Speakers

James Argiropoulos

James Argiropoulos is Managing Deputy Director of the Chicago office of Emergency Management and Communications. He is responsible for major technology, communications, and information projects of the OEMC including the Chicago 911 system and the Operation Virtual Shield project, as well as many others. Mr. Argiropoulos leads the development and deployment of complex systems and the integration of these systems to support OEMC safety and security applications.

• Presenting: Safety and Security Initiatives of the Chicago OEMC

Todd Bapton and Kouros Mohammadian

• Presenting: Road Test and Effectiveness of Ramp Metering Algorithms

John Benda

John Benda is the General Manager of Maintenance and Traffic for the Illinois Tollway where he has been employed the past twenty-four (24) years. In this capacity he has functional authority and responsibility for Roadway, Fleet and Traffic Operations as well as Permits and Utilities. The Tollway's Computer Aided Central Dispatch Center and integrated Traffic and Incident Management system was developed under his direction.
The Maintenance and Traffic Division's operating budget is in the range of 40 million annually and encompasses a full-time work force exceeding 500.
Prior to joining to the Tollway in 1983, Mr. Benda served as the Manager of Operations and Maintenance for the City of Naperville, Illinois.
In John's over thirty (30) plus years in Public Works, he has been an active member of several Professional Associations including the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association (IBTTA), American Public Works Association (APWA), Intelligent Transportations Society of America (ITS America). John has served on several National Committees, Chaired the IBTTA Maintenance Committee for eight (8) years and in 1998 received the prestigious "Top Ten Public Works Leader of the Year" award from the A.P.W.A. Mr. Benda has been a frequent presenter on a wide range of topics on of these systems to support OEMC safety and security applications.

• Presenting: Illinois Tollway Open Road Tolling Conversion Program

Joseph Brahm

Regional Vice President for Delcan Corporation. Over 18 years of experience including the management of 3 traffic management centers and the oversight of traffic management system development throughout the country.

• Presenting: Arterial Traffic and Incident Management

Douglas J. Brazelton

Mr. Brazelton has 19 years experience and is actively involved in most traffic engineering activities for the company. Mr. Brazelton is currently Project Manager for the Signal Coordination and Timing Projects with the Illinois Department of Transportation. His overall responsibilities include project management, technical direction, and direct involvement with signal timing plan development, implementation, and evaluation. He is also Project Manager for Intelligent Transportation System projects requiring PS&E work including: CCTV cameras, Highway Advisory Radio, Dynamic Message Signs, Detector Stations, and Communications Networks.

• Presenting: Traffic Signal Incident Response

Bill Cook

Bill Cook, educated in Britain and studied at Liverpool college while employed with British Telecom. Relocating to Southern Africa for 20 years, continued a career in communications in both RF and wireline. The significance of lightning damage in the region led to the extensive involvement in lightning protection and research from the early 1980's. Moving to Florida in 1990 was to expand this focus with the research and implementation of national, real-time, lightning detection systems both in the US and abroad. During the past 11 years I have been extensively involved in the design of surge protection systems, including educational seminars for Cellular, Traffic Operations, ITS Public Safety, and International markets.

• Presenting: Experience of Lightning Protection for ITS Development

Dale Meyers

• Presenting: IndyGo AVL Project

John DeLaurentiis

• Presenting: Northeastern Illinois Regional Transit ITS Program

Abraham Emmanuel

Abraham Emmanuel is Principal Systems Programmer with the City of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management & Communication' Traffic Management Authority. Prior to joining the City in Mr. Emmanuel worked a technology consultant for over 6 years. Since 2003 at the City of Chicago he has been working on various technology projects ranging from bioterrorism preparedness to intelligent transportation systems. Abraham received his MS in computer science from the University of Chicago and MBA in information management and marketing form the Illinois Institute of Technology.

• Presenting: Developing and Using Archives for Traffic Crash Analysis

Robert Michael Frey

• Presenting: WisDOT Data Extractor: Corridor Analysis & Management Software Overview

Jeff Galas

• Presenting: GCM Gateway Status

Karen George

Karen George has over 20 years experience on a variety of traffic engineering and transportation planning projects with a focus on traffic signal design and operations, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Ms. George is currently the Northeast ITS Regional Manager for TransCore and is responsible for the technical and business functions of three offices with over 100 staff.

Prior to her work at TransCore, Ms. George was Chicago Area Manager at Iteris and at Parsons, Ms. George was the Chicago ITS Leader. As a Project Manager, she managed traffic engineering and intelligent transportation systems projects and was project manager for the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee Gateway Traveler Information System, the RTA Regional Transit Signal Priority Location Study, Phase I, and the DuPage County Multi-Jurisdictional Signal Timing and Monitoring Project.

Ms. George is the current Secretary of ITS Midwest. Ms. George is experienced with professional societies, having been active in leadership roles for over 15 years. She has been both the Women's Transportation Seminar Chicago President and the Institute of Transportation District IV President and Illinois Chapter President. In the future, Ms. George would like to facilitate more student participation and educational support for both professionals and students within the ITS Midwest states.

Ms. George is a licensed Professional Engineer and Professional Traffic Operations Engineer, with a Bachelor and Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Business Administration.

• Presenting: ITS Midwest Project of the Year Award Presentations

Yehuda Gross

• Presenting: Congestion Initiative

Violet Gunka

Violet Gunka is a Project Manager, Engineering and Technology for the RTA. Ms. Gunka monitors and participates in consultant studies that assess feasibility, selection and application of proposed technology initiatives to be deployed in the RTA region. She also assists in reviews for testing and demonstration of new technology involving design, testing, and implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for transit. Before joining the RTA, Ms. Gunka worked for Nestle as an industrial engineer. She obtained her Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002.

• Presenting: RTAmobil.com & Wireless Access to Traveler Information

Mike Haas

Mike Haas is an experienced, highly successful ITS professional with over 15 years systems and software project experience. Mike currently leads two major ITS development projects in the state of Virginia: RTIMIS, and I-81 Systems Integration.
Beyond his Intelligent Transportation Systems experience, Mr. Haas has managed multimillion dollar software projects in the defense and mortgage industries and has extensive hands on experience in systems and software engineering projects within a variety of industries including ITS.
Mike has a Bachelor of .Science., Electrical Engineering from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

• Presenting: 911 - ATMS Integration in Support of Improved Traffic Incident Management: ARTIMIS

Jeffrey J. Hochmuth

Mr. Hochmuth has over 20 years of transportation experience in Illinois, most of them in ITS and operations. Mr. Hochmuth has worked on a variety of ITS projects around the world from high level planning to detailed operations. Mr. Hochmuth began his career as a modeler for the MPO in Chicago. He then became in expert in toll operations while working as the assistant traffic engineer for the Illinois Tollway. He subsequently joined the IDOT Advance Project, which then became the IDOT ITS Program Office. He served as project manager developing the GCM Gateway project, before moving on to become the Statewide ITS Program Manager.

• Presenting: Illinois Tollway Weigh In Motion Initiative

Corey Hull

• Presenting: South Bend Regional Architecture

Robert Jacko

Dr. Jacko is a Professor of Environmental Engineering within the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Recently he has been involved with field measurements for PM2.5 adjacent to the Borman Expressway in Northwest Indiana. He teaches four courses in air pollution and has been on the faculty for 32 years.

• Presenting: The Air Quality Aspect of Traffic Management

Michael Jackson

BSCE University of MO-Columbia, 1978; 20 Years in Field Construction, Maintenance and Operations; 5 Years in Special Project working with ITS; Project Manager for the development and deployment of the Iowa DOT's Des Moines Area ITS Project.

• Presenting: Quad Cities I-74 ITS Project

Tom Korty

• Presenting: Illinois Terrorism Task Force Initiatives

Matthew J. Letourneau

Mr. Letourneau is a Principal Transportation Engineer with Edwards and Kelcey in Chicago and a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. A graduate of Marquette University, Mr. Letourneau currently serves as the Secretary of the Illinois Section of ITE. Since joining Edwards and Kelcey, he has been involved in the Phase I design of South Lake Shore Drive, various traffic signal design projects, and several projects involving the design and implementation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Most recently, Mr. Letourneau has helped to develop the Illinois Statewide ITS Architecture and Strategic Plan.

• Presenting: Illinois Statewide ITS Strategic Plan

Scott J. McCormick

Scott McCormick is the President of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association. Harry Voccola (co-Author of the presentation) is the Chairman of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association and a Senior Vice President for Government Affairs for NAVTEQ.

• Presenting: The Connected Vehicle Proving Center

Dale Meyers

• Presenting: IndyGo AVL Project

Taqhi Mohammed

Mr. Taqhi Mohammed, Transportation Engineer has been working with PACE Suburban Bus since March 2003. Mr. Mohammed's experience in transit industry includes ITS systems engineering, transit systems planning, traffic engineering. He is currently project manager for several Transit ITS initiatives such Transit Signal Priority, Queue Jump Bypass Lane Project, Integrated Express Corridor. Recently Pace received up to 5 Million $ for TSP deployment. Mr. Mohammed sits on TCRP panel for developing Implementation guide for Bus on Shoulder operation. He has been listed in USDOT's TSP Implementation handbook.
Prior to joining Pace Mr. Mohammed worked as Research Assistant for Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), VA and was involved developing ITS systems evaluation and Traffic Signal Preemption and Priority Systems evaluation study on U.S.1, Virginia. Mr. Mohammed holds bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. Also, Mr. Mohammed holds masters degree in Civil Engineering with Advance Transportation Systems concentration. He also holds Post Graduate Diploma in Public Transportation Systems. Mr. Mohammed attended, Madras University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University).
Mr. Mohammed is actively in involved in ITS activities in Chicagoland. He represents Pace in Advance Technology Task Force (ATTF), Air Quality and Technology Management Task Force (AQTM) of CMAP), Transit Working Group, ITS Deployment Committee of Gary Chicago Michigan (GCM) ITS Corridor and Illinois Statewide ITS Strategic Plan and Architecture Steering Committee and other groups.

• Presenting: Pace's Traffic & Transit ITS Initiatives to Improve the Speed and Reliability of Fixed Bus Routes

Steve Musser

Steve brings over 28 years of experience from the Illinois Tollway with extensive experience in all risk applications of the incident command system for managing a wide variety of incidents. Steve has a strong background in work zone safety and training, traffic control, incident management, and vehicle recovery.
As the Incident Manager, he manages and directs system wide Incident Management effort to minimize system performance impact caused by crashes, incidents, and other emergency conditions. Steve plans incident response efforts in construction zones, and reviews approval of all Maintenance of Traffic Plans for construction on the system, along with the daily approval of all construction and maintenance lane closures. Provides overall direction to Motorist Service Activities performed by maintenance and outside services.

• Presenting: Advanced Lane Closure Operations

John B. O'Laughlin

• Presenting: Incident Management and ITS

Elizabeth E. Ogard

• Presenting: ITS Solutions to Congestion

William Osborne

Mr. Osborne serves as Director of Southeast Missouri Transportation Service, Past President of Missouri Public Transit Association, Member of MODOT's Rural Public Transit ITS review committee and has the honor of serving on TRB committees as well as other important transportation/economic development programs.

• Presenting: Traveler's Choices for Meetings and Conferences

Gordon Paesani

Mr. Paesani is Chief Applications Engineer for Delcan Corporation. Gordon has over 44 years experience in Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) for freeways, virtually from the inception of the field. He has a strong background in Freeway Operational concepts and all aspects of ATMS including hardware and software subsystems. He has designed traffic applications in ramp metering, incident management, travel times, congestion management, and incident detection for over 20 systems worldwide.

• Presenting: Evolution of Travel Times at Illinois Tollway

Joe Peters

• Presenting: Congestion Relief Initiative

Gary Rylander

• Presenting: Welcome Address

Neil Schuster

• Presenting: Keynote Speaker

Christina Joanne Slayton

Christina Slayton is a Project Manager, Engineering and Technology for the RTA. Ms. Slayton monitors and participates in consultant studies that assess feasibility, selection and application of proposed technology initiatives to be deployed in the region. She also assists in the determination of approach, techniques, procedures and criteria to be used during evaluation of test results, demonstrations, and construction, operation and maintenance costs. Before joining the RTA, Ms. Slayton worked for the Chicago Transit Authority as a process engineer. She obtained her Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002.

• Presenting: How Integrated Information can influence Traveler Behavior

Brian Sneed

• Presenting: ITS in East St Louis

Greg Waidley

• Presenting: MVTOC and/or MVFC

Marion Waters

Marion Waters is the Director of ITS and Traffic Engineering for Gresham, Smith and Partners. He was the former State Traffic Engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation retiring from that position in early 2003. He was directly involved in the implementation of Georgia's award winning Intelligent Transportation System known as NaviGAtor and has been the Principle Engineer for the design of the ramp metering projects as a consultant to the GDOT. His positions and experiences have provided him an opportunity to see this program for ramp metering from both the public sector and private design perspectives.

• Presenting: Ramp Metering Initiative for Atlanta Georgia Freeways

David Weber

Dr. Weber is a Research Program Director in Argonne's Energy Systems Division and is Director of the Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center.

• Presenting: TRACC-The Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center

David Zavattero

David Zavattero is Deputy Director of the City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC). He is responsible for IT, ITS, traffic engineering, and planning with the Chicago Traffic Management Authority. His major projects include development and deployment of the Chicago Transportation Management Center (TMC) and the citywide traffic signal timing optimization program.
Prior to joining OEMC this past July, David was ITS Program Manager for the Illinois Department of Transportation for seven years. He has also served as Deputy for Operations of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) and has held senior positions in the public and private sectors.
David holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts and an M.A. in Economics from Northwestern University. He is an active member of several professional organizations and serves on the Coordinating Council of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) as Chair of the Policy, Evaluation, and Advocacy Forum.

• Presenting: Building the Chicago TMC

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