The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, announced that Kory Northrop of the University of Oregon and Ali Mostafavi of Purdue University were chosen as winners of the Data Visualization Student Challenge. Each of the winners will receive a $2,000 scholarship.
The contest was designed to engage students across the country to look at vast amounts of data and present it in a way that makes it easier to understand, which will help decision makers make better informed policy and investment decisions in support of transportation safety and economic development. Students were encouraged to form teams and collaborate across disciplines, and to seek mentorship from professionals within the transportation community. Contestants submitted 18 entries over a three-month period.
In addition to the scholarship, a representative from each winning team will be honored at the 2012 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., in January. A third award, the “People’s Choice”, also went to Mostafavi, who garnered the most votes during a two-week online voting period.
