UMass Student Alyssa Ryan Awarded ITE Student Scholarship

By: Courtney Murtagh

Alyssa Ryan, a Graduate Research Assistant in Transportation Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was awarded the New York Upstate Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) 2018 Student Scholarship. The $1000 scholarship is given to one current ITE member who shows an interest in working for transportation engineering/planning in the future. The scholarship is meant to cover educational expenses in the 2018-2019 academic year. The ITE Student scholarship is awarded solely based off a 500 word personal essay on why federal gas taxes should increase to increase federal highway funding, or why it shouldn’t increase, and what other options should be considered to improve federal highways funding.

Ryan completed her degree in Civil Engineering at UMass Amherst in 2017. She started her Master of Science in Transportation Engineering at UMass in January 2018. Ryan was awarded the ITE Student Scholarship the beginning of this month. She describes herself as having a deep passion for the transportation field, specifically in traffic signalization, human factors, and data analysis.