 410 students visited CN’s Network Operating Center and Training Facility in Homewood to learn about CN’s network management and observe train dispatchers controlling train operations.

In addition, they also visited Metra’s Signal Wiring Shop in Mokena on 10 May where Illinois students learned about relay and microprocessor-controlled CTC, ABS, APB, electric lock switches, and grade crossing warning system technologies.

Students from CEE 411, as well as UIUC AREMA Student Chapter members, traveled to St. Louis on Friday 11 April for their field visit. They visited the Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA) of St. Louis where they had an overview of the business and visited the TRAA Hump Classification Yard. TRRA was created in 1889 to satisfy the need for an efficient, safe and economical method of interchanging rail traffic and has grown to become one of the largest intermediate switching terminal railroads in the U.S. interchanging with all six of the nation’s Class 1 railroads.

Neeraj Thakur may be halfway around the world from his native Katmandu, Nepal, but he hopes to use the knowledge he has gained from the RailTEC program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the burgeoning rail industry in Nepal. After earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2016 from Tribhuvan University, Thakur worked for a few years in Nepal’s Department of Local Infrastructure. “Nepal is quite hilly, and we have a lot of rivers, so in the rural areas people have to use pedestrian suspension bridges,” Thakur explained. “My job was to employ contractors for building new pedestrian bridges.”

During the next few years, Thakur worked in the department’s headquarters creating budgets and allocations for roads and bridges, and eventually was promoted to the Department of Roads where he worked on the design, construction, and maintenance of bridges. “I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about railroads in college,” he said. “There were few railroads in Nepal because it is hilly, and they started building railroads only five years ago.”

Arriving at UIUC in August 2023, Thakur expects to earn his master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus on transportation in August 2025. “I wanted to attend a university that had a good rail program, and the University of Illinois has very good ranking in engineering,” he said. “I was looking at rail courses ahead of time and saw the introduction course to track and met with (Assistant Professor) Riley (Edwards),” he added. Thakur joined the RailTEC program and is involved in the student chapter of AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). “It has been amazing. I get to attend conferences, and I enjoy having the opportunity to present my research to rail industry professionals and the academic environment,” he said of his RailTEC experience. “The management team is supportive, and my colleagues are a close-knit group. Primarily my research work has dealt with track buckling and using inspection systems to collect data so we can tell where track might buckle so we can maintain it,” Thakur explained. “Track buckling is an important issue right now.”

Thakur said he is enjoying his first time in the United States by visiting as many places as possible, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Tennessee, Boston, and New York City. “I’m trying to maximize my time here. Every chance I get, I travel by train,” he said, adding, “The weather is really different, and everything is big in the U.S. – the buildings, the roads.”

After graduation, Thakur plans to return to Nepal with the railway knowledge he has gained at UIUC. “I will go back to Nepal and work on the railroads and make good use of the knowledge I’ve learned here,” he said. “The knowledge about track components, track maintenance, and track inspections will be helpful.”

In addition to giving a William W. Hay Seminar on Friday 16 May, Paula Pienton, Chief Engineer Bridges & Structures with CN Railway, presented four RailTEC students with certificates awarding them CN Research Fellowships in Railroad Engineering. Paige Hardt and Xinhao Liu received awards for 2025 while Sadaf Shafie and Negin Shafie received ones for their fellowships awarded in 2024. A CN Research Fellowship in Railroad Engineering supports students affiliated with the Railroad Engineering Program in CEE at Illinois and was created as part of CN’s support for RailTEC’s educational programs.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department also recognized outstanding achievement and held its annual Student Awards Convocation on 25 April. RailTEC would like to congratulate the following 2025 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign rail scholarship recipients. They are:

Albert J. Reinschmidt Memorial Scholarship Fund

2025 – Alex Roskov

Michael W. and Jean D. Franke Railroad Engineering Scholarship

2025 – Sam Eberle

Norman and Mary Carlson Scholarship

2025 – Batu Alp

Union Pacific Scholarship

2025 – Cameron Taylor

More information about the scholarships can be found below.

 Albert J. Reinschmidt Scholarship in Railway Engineering

This scholarship was founded and sponsored by friends and railroad industry colleagues of Dr. Albert J. Reinschmidt. Reinschmidt earned all of his degrees studying railway engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and went on to a successful career in railway research, engineering practice, and policy with the Association of American Railroads. The scholarship is intended to provide financial assistance to help any civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering student achieve their educational goals in rail transportation engineering and technology with the objective of supporting development of a new generation of engineers advancing rail safety, efficiency, and technological advancement.

Michael W. & Jean D. Franke Family Foundation Scholarship

The scholarship is awarded to an outstanding student interested in railroad transportation engineering, as evinced by coursework, participation in rail research, and other railway engineering and transport related activities. The objective of the scholarship is to encourage the candidate to continue railway engineering studies and ultimately pursue a career in the rail-related transportation industry.

Norman and Mary Carlson Scholarship Fund

Established in 2005, the Carlson Scholarship encourages students to pursue careers in the rail industry. Carlson graduated from the UIUC College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1964, has spent his career in service to the railroad industry, and has written and published extensively on the history and technology of railways.

Panshul Jindal is using his computer science expertise to analyze data for rail research conducted in the RailTEC program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jindal is pursuing a master’s degree in computer science from Illinois and expects to graduate in May 2025. He received a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2023 from VIT in Vellore, India.  Jindal arrived at Illinois in January 2024 and learned about the RailTEC program from his roommate Yash Kakde who also is involved with RailTEC. “I was looking for opportunities to analyze data, and Yash introduced me to RailTEC,” he said.

So far, Jindal has worked on two research projects during his tenure at RailTEC. One project involves working with Senior Principal Research Engineer Marcus Dersch and using a Power BI dashboard to visualize and analyze data to measure track health and capacity. “I look at how much load we can carry on the track and use cloud computer techniques on Microsoft Azure to do parallel data processing,” he explained.  His other research project entails track health maintenance at an out-of-state site. “It’s never-ending research,” he said. “I’ve had a lovely time utilizing my research and computer science expertise in the rail industry. “The management team are the most helpful people in my life,” he added. “We learn from them every day. We get to push ourselves and know we have something in ourselves to succeed.”

In addition, Jindal said being involved in the RailTEC program has provided him the opportunity to attend conferences and has helped him hone his presentation skills. “It has been a good learning opportunity for me, especially how to make presentations,” he said. “My presentation skills have really improved, and the quality of my presentations has improved. Also, I get to learn something new when I go to conferences,” he added.

One of his favorite RailTEC experiences was attending the AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association) conference in September 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky. “My time at AREMA was magical. I had never experienced anything like that,” he said. “It has increased my interest in the rail industry.” Because of his RailTEC experience, Jindal said he now plans to stay in the United States after graduation and secure a job working in the rail industry.

Illinois student leaders worked tirelessly with student groups, research labs, and others to ensure that over 200 exhibits were ready for the expected 40,000 – 50,000 campus visitors attending the 2025 Engineering Open House (EOH) on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Held on 4-5 April, the theme of this year’s EOH was “The Age of Innovation”. Each year this event draws thousands of students, families, teachers, and science-lovers to campus to partake in a truly unique experience celebrating all types of engineering. Click here for the 2025 EOH visitor’s guide. 

The visitors that stopped by the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory had the opportunity to view six different rail exhibits. Some of the interactive rail exhibits included demonstrations of railway control and signaling, a train simulator, highway/rail crossings, intermodal game and a new train and track dynamics demo.  

In addition, RailTEC hosted a group of middle and high school students and their chaperones from Hanson Professional Services at the event on Saturday. RailTEC was honored to continue this tradition which originally started in 2014.  These students participated in STEM activities and listened to a presentation by Illinois student Grant Lindsay, Programs Chair of the UIUC Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The mission of NSBE is to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. 

Yash Kakde wasn’t familiar with railroad operations before joining the RailTEC program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but he is now considering a career in the rail industry. After graduating in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in Pune, India, Kakde worked for one-and-a-half years as a data analyst for the cyber security company, Qualys. He arrived at UIUC in January 2024 to earn a master’s degree in computer science and expects to graduate in May 2025.

“All of my family has a background in computer science; my dad is a computer engineer,” he said. “UIUC is considered one of the best colleges in the U.S. for computer science.”

Kakde admits coming to the United States was overwhelming.  “I had never lived alone before and had never been to the U.S. It was initially a bit scary,” he said. “I had to get accustomed to the people, the weather, and driving on the other side of the road. I like cold weather, and I like snow,” he added. “I’m adapting to living on my own. I cook my own meals and cleaning my own place is fun.”

Kakde was actively looking for a job on campus in which he could use his computer science skills when he saw a posting for hourly employees in the RailTEC program. “Everything aligned with what I do here and what RailTEC does,” he said. “But being from a computer science background, I didn’t know anything about railroads.”

RailTEC graduate research assistant Augusto Ramos (2024 MS) taught Kakde everything he needed to know about rail research. “Augusto was a big, big help to me,” Kakde said. “He was like a big brother to me.”

Kakde uses machine learning and computer science in a cross-correlation project being conducted by RailTEC research engineers. “I am pre-processing data before it’s used and deciding what method to use to model track degradation,” he explained. “I implement the method to predict the degradation of the track based on the current condition of the track and come up with the cross correlation to detect when track maintenance happened previously.

“I also am doing a lot of data handling for rail industry companies,” he added. “I’ve met a few industry partners and learned what others are doing with data. Since I was coming into this from a computer science background, I knew nothing about the rail industry, but I’ve learned how big it is,” he said. “Looking at it at that perspective is really interesting to me. The scope of the rail industry is interesting to me. I used train transportation quite a bit in India, but I never looked at railroads this way and now I’m helping to improve them.”

Kakde said he has made friendships and lasting memories being in RailTEC, including playing “football” (soccer) at the ARC and collaborating with other graduate research assistants in their designated room in the Newmark Civil Engineering Lab basement.

“With the support we get from the management team, I’ve never felt lonely and if I have an issue – even a life issue – they’re here to help.” Spending time with Assistant Prof. Riley Edwards, Senior Principal Research Engineer Marcus Dersch and Senior Research Engineer Arthur Lima and their families at social gatherings are “memories I’ll cherish forever,” Kakde said.

“It was always a plan to work here in cyber security, but now I can see the rail industry is a new avenue for me,” he said, adding that he will be interning this summer at CSX in Jacksonville, Florida.

RailTEC and the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are pleased to announce an opening for a new, tenure track faculty position in railway systems engineering. Following are some highlights of the announcement. For the official announcement, more information about the position, and how to apply, please visit the webpage https://illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/13403?c=illinois. Full consideration will be given to applications received by April 16, 2025 at 6:00 pm (CST).

Assistant Professor – Railway Transportation Engineering

The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks highly qualified candidates to fill a tenure-track Assistant Professor full-time faculty position.  Exceptional applicants in all areas relevant to Rail Transportation and Engineering will be considered. Some example areas of interest are Railway Systems, Operation, and Safety with expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• rail capacity analysis and modeling
• rail network planning and analysis
• rail freight and passenger transportation operation
• advanced train control
• computer-aided railway traffic control
• rail system and operational optimization
• automated/autonomous train operating systems
• train operating mechanics
• train dynamics including wheel/rail interface
• railway energy efficiency and motive power
• integrated passenger and freight railway system safety and risk analysis
• railway terminal system design and operation
• rail transit
• high-speed and intercity passenger rail

The successful candidate will be capable of working with a variety of industry and government sponsors and partners. They are also expected to initiate and sustain a vigorous, independently funded research program, demonstrate a strong commitment to undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring of students at all levels, and provide service to the department, the university, and the profession.

Please visit https://jobs.illinois.edu to view the complete position announcement and application instructions.  For further information regarding application procedures, please address questions to Stacie Mertes at smertes@illinois.edu.

The deadline for submitting abstracts for both the Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) and the new Sustainability & Resiliency (S&R) Day is quickly approaching. All abstracts received by Monday, 31 March will be reviewed by the Planning Committee for consideration for presentation at the 2025 RREC and/or S&R Day.

RREC will be hosted by the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) at the iHotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL on 11-12 November 2025. This conference is the premier gathering of railroaders, consulting engineers, academics and others involved in all aspects of railroad environmental engineering, management, and performance.

Abstract Guidelines:

In discussion with railroaders and consulting engineers regarding the technical content of the conference program, several factors and philosophies have consistently been mentioned. Presentation topics will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Abstract Quality
2. Timeliness
3. Relevance to Railroads
4. Innovation
5. Ability to Evaluate Success (or Failure)
6. Broad Significance
7. Uniqueness

 
For more information on Abstract Guidelines, please visit our webpage: https://rrec.railtec.illinois.edu/call-for-abstracts/