Civil & Environmental Engineering graduate student Alexander Bernier, who is advised by Dr. Adam Zofka, was recently honored by the Transportation & Development Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). As an undergraduate research assistant working in Dr. Zofka’s laboratory, Alex authored a scholarly paper, entitled “Friction Modeling Based on Long Term Pavement Performance Data,” for the Eleventh International Contest on LTPP (Long Term Pavement Performance) Data Analysis. Alex took second place in the undergraduate paper competition and received his award in Washington, DC in late January.

According to Dr. Zofka, LTPP was established in 1987 and is administered by the FHWA. “The LTPP studies are scientifically designed field experiments on more than 2,500 sections of in-service highways in the U.S. and Canada. The annual international research contest on the LTPP data analysis attracts a lot of attention nationally and worldwide, and we are very proud that Alex won the second place in the undergraduate category.”

In his paper, Alex describes work aimed at predicting friction levels on road surfaces over time, given different parameters provided from the LTPP database, such as weather, traffic, type of aggregate and the like. “A model such as this can be used to help identify potentially dangerous sections of roadway in need of maintenance based on past performance of similar roads,” he noted.