| Track |
Description |
Chair |
Co-Chair |
| 1 |
Railroad Infrastructure Engineering |
Design, engineering, and construction of track, bridge structures and grade crossings; Geotechnical engineering of track substructure and right-of-way; Best practices and advances in technology for the inspection and maintenance of the railroad infrastructure. |
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| 2 |
Rail Equipment Engineering |
Motive power technology; vehicle/track interaction; wheels, couplers, components, and other equipment; rolling stock design, manufacturing, materials, and maintenance. |
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| 3 |
Signal and Train Control Engineering |
Systems integration; track and wayside components; equipment components; positive train control; interoperability, and microprocessor control. |
Dave Thurston, CP Rail |
Lamont Ward, Amtrak |
| 4 |
Service Quality and Operations Research |
Service availability and reliability; capacity models; impacts of aging equipment on service quality; transport mode integration, especially with high-speed rail; passenger information systems and reservation systems; freight railroad network optimization; asset planning; train scheduling. |
Clark Cheng, Norfolk Southern |
Rapik Saat, AAR |
| 5 |
Planning and Development |
Project management, planning & financing; new start and expansion; transit-oriented development; service planning; environmental impact; workforce development. |
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| 6 |
Safety and Security |
System safety approaches; safety data mgt; risk analysis; accident avoidance, survivability, and investigation; operations safety; human factors; safety improvements; hazmat risk mgt; security assurance; emergency preparedness and response. |
Dave Schlesinger, Parsons |
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| 7 |
Energy Efficiency and Sustainability |
Energy conservation, efficiency and storage; modeling; hybrid vehicles; emissions reduction and control; alternative energy sources. |
Brian Donohue, WSP |
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| 8 |
Urban Passenger Rail Transport |
Investigations, insights, innovations, and implementations in all aspects of urban passenger rail transport. |
Brian Donohue, WSP |
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| 9 |
Electrification |
Catenary and third rail design; materials; efficiency; electrification approaches; design for high speeds; electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); corrosion control; load flow simulation; energy savings storage devices; regenerative braking; smart electrical supply. |
John Grantham, IEEE |
Bih-Yuan Ku, National Taipei University of TechnologyNational Taipei University of Technology |
| 10 |
Vehicle Track Interaction |
Wheel/rail contact; best practices in testing methods and modeling; tools; passenger and freight applications. |
Anand Prabhakaran, Sharma & Associates |
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| 11 |
Railroad History |
Notable structures, equipment, facilities, events and people of historical interest to the railroad engineering community. |
Michael Iden, Tier 5 Locomotive LLC |
Timothy Mast, Wabtec |
| 12 |
New Technologies |
System health monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics; cloud technologies; data analytics, engines, mining, and management; business intelligence; autonomy; internet of things; machine learning; high-speed rail; and hyperloop. |
Mehdi Ahmadian, Virginia Tech |
Milad Hosseinipour, IEEE |