Transportation Engineering Graduate Student Sayeeda Ayaz Among Winners of WTS-Boston Scholarships

UMass Transportation Graduate Student Sayeeda Ayaz (right) with Stephanie Pollack, Secretary of Transportation and CEO of MassDOT.

On Tuesday, June 5, WTS-Boston held its Annual Awards and Scholarships Dinner at the Courtyard Boston Downtown. Among the 2018 Scholarship winners was UMass Transportation Engineering Graduate Student Sayeeda Ayaz. 

Sayeeda is a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Transportation Engineering. She is a member of the Graduate Women in STEM, Graduate Students of Color Association, the UMass Institute of Transportation Engineers Student Chapter, Current Secretary for the UMass Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science Student Chapter, Current Vice President of the UMASS Institute of Transportation Engineers, and Current President of the UMass WTS Student Chapter. After taking the role of the President of UMass WTS Student Chapter, Sayeeda focused on its official webpage development and social media presence to improve students' awareness of the organization. She believes that students need to be involved in WTS to increase women's involvement in the transportation sector, and she has been working to spread the word about WTS.  Sayeeda is dedicated to supporting women in the transportation industry and has actively worked through WTS to do so.

Other award winners at the event included the Woman of the Year Award to Stephanie Pollack, Secretary of Transportation and CEO of MassDOT; Laurie Carlson, MassDOT recipient of the Claire Barrett Member of the Year Award; Massachusetts Port Authority for Employer of the Year Award, Monica Tibbits-Nutt recipient of the Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award; and Kelly McGonagle recipient of the Innovative Transportation Solutions Award.