Information Systems and Technology Committee (ABJ50) Meeting at TRB Annual Meeting 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014, 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time
Washington Hilton, Columbia Hall 1
Attendees
Frances Harrison (Chair), Spy Pond Partners, LLC
Mike Bousliman (Member), Montana DOT
Ioannis Brilakis (Member), University of Cambridge
Colin Brooks, (Member), Michigan Tech Research Institute
James Hall (Member), University of Illinois-Springfield
Yinhai Wang (Member), University of Washington
Zhixia (Richard) Li (Member), University of Wisconsin
Rob Zilay (Member), Dye Management Group
Terry Bills (Member), ESRI
Murali Rao (Member), Virginia DOT
Joe Garvey (Member), AgileAssets, Inc.
Guohui Zhang (Member), University of New Mexico
Nora El-Gohary (Member), University of Illinois
Yu Yuan (Member), IEEE
Tom Palmerlee, TRB
Doug Couto, Center for Digital Government
Angela Parsons, Alaska DOT & PF
Amanda Holland, Alaska DOT & PF
Shawn Blaesing, Iowa DOT
Debra Shafer, Iowa DOT
Grant Rodeheaver, WSDOT
Mark Finch, WSDOT
Mark Dinh, MTC/BATA
Yuanjun Li, Montgomery County, M-NCPPC
Richard McKinney, USDOT
Tim Schmidt, USDOT-Turner Fairbanks
Mark Sarmiento, FHWA
Jim Ramsey, AASHTO
Guangxi Wu, Case Western Reserve University
Zhong-Ren Peng, University of Florida
Jaime Carreon, University of Florida
Roosbeh Nowrouzian, University of Florida
Yassir Abdelrazig, Florida State University
Robert Schultz, UMTRI
Zhigang Shen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Joseph Schofer, Northwestern University
Ed Jaselskis, North Carolina State University
Srinivas Pulugurtha, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Brian Smith, University of Virginia
Kristian Henrickson, University of Washington
Konstantinos Panou, University of the Aegean (Greece)
Jeff Western, Western Management Consultants
Mark Seaborn, Motorola Solutions
Pati Bye, Western Consulting
David Fletcher, GPC, Inc.
Ward Zerbe, InfoTech, Inc.
Ioannis Tsapakis, TTI
Rick Ayers, ESRI
Eric Floss, ESRI
Tom Clemmons, Bentley
Lina Fu, Xerox Corporation
Bruce McHenry, WE
Bernie McMonagle, Verizon Public Sector
Adam Rosenbaum, Verizon Solutions
General Items for the Record
Mid-Year Meeting. Our committee will be meeting at the North American Travel Monitoring Exposition and Conference (NATMEC) in Chicago - tentatively slotted for June 30, 2014 (7-8:30 AM Central) - see conference website at http://www.cvent.com/events/natmec-improving-traffic-data-collection-analysis-and-use/event-summary-1dbfb7ac4c1848939d04579344615323.aspx. Please contact Frances Harrison () with suggested agenda items for this meeting.
Cybersecurity Subcommittee. This is a joint subcommittee with the Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection Committee. They have established a clearinghouse for cyber security information at: http://trbcybersecurity.erau.edu/
Building a Committee Research Watch List. Committee members and friends are requested to submit links to descriptions or products of current and completed research projects of interest to the committee, for inclusion on the committee website. Please email links to the relevant research lead or to Frances Harrison ()
Industry Liaisons. The committee is seeking additional participation from representatives of major Information Technology companies with an interest in Transportation – e.g. Google, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. Please contact Frances Harrison () with suggestions.
Committee Program 2014
The committee co-sponsored 3 workshops, 1 poster session, and 4 lectern sessions at the 2014 annual meeting:
· Workshop: Civil Integrated Management: Paradigm Shift, Our Legacy, and Our Future (with the Construction Management Committee – AFH10)
· Workshop: Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications
· Workshop: Transportation Data Competition (with Statewide Data – ABJ20 and Statistical Methods – ABJ80)
· Lectern Session: Going Mobile: Applications and Implementation Options in Deployment of Mobile Devices
· Lectern Session: Leveraging New Technologies for Data Collection
· Lectern Session: Managing Information and Knowledge: Tools of the Trade (with the Knowledge Management Task Force - AB010T)
· Lectern Session: Anticipating Future Needs in Transportation Cybersecurity (with the Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee – ABE40)
· Poster Session: Emerging Information Technology Advances in Transportation
Committee Business
Sensing Technologies subcommittee report (Colin Brooks)– the subcommittee had 38 attendees at its Sunday morning workshop, and 13 attendees at its subcommittee meeting. Plans for the coming year include a workshop for the 2015 annual meeting, a call for papers (potentially on new sensing platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles), development of research needs statements and potentially a webinar.
IT for Construction Management subcommittee report (Ioannis Brilakis)– this subcommittee (which has AFH10 – Construction Management as its official parent committee) held its annual workshop on Sunday afternoon and was very well attended (roughly 50 attendees counted). The subcommittee met on Monday night and discussed several topics, including how they might complement and/or coordinate with the Application of Emerging Technologies to Design and Construction Committee (AFH30). Ioannis also announced that the subcommittee leadership will be transitioning – Nora El-Gohary will be the new subcommittee co-chair (from ABJ50) and Edward Jaselskis will replace Paul Goodrum (from AFH10)
Papers for 2014 The committee received 31 papers this year, and 109 reviews were completed. A big THANKS to all of our reviewers for carrying a much higher than normal load! 19 papers were accepted for presentation or poster sessions, and two were accepted for publication.
Committee Meeting Presentations and Discussion Summary
· Jim Ramsey, AASHTO gave a brief summary of the 2013 AASHTO Subcommittee on Information Systems Survey. 24 states submitted responses. Results will be posted following the AASHTO IS meeting in May.
· Richard McKinney, CIO of USDOT spoke about Strategic Directions for USDOT. His remarks emphasized work towards an enterprise-wide, shared services model for IT across the modal administrations, allowing each administration more time and resources to focus on their core mission. He spoke about the critical importance of attention to cybersecurity, and pointed out that needless complexity in system architecture and configuration increases risk exposure.
· State DOT Round Table - Doug Couto moderated a round table on current issues of concern to state DOT IT managers, with participation from four state DOTs: Montana DOT (Mike Bousliman), Washington State DOT (Grant Rodeheaver), Virginia DOT (Murali Rao), and Iowa DOT (Debra Shafer). Key trends and issues discussed included:
o Montana: Over the past 3 years, the department has seen a shift away from internal software development to procurement and integration of commercially available software – shortening average deployment cycles from 3 years to 6 months. This has meant an expanded focus on evaluating ROI for new applications, and on protecting data security and integrity. Given the shift in focus, the governance model for software has been relaxed – it is more about relationships and linkages and less about formal prioritization now. Workforce needs within IT have changed – there are greater needs for business analysts, database analysts, security analysts and contract managers, and less needs for developers. This is requiring both retraining and recruitment. 2/3 of the DOT workforce works out of a truck – how can they access and report information from hand-helds?
o Washington: One key challenge relates to legacy mainframe financial systems – they function, but are difficult to adapt, and require skill sets (COBOL, NATURAL) that are increasingly difficult to sustain given retirement of older IT professionals. An ERP solution has been under discussion, but requires a major investment. Other challenges include setting priorities for life cycle replacement of hardware and software in a highly funding constrained environment – funding constraints have necessitated a focus on core needs. The agency is also interested in cloud and mobile solutions, have looked at multiple options, and have implemented “BYOD Lite” (email, calendaring). Trying to employ a device agnostic strategy, though this has costs associated with it. Managing expectations is a significant challenge – there are tradeoffs between customer responsiveness versus building a sustainable technology architecture. Have successfully partnered with Amazon cloud solutions to handle peak loads during storms (web page views spike from 800,000 to 12 million) – can switch over to the cloud in 30 minutes; average cost is $400 for 12 hours of coverage. (Took $20-30,000 to develop and test the capability).
o Virginia: Expectation management has been a major challenge. Business units expect technical solutions in “click speed”. Technology needs have accelerated, particularly in light of the passage of last year’s $6 billion transportation bill - $2 billion in projects were let last year. A second, related challenge is ensuring information security when over 70% of the department’s program is delivered by private contractors. The agency’s role has shifted to focus on contract administration. Need to carefully define what is “critical infrastructure”, when does protection need to begin (e.g. with development of design drawings?), and how can this information be protected with current delivery arrangements? A third challenge is accommodating the shift to mobile solutions. Need to consider multiple variables: devices to be supported, safety concerns for utilization of mobile devices by crew members, security/firewall configuration, integration with legacy systems, communications/signal reliability and availability, staff skill sets to support. Many field workers have no logins – problematic when core HR functions are now paperless. Finally, there are challenges related to technology in support of winter maintenance – 2 years ago, Virginia only had 5 winter days with no snow – a major initiative was undertaken to install AVL and provide real time tracking of plows. Last year, only had 1 snow day…
o Iowa: Have done successful pilot deployment of AVL for winter maintenance (snow is more reliable in Iowa!) – have iPhones on dashboards of plows taking photos every 10 minutes. Challenges: (1) statewide IT consolidation – transportation IT priorities are being impacted, (2) push to consolidate data across silos, but without clear specifications for decision support needs.
o Summary: Possible research topics for the committee to consider:
§ Expectation management (possibly a webinar series?) – including tradeoffs between customer wish fulfillment and IT efficiency/sustainability, anticipated changes and implications due to DOT workforce transition.
§ New IT governance and decision models needed to meet customer expectations in a rapidly changing technology environment
§ Transition to mobile devices – architecture, policies, strategies
§ Ensuring information security in a highly outsourced business environment
§ Integrating social media with DOT business processes
§ Policy implications of cloud computing applications
§ Managing technology transitions (applications, infrastructure, workforce)
§ DOT information integration strategies (where applications are primarily outsourced rather than developed in house)
Key Information Systems and Technology Trends
We heard four presentations as part of our committee meeting:
· Doug Couto, Center for Digital Government – State DOT Use of Social Media
· Bernie McMonagle, Verizon - 4G LTE and implications for transportation
· Terry Bills, Transportation Industry Manager, ESRI – GIS for Managing Big Data
· Mark Seaborn, CTO Office Motorola Solutions – Government Adoption of Cloud Services
See the committee website – ABJ50.ORG for copies of these presentations (keep checking back – copies have been requested from presenters and will be posted as they are received).
Open Discussion on Research Needs for MAP-21 and Big Data
· Rob Zilay and Yinhai Wang led a brief discussion on future research needs related to (1) meeting requirements of MAP-21 for risk-based asset management plans and performance reporting and target setting, and (2) big data. One potential research need was to identify and specify agency needs for value added data delivery (beyond raw formats). Members and friends interested in working further on research needs statements for these two topics should contact Rob () – MAP-21 or Yinhai () – Big Data.
Other Announcements:
· TransXML: A 1 day workshop was held on Future of TransXML on December 11, 2013 at Keck Center. Roughly 30 invitees participated from AASHTO, USDOT, AGC, State DOTs, private industry. Major topic of discussion was on stewardship for future updates and additions to TransXML; key question was how to make it financially sustainable. Several action items were identified to continue the discussion and move along some high priority schema efforts – potentially: payroll and oversize/overweight permitting. TTI is developing a report summarizing the workshop, which should come out by Spring 2014.
· Knowledge Management Domestic Scan: A Domestic Scan on best practices in Knowledge Management took place in November, involving representatives of 7 DOTs (VA, WA, MO, GA, KS, WI, AK), 1 Canadian Province (Alberta), 3 USDOT Administrations (FTA, FHWA, FAA) plus NASA, Accenture and Kraft Foods. Chaired by John Halikowski, director of Arizona DOT. Some of the discussion at this scan related to use of technology to support information sharing within agencies – look for products of the scan in Spring 2014.
· Transportation Research Circular published: Integrating Spatial and Business Data for Improved Decisions (report of a peer exchange held in Boise, ID in May 2013).
· NCHRP 25-25 Task 80 Report published: Potential Uses of Social Media in the NEPA Process.
Future Activities – Here is a list of committee activities for the upcoming year and associated deadlines. Please send email to if you are interested in participating in any of these activities – help is always needed!
· Triennial Strategic Plan – due by March 1, 2015.
· Develop Calls for Papers for TRB 2015– must be submitted to TRB staff for posting in mid- May, 2014
· Workshop proposals for TRB 2015 due June 15, 2014 – we anticipate continuing workshops for Sensing Technologies and Construction Management, but we can submit additional workshop proposals (particularly if they are done jointly with other committees)
· Paper Reviews - August 18-September 15, 2014
· Conference session proposals for TRB 2013 to be developed by August 1, 2014 and finalized by September 30, 2014. We will set up a conference call in the summer to plan these.
· Research Needs Statements – development of new Research Needs Statements within the committee’s identified research areas (see attached) – focus on topics that have good potential for AASHTO member support and funding. Also consider tie in to TRB Critical Issues in Transportation (resilience, safety, energy & climate change, funding, and innovation). For an overview of research program funding sources and deadlines, see this summary table.
· Webinars – one has been suggested by our Sensing Technologies subcommittee; others can be initiated based on member/friend interest.
· Committee Website – Martin Akerman, our webmaster and committee communications coordinator has moved on to a position at the UN outside of transportation. We will be transitioning these responsibilities over the coming months. Meanwhile, contact Frances Harrison if you want to help with the website, or if you have content to contribute.
Other Business
Upcoming Conferences/Meetings of Interest:
· Peer Exchange: Aligning Data Systems to Communicate with Decision Makers: Supporting Risk Based Asset Management (Miami, April 26-27, 2014) (by invitation)
· 10th National Conference on Transportation Asset Management (Miami, April 28-30, 2014)
· AASHTO Subcommittee on Information Systems Annual Meeting (Bismark, North Dakota, May 4-7th, 2014)
· GIS-T (Burlington, Vermont, May 5-8, 2014)
· North American Travel Monitoring Exposition and Conference (NATMEC) (Chicago, June 29-July 2, 2014) – our committee will be holding its mid-year meeting at this conference on June30 - contact Frances Harrison () if interested in helping to plan this meeting.