By Micaela Myers
An associate professor of civil and architectural engineering, Rhonda Young came to the University of Wyoming in 2002, drawn by the community and size of UW. “I think the size of the program is particularly effective in teaching engineering,” she says. “It’s large enough to have good variety and a lot of courses but small enough to really make sure our undergraduates get a good education.”
Young earned her undergraduate degree from Oregon State University and her graduate degrees from the University of Washington. As a professional engineer in Wyoming and Washington, she specializes in the operational side of transportation engineering.
Making roadways safer: “My area of focus is looking at how we can use technology on our roads to make better operating decisions,” Young says of her research. “A project I’ve been working on for five years has been the variable speed limit systems in Wyoming. We have some pretty good data in terms of the economic impacts that those have had—avoiding crashes and keeping the roads open longer.
“I’ve also done research into some of the truck blow-overs … looking at the wind effects on trucks and trying to give both the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the trucking industry better thresholds about when they shouldn’t be traveling through particular corridors.
“Moving forward, we’re going to be doing what’s called connected vehicle research that’s being emphasized by the U.S. Department of Transportation to take our technology one step further. Instead of doing a lot of external road sensing, it’s communicating with vehicles themselves and pulling data from their onboard computers.”
Women in engineering: Young enjoys working with UW students and appreciates the connections alumni maintain but hopes to see more women in engineering in the future. Part of that, she says, is showing girls the impact they can have as engineers. “Research shows that if we showed the context of engineering from the first year, it greatly impacts the number of women that want to stay in engineering—if we said, ‘Hey, as an engineer, look at the impact you could have on the world. This is what careers in engineering can do. Look at what practicing engineers are doing.’ ”
With Young’s transportation research having a direct impact on human safety and the economy, she’s just such an example.
