Students have the support of PSU's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) which is a member of PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium.

Our transportation faculty are regarded as national and international experts in their fields. Graduate students have opportunities to collaborate in this research and take the lead on their own papers under faculty guidance. Just a few examples of how PSU faculty and researchers have supported the city of Portland’s transportation leadership:

• The Better Block PSU project pathway has seen PSU students create plans and designs for real neighborhoods, parks, and transportation infrastructure in Portland.
• In partnership with the City of Portland, PSU has hosted a community transportation academy for 25 years for over 1,200 community members.
• PSU evaluated the first large-scale installation of bike boxes in the US, allowing Portland to use this safety treatment to prevent right hook crashes.
• PSU evaluated the city's first protected bike lane, on SW Broadway through campus, setting the stage for the wider-spread use of such lanes throughout the city.

Walter H. Kramer Fellowship ($2,000)

Dr. Walter H. Kramer founded the first transportation studies center in the Department of Marketing (now School of Business Administration). Focusing on transportation research and education, Dr. Kramer believed that "the actions of an individual, of a college, can determine the future of our cities, our society," and devoted himself toward bringing "the resources of the faculty to bear on the problems of the community." This fellowship is aimed at providing financial support to PSU graduate students enrolled in transportation-related graduate programs and working on multi-disciplinary, multi-modal research connected with making a difference in "our cities, our society, and the community."

IBPI Active Transportation Scholarship ($3,000)

Through a generous donation from Alta Planning + Design, we are awarding a $3,000 scholarship to a PSU graduate student who is highly motivated to focus their studies on bicycling and walking as mainstream forms of transportation. The successful applicant will be seeking to better understand how communities integrate bicycling and walking through their planning and design processes. This scholarship is supported by our Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI) program.

IBPI Excellence in Active Transportation Scholarship ($4,000)

Funded by a generous donation from local transportation professional Mia Birk. This scholarship will be awarded to one or more graduate student who is highly motivated to focus their studies on bicycling and walking as mainstream forms of transportation. The successful applicant will be seeking to better understand how communities integrate bicycling and walking through their planning and design processes. The scholarship is a total of $4,000 and may be split between students. This scholarship is supported by our Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI) program.

ITE-STEP Student Group

An active and engaged student transportation group, the Students in Transportation Engineering & Planning (ITE-STEP), hosts film screenings, tours of transportation agencies in the city, lectures and other activities. Students can take on leadership roles in cultivating community and education around the transportation issues important to them.

Students present their work at national conferences for TRB (Transportation Research Board), ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers), APA (American Planning Association), as well as locally through TREC and our partners.