The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State conducts research, education and workforce development to progress transportation around the world.
The institute has a workforce of directors, research associates, consulting associates and student research assistants, who are assigned research projects emphasized on policy and management for transportation officials.
Hilary Nixon, Mineta Transportation Institute deputy and executive director, oversees the institute's research programs.
Its research is funded by grants given by the U.S. Department of Transportation, California Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Transportation Commission and private sector companies.
“Within those research grants, there are usually a set of research topics that we are looking to conduct research on,” Nixon said. “Each year we’ll do what we call a ‘comprehensive stakeholder needs assessment,’ where we reach out to leaders, stakeholders, decision makers, elected officials, other policymakers in the transportation sector – either at the state level for our California State University Transportation consortium, or nationwide for our U.S. Department of Transportation consortium – to identify what are the most important pressing research needs that they have.”
One of the goals of Mineta Transportation Institute is to get its research in the hands of decision makers and policymakers.
“It’s that piece about disseminating the work and getting the work moved from the research paper into implementation of practice or policy,” Nixon said.
Mineta Transportation Institute was recently awarded a five-year grant of $15 million from the University Transportation Centers program.
The University Transportation Center program advances research and technology for transportation through investments by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Within this new grant we have two broad areas of research,” Nixon said. “One of them is addressing safety, sustainability and equity through improved multimodal transportation, and second is building a resilient supply chain.”
Mohamed Abousalem, SJSU vice president for Research and Innovation, said the grant is a remarkable acknowledgement for SJSU.
“Our faculty and student researchers are pushing the boundaries of today's transportation knowledge to provide innovative solutions to the safety, efficiency, accessibility and convenience challenges of the nation's transportation systems,” Abousalem said. “It's with significant awards like this that we can advance this and other leading, community-engaged and public-impact research at SJSU for the experiential learning of our students, the professional development of our faculty and the overall benefit to our society.”
Nixon said Mineta Transportation Institute has over 100 research projects that people across all consortiums are working on.
“It is everything from policy work on transportation, finance to transportation, cybersecurity to artificial intelligence [. . .] as it relates to transportation, equity in multimodal transportation,” Nixon said.
California Senate Bill 1161 requires Mineta Transportation Institute to “develop and make available on its internet website a survey for the purpose of promoting consistency in the collection of specified survey data to inform efforts to improve the safety of riders and reduce street harassment on public transit,” according to the Open States website.
“[Mineta Transportation Institute], for a long time, has had a really strong interest in public transit, multimodal transportation and safety,” Nixon said. “Kind of the over the arching umbrella of safety of our transit systems is real important to us. Particularly as it relates to kind of questions of harassment and ensuring safety and security for all users riders on the transportation system.”
Frances Edwards is the deputy director of the National Transportation Security Center at Mineta Transportation Institute.
Edwards said the institute has been committed to diversity, equality and inclusion in transportation as an organization.
“It’s kind of in our DNA to look at the breadth of the community and involve everybody to bring students of all backgrounds, all races, all genders into this transportation space because we need excellence in leadership,” Edwards said. “It’s the only way we’re going to get it, by opening opportunities to everybody.”
Edwards said Mineta Transportation Institute is trying to improve climate change and educate people through their research publications.
“We have a lot of work that’s been done on zero emission buses, hydrogen and electric buses [. . .] it’s that kind of research that asks what it would take to use this technology,” Edwards said.
The Lucas College and Graduate School of Business offers a graduate program for Mineta Transportation Institute that offers a Master of Science in Transportation Management degree and three graduate certificate programs.
Edwards said the courses that SJSU teaches have helped people get more transportation leadership roles in the Bay Area.
“When you look at many of the people who are Bay Area transportation leaders today, many of them are our graduates,” Edwards said. “More prepared can you be than that commitment demonstrated by earning a master’s degree, and almost all of our students have significant experience on the practical side of transportation.”
Alverina Weinardy, public programs coordinator at Mineta Transportation Institute, is responsible for the institute’s online presence through monthly newsletters, social media campaigns, news releases and blogs.
Weinardy works closely with researchers and partners to develop research and workforce programs.
“When students enroll in the grad program, they become familiar with some of our work and often attend our webinars to gain a better understanding of different topics in transportation,” Weinardy said.
Mineta Transportation Institute has a workforce development program educating K-12 students and adults, introducing them to transportation issues.
The institute engages its younger audience through poster contests, essay contests and teaching lessons.
Mineta Transportation Institute collaborated with elementary school teachers to develop a STEM transportation unit that introduced first through sixth graders to the basics of how people and products are moved through transportation, according to its website.
Mineta Transportation Institute has a wide spectrum of responsibilities through researching and educating about the nation’s transportation system for officials to implement policy.
