The Center for Transportation Research's (CTR) Annual Symposium will be held on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026, hosted at The Commons Conference Center on the UT Pickle Research Campus.
Parking information will be emailed to registered participants; please bring a printed copy of the parking permit on the event day. If you do not receive this information, please check your bulk mail/spam folder or contact the CTR staff at CTR-Admin@engr.utexas.edu.
Program Agenda and Poster
8:30 AM to 9:00 AM
Welcome to the 2026 CTR Symposium
RTI Awards | Mac Shelby Award
Center for Transportation Research (CTR) Director Dr. Amit Bhasin and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director, Marc D. Williams
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
General Session
How can we Improve Pedestrian Safety: Insights from a Large Scale Surveillance Camera-Based Observational Study
Dr. Chandra Bhat (CTR) and Anna Beliveau (CTR)
The Green Light: How We Verify the AI Driving Our Future
Morgan Avera (CTR), Dr. Andrea Gold (CTR) and George Villareal (TxDOT Traffic Safety Division)
Intersection of academia and "boots on the ground" engineering, drawing from a portfolio of technology validation research projects. The discussion will highlight the following:
- Road Weather Intelligence
- Computer Vision
- Advanced Traffic Management Systems
- Operationalizing New Solutions
Using AI to Calculate Skid Number from Texture Data to Identify Hot Spots and Save Lives
Dr. Jenny Li (TxDOT Maintenance Division) and Dr. Jorge A Prozzi (CTR)
Leveraging New Technologies in Automation and Machine Learning to Improve Efficiency in MTD at TxDOT: Selected Use Cases
Dr. Amit Bhasin (CTR), Enad Mahmoud (TxDOT MTD) and Syeda Rahman (TxDOT MTD)
Concrete Bridge Engineering Institute (CBEI) Update
Greg Hunsicker (Ferguson Lab), Doug Beer (Ferguson Lab) and Seth Cole (Bridge Division C&M Branch Manager)
Introducing the Accelerated Test Bed (ATB) to Accelerate Deployment of Time and Cost Saving Technologies for Roadway Infrastructure
Ryan Barborak (TxDOT MTD), Enad Mahmoud (TxDOT MTD) and Amit Bhasin (CTR)
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Poster Session
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Lunch
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Optional Site Visit
Optional site visit to the Concrete Bridge Engineering Institute (CBEI) and Accelerated Test Bed (ATB) portion of Texas SMARTTrack (Safety Mobility Autonomy Research and Testing Track).
The CBEI tour will include seeing the full-scale bridge deck used in trainings, the concrete component collection which contains full-scale specimens from decommissioned bridges as well as from previous research projects, and a tour of the concrete materials laboratory and outdoor exposure site. The ATB tour will visit the location of the upcoming test bed.