Webinar to highlight MSU student engagement to serve Bozeman
from MSU News Service
BOZEMAN — At an Oct. 7 online event, the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University will showcase a program in which MSU students gain hands-on experience while completing projects that serve the local community.
On the webinar, which starts at 11 a.m., WTI’s West Region Transportation Workforce Center will share its successes with the Community-engaged and Transformational Scholarship program, called CATS. The webinar will feature Susanne Cowan, associate professor in the School of Architecture in MSU’s College of Arts and Architecture, whose classes worked with the CATS program in partnership with the Gallatin Valley Land Trust and the city of Bozeman to identify trail infrastructure improvement needs and opportunities. Students in Cowan’s Architecture Research Methods and Participatory Open Space Planning courses conducted user surveys and mapping of Bozeman’s trails in a multi-semester project with the aid of an Outreach and Engagement Seed Grant from MSU.
“Students have the opportunity to work with real data and issues, meet with professionals and create things that have the potential to positively impact our local community,” said WTI’s Susan Gallagher, who coordinates the CATS program. “It’s a way to apply their learning for the public good.”
According to Gallagher, many university faculty members are eager to provide real-world learning opportunities to students, but developing the necessary partnerships can be time-consuming. The CATS program reduces that burden by providing a central framework and partnering assistance from WTI, Gallagher said.
The CATS program has expanded each semester since it was piloted in partnership with the city in 2018 and has engaged hundreds of students in a wide range of projects, Gallagher said. Last spring, environmental engineering students completed a pipe rehabilitation feasibility study and developed assessment tools for stormwater facilities to aid the city of Bozeman with stormwater management, and industrial engineering students ran simulations to optimize the city’s snowplow routes. This fall, students from multiple departments are working on nine projects, including design of an intergenerational community center and a study of stream restoration potential in downtown Bozeman.
The webinar, titled “Engaging Multidisciplinary Student Talent to Meet Agency Needs,” kicks off a four-part webinar series organized by the National Network for the Transportation Workforce, of which the WTI’s West Region Center is a member. The series will focus on effective workforce development initiatives, particularly in the transportation sector. To learn more about the series and to register, visit www.nntw.org/nntw-fall-2020-webinar-series-empowering-the-new-mobility-workforce.
WTI, which is housed in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, leads one of five regional transportation workforce centers established across the nation by the Federal Highway Administration. •
