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Throughout his international teaching and consultingcareer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Pro-fessor Richard de Neufville has advanced new profes- sional paradigms and the academic programs that support them. He has guided a shift to an engineering design approach that encompasses the way a system is managed, as well as its physi- cal elements. âThese new paradigms are needed to deal effectively with large-scale technical systemsâwhose engineering design has been profoundly changing since the introduction of comput- ersâin the context of inevitable great uncertainty about the needs the future will bring,â de Neufville observes. De Neufville received bachelorâs and masterâs degrees, as well as a doctorate, from MIT. He served as an Airborne Ranger in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, from 1965 to 1966, as a White House Fellow in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration. Returning to MIT, he became director of the MIT Civil Engi- neering Systems Laboratory in 1970. In 1976, he founded the MIT Technology and Policy Program (TPP), which has become a model for interdisciplinary programs at universities across the globe, including Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. MIT recognized de Neufvilleâs work with TPP with an Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education. âThe TPP recognizes our collective responsibility as techni- cal professionals to prepare cadres of young men and women to interact effectively with the policy-making processes,â he states. âWe need to be sure that those who shape our world will do so with sound understanding of the technological opportunities and consequences.â In the late 1990s, de Neufville was a founding member of the MIT Engineering Systems Division, a multidisciplinary academic group that has become one of the instituteâs largest graduate pro- grams. He has taught in Australia, France, Japan, Portugal, Sin- gapore, and the United Kingdom and currently is a fellow at the University of Tokyo and at Cambridge University. De Neufville serves on the development team for the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a new university implementing a holistic model of engineering education. The school opened in 2012. âSUTD will give priority to a systems approach that creates broadly conceived technical products and designs,â de Neufville explains. âIt is a logical extension of the analytic capabilities we have been developing over the past 50 years.â In 2011, de Neufville authored Flexibility in Engineering Design, the first volume of the Engineering Systems series by MIT Press. The bookâs premise is that rigid or fixed engineering design specifications do not adapt easily to changing market demands, economic conditions, technologies, or regulations; de Neufville maintains that flexibility must be built into systems. He notes that this approach can result in a value up to 30 percent higher than expected from systems designed with fixed specifications. âThe future is necessarily uncertain. Thus, we have a professional obligation to design systems that can easily adapt to actual future conditions,â he explains. De Neufville has consulted on flexibility in design for airports, transportation systems, city infrastructure, car manufacturing, oil platforms, and power distribution. Other research areas include policy and strategic planning for public and industrial enterprises, the technical and economic assessment of large-scale projects, and airport systems planning and design. He has consulted for airports all over the world and has assisted with peer reviews of major airport projects in greater Toronto, Canada; Chicago, Illinois; New England; and Atlanta, Georgia. De Neufville is coauthor of Airport Systems: Planning, Design, and Management, which McGraw-Hill recently released in a sec- ond edition. He also wrote Applied Systems Analysis: Engineering Planning and Technology Management (1990); Airport Systems Planning (1976); Systems Planning and Design: Case Studies in Modeling, Optimization, and Evaluation (1974); and Systems Analysis for Engineers and Managers (1971). Active in TRB committees since 1971, de Neufville was a founding member of the oversight committee of the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP). He served on the Avia- tion System Planning Committee from 1998 to 2008 and is a cur- rent member of the ACRP project panel on Incorporating Uncertainty and Risk into Airport Air Traffic Forecasting. In 2009, he received the TRB Aviation Groupâs Francis X. McKelvey Award in Aviation. âThe best research, in my view, thoughtfully attacks issues that may be transformative in the field,â he comments. âThis kind of research deliberately thinks outside the box and can be the most effective driver of positive change.â Other honors include an honorary doctorate from the Delft University of Technology and the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French government. TR N EW S 28 8 SE PT EM BE Râ O CT O BE R 20 13 48 âThe future is necessarily uncertain. Thus, we have a professional obligation to design systems that can easily adapt to actual future conditions.â Richard de Neufville Massachusetts Institute of Technology P R O F I L E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After graduating from the University of Texas, Austin,with a bachelorâs degree in civil engineering, ElizabethHilton sought a job that would allow her to stay in Austin. She soon joined the Highway Design Division of the Texas Department of Transportation (Texas DOT)âthen the State Department of Highways and Public Transportationâas a roadway design engineer. Although her studies had not focused on transportation, Hilton quickly grew to love trans- portation engineering and public agency work. At Texas DOT, Hilton started out developing plans, specifi- cations, and estimates for projects in Houston and Dallas. She moved to the agencyâs Austin District, overseeing the plans for projects that improved mobility in the growing Austin metro- politan area. She credits her expertise in geometric design to the mentoring of early supervisors such as Harold D. Cooner. Hiltonâs early years at Texas DOT coincided with the indus- try transition from hand-calculating and drafting design details to automated programs such as the Roadway Design System. Command lines and punch cards gave way to early computer graphics stations and, later, to computer-aided design and draft- ing software. By then a registered professional engineer, Hilton served as Director of Field Coordination for Texas DOTâs Design Division for nearly 10 years. She was then recruited to create a new plan development section for the division. Always looking for more efficient ways to develop projects, Hilton worked closely with information systems staff to improve the software products in use at Texas DOT. As Hiltonâs interest in research grew, she became more involved with Texas DOTâs research program and with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). She managed several large research projects funded by Texas DOT, including one that calibrated the models in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officialsâ (AASHTOâs) Highway Safety Manual for use in Texas, and devel- oped tools to simplify the use of these models in project devel- opment. She also served on several panels for NCHRP research and synthesis projects. âWeâre fortunate to have an outstanding community of researchers in the transportation field,â Hilton observes. âThe hardest part is getting practitioners to use completed research to improve on what they are already doing. TRB committees have a great opportunity to work with their partners at AASHTO to make sure good research products get imple- mented.â After retiring from Texas DOT in 2009, Hilton joined the Texas Division of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as area engineer and bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. She soon joined FHWAâs Design Discipline Steering Committee and provides training on compliance with the Americans with Dis- abilities Act of 1990 (ADA). âFHWA is a great place to work,â Hilton comments. âThe agency sup- ports its staff and is flexible enough to utilize everyoneâs talents to the great- est extent possible.â In 1991, Hilton joined the TRB Geometric Design Committee, com- bining an interest in research and geo- metric design with a desire to improve the state of the practice. When Com- mittee Chair Daniel B. Fambro died suddenly in 1999, Hilton was asked to chair the committee, with transition assistance from past chair John M. Mason, Jr. âWe were in the midst of paper reviews for the Annual Meeting, and I thought TRB just needed me to step in on an interim basis since my office was relatively close to Dr. Fambro in College Station. I was surprised when TRB offered me the chair appointment the following year,â Hilton recalls. She served as chair until 2006 and headed up the TRB Design Section until 2012. Hilton also served on the Task Force for the Development of a Highway Safety Manual during its developmental period and through the publication of the first edition. Reflecting on her 22-year involvement with TRB, Hilton notes, âIt has been an amazing experience to work with the dedicated professionals who volunteer their time and effort to improve our profession. The relationships I have developed with other transportation professionals have been invaluable to my personal growth and my career.â Hilton also worked with FHWA to develop the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model and, in the early 2000s, repre- sented Texas DOT on the U.S. Access Boardâs Public Rights-of- Way Access Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. In 2008, Hilton received the Gibb Gilchrist Award from Texas DOT for outstanding service in highway engineering. TR N EW S 288 SEPTEM BERâO CTO BER 2013 49 âTRB committees have a great opportunity to work with their partners at AASHTO to make sure good research products get implemented.â Elizabeth Hilton Federal Highway Administration P R O F I L E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .