b'FINDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF TRANSPORTATION LEADERSwill be continually featured on social media, and the final event will be broadcast live via a webcast. The goal is to spark interest in intelligent mobilityprogramsandextendthereachoftheITSWC.Aswithany AT ITS WORLD CONGRESS 2020 program, success must be measured, so we will create a set of metrics to track our achievements based on areas such as internships or jobs secured by students as a result of their participation in the ITSWC. The National Immersion Program will reach out to Americas high school BY BETH KIGEL, VICE PRESIDENT, HNTB CORPORATION students, who would be challenged with a pre-event competition related to intelligent mobility. Up to three teams would be selected to attend the Every year at the ITS World Congress (ITSWC), thousands of thoughtITSWCtoshowcasetheirsolutionandtoexperienceaspecifictrack leadersintransportationcometogethertoshareideas,buildofprogrammingandsessionsjustforthem.Theywouldbeprovided relationships, and get the latest insight into an ever-changing industry.withhigh-energyentrepreneurialCEOpanelsandhands-onactivities One key component is also creating opportunities to identify the nextshowcasing innovative mobility options. This program would also track generation of leaders and build their interest in intelligent mobility as astudents for on-going interest in transportation studies and professions.life-long pursuit. There is widespread recognition that, as an industry, we need to work harder to engage and develop young professionals who willFinally, the Local Awareness Program would open the doors of the ITSWC extend our progress. to a larger body of 1,000 high school students and their teachers from the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. This program would aim to attract The theme for the 2020 ITS World Congress in Los Angeles is The Newstudents from LAs Metro STEM School and the Girls After-School STEM Age of Mobility, which, to the Board of Directors, seemed like the perfectcharter school, as well as other schools around LA. opportunity to challenge ourselves to extend our efforts to reach out to the new age of our workforce. To that end, we created the EmergingThe pre-event competitions at the college and high school levels will take Leaders Program (ELP) with the goal to reach more students in a broaderplace during the 20192020 school year with on-site activities occurring age group and, since its the World Congress, to extend those outreachduring the ITS World Congress in LA, October 48, 2020.efforts globally. Through the use of social media and interest from news media, we can As chair of the Emerging Leaders Program, I want to make sure werespread the word of the accomplishments of these up-and-comers to build also building anticipation for the World Congress, so we created a three- a larger audience for ITSWC while spearheading the formation of a new legged plan that includes a Global Challenge for college students with aclass of transportation leaders. Any interested students and sponsors finals event in Los Angeles (LA), a National Immersion Program for highshould email bkigel@hntb.com. school students, and a Local Awareness Campaign that will attract high school students from across LA to visit the exhibit floor. BETH KIGEL is a board member of the ITS World Congress and vice president of HNTB The Global Challenge is truly something new and unique for 2020. TeamsCorporation in the firms national ITS and Emerging Mobility Solutions practice. She is based in of university students from across the world will be recruited to solvethe firms Miami office. She can be reached at bkigel@hntb.com.a mobility puzzle, perhaps related to the upcoming 2028 Olympics in LA. From this pre-event competition, three teams will be selected from differing geographic regions and brought to LA for a final challenge in a World Championship. To build worldwide interest, the on-site competition 5'