NAMED SCHOLARSHIPS 1998-99
 

CN SCHOLARSHIP ($4,000)

Mr. St?phane Vachon, Richard Ivery School of Business, Western University, Ph.D.

Stéphane has been admitted to the Richard Ivey School of Business (Western University) to pursue Ph.D. studies. He will conduct research in operations management with an emphasis on logistics function of companies. Stephane is a former member of the National Transportation Practice of KPMG where he acted as a consultant on several transportation and logistics mandates. Prior joining KPMG in 1996, Stéphane was an economist for Group Cartier (Monenco-Agra), an engineering firm and a research assistant at Centre de recherche de développement économique. He has a B.Sc and a M.Sc in Economics from University of Montreal and a Graduate Diploma in Management from McGill.

Stéphane a été admis au programme de Doctorat é l'école de gestion Richard Ivey de l'Université Western. Il va effectuer des recherches en gestion des opérations avec une attention particuliére é la fonction logistique des entreprises. Stéphane est un ancien membre de la Pratique nationale de transport de KPMG o il a agi é titre de conseiller sur plusieurs mandats relevant du transport et de la logistique. Avant de joindre les rang de KPMG en 1996, il était économiste au Groupe Cartier (Monenco-Agra) une firme de génie-conseil et assistant é la recherche au Centre de recherche en développement économique. Il détient un B.Sc et un M.Sc en sciences économiques de l'Université de Montréal et un Dipléme d'études supérieures en Gestion de McGill.
 

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY SCHOLARSHIP ($4000)

Bonnie-Lynn Robertson, MA Economics, Airlines Logistics

Since 1981, I have been employed as a bilingual (English/Spanish) flight attendant with Canadian Airlines International. During this time, I have worked as a union officer, volunteered as a reservation agent, and been based in Lima, Peru, Honolulu, U.S.A. and Auckland, New Zealand.

Before beginning my formal education, I took the Canadian Securities Course and graduated from it with honors. In 1994, I began my undergraduate work at the University of Western Ontario. In 1998, I graduated Dean's honors list with a B.A. in honors economics. Over the last four years, I have taken courses in advanced business accounting, computer science for business, advanced microeconomic theory, mathematics, econometrics, global trade, and labor economics. As the transportation industry is highly unionized, for labor economics, I wrote an empirical research paper analyzing the union / non-union wage differential in Canada. In addition, I wrote a microeconomic policy paper that compared the effect of air transport deregulation in Canada and the United States. My study of the Canadian air transport industry continued in my fourth year undergraduate thesis. This was an independent empirical research paper, the topic of my analysis being the effect of the entrance of low cost carriers on Canadian domestic airfares.

My undergraduate education and my airline experience have fostered an intense interest in transportation, motivating me to undertake further study in this field. I am now pursuing a Master of Science in Business Administration degree at the University of British Columbia. My specialization is transportation and logistics and my advisor is Professor Tae Oum. Special areas of interest are the impact of low cost carriers on Canadian domestic fares, labor productivity, the effect of the North American open-skies agreement on Canadian air carriers, and the impact of global alliances on human resource management and employee relations. The courses that I will be taking include microeconomic theory, mathematics for economists, transportation economics, industrial organization, air transportation, transportation services management, econometrics, business statistics, and visual simulation.

Upon completion of my graduate degree, I plan to work as a transportation analyst. This may be either in the financial sector or in the transportation industry.
 

BOMBARDIER SCHOLARSHIP ($4000)

Alexandre Le Bouthillier, M.Sc. Computer Sciences, University of Montreal

Born in Montreal, Alexandre Le Bouthillier is completing a M.Sc. in computer Sciences at the University of Montreal. His principal field of study is the parallel Vehicle Routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). He hopes to commercialize the utilization of VRPTW and scheduling algorithms for consulting companies.

Attentes professionnelles et intéréts dans le domaine des transports

Les problémes de tournée de véhicules occupent une place entrave dans la gestion de la distribution et ils ont une importance économique majeure. Il est estimé que les entreprises dépensent en moyenne 10% de leurs revenus é des fins de distribution. Quelques études de cas, documentées dans interfaces, démontrent l'importance de la part des revenus consacrée é la distribution: 7,5% chez Dupont (3500 clients); 15% chez Air Products and Chemicals (500 clients); 10,7% chez Kraft (15-200 clients), etc. Du point de vue scientifique, l'étude des problémes de tournée de véhicules a contribué de faéon importante dans les domaines de l'optimisation et de l'algorithmique.

La conception et l'implantation d'un VRPTW en paralléle avec Tabu, serait donc une faéon de résoudre de gros problémes réels et de réduire, selon les estimé, jusqu'é 10% des coéts d'opérations. Le projet est donc une motivation personnelle, puisqu'il sera directement intégré dans une division de mon entreprise, Omega Technologies (Omega Research) et en deviendrait le produit principal. Le projet est d'envergure, mais procédant par étapes logiques avec déterminations et contacts pertinents, il est certainement une réalisation plausible. Puisque l'implantation en entreprise de tels algorithmes, fait appel é des contraintes différentes selon les besoins, il est nécessaire d'avoir une conception logiciel permettant la réutilisation et l'entretien facilement. é cet effet, UML (Unified Modeling Language) sera utilisé pour modéliser le projet et sa partie parralélisation.

Travaillant au CRT (Centre de Recherche sur les Transports) depuis l'été 1994 pour Dr Crainic et Dr Gendron, j'ai su apprécier la satisfaction reliée é l'optimisation de problémes réels. Dans ce cadre, j'ai travaillé et je m'intéresse au Network Design, é l'allocation dynamique et distribuée des fréquence dans les téléphone cellulaires ainsi qu'au VRP.

En ce qui é trait au Network Design é coét fixe et é multicommodité, j'ai participé é la parallélisation d'un tabu avec mémoire adaptative et stratégie dynamique, qui est ce qui ce fait de mieux dans le domaine et qui fournit les meilleurs résultats aux problémes de littératures connus, ce qui sera le sujet de ma présentation é INFORMS98.

L'été dernier, j'ai pu participer é deux conférences en Europe (JFPLC-UNIF97 (Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale d'Orléans (L.I.F.O.) et le MIC (2e conférence sur les métatheuristiques sur la céte d'Azur)). Ce fut une expérience enrichissante de collaboration et d'échange entre chercheur, que j'ai répété en présentant é la conférence Informs, au Queen Elizabeth é Montréal en avril 98.

Je peréois l'avenir informatique oé le réseau est l'ordinateur, en ce sens que la puissance de calcul d'un réseau entier (qui est inutilisé la nuit, par exemple), peut-étre loué et ainsi permettre de résoudre des problémes réels.

Je suis convaincu que l'optimisation des transports en un moyen d'obtenir une saine gestion de nos ressources dans le cadre d'un développement durable qui allie technologie, efficacité et environnement.
 

CANADIAN TRANSPORTATION EDUCATION FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP ($4,000)

Jeff Wood, M.Sc. Engineering, University of New Brunswick

I completed a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering Degree from the University of New Brunswick, graduating in May of 1998. In September 1998 I will start the first year of a two-year program with the Transportation Group at the Fredericton campus of the University of New Brunswick. Here I will obtain a Master's of Science in Engineering with a Transportation and Traffic emphasis. I will be dealing with traditional as well as broader transportation policy and economic viability issues during this program. This is the second step towards a future goal of a possible career in academia after some period of related work experience.

I have gained practical knowledge and experience in the freight transportation business from both the shipper's and carrier's perspectives during part-time employment over the last few years. Also, during the summer of 1998 I was employed with the New Brunswick Department of Transportation in the Policy Branch. Here I was introduced to a variety of current issues in the transportation field involving all of the major transportation modes. Two of the major projects I was involved with were a Study of the Winter Maintenance Program for the provincial road network and the development of a database maintenance system for the province's Heavy Vehicle Inspection/Enforcement Pull-Off Scale Sites.
 

CANADIAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH FORUM PRESIDENT'S SCHOLARSHIP ($4,000)

Jianyong Huang, M.Eng. Transportation Planning, University of McGill

I graduated from Road & Traffic Engineering Department, Tongji University (China) in July 1992 with a Bachelor of Engineering with a major in Traffic Engineering.

From 1992 to 1997, I worked as a transportation planner in Highway Planning & Design Institute (HPDI), Ministry of Communications. In HPDI, my research studies included regional highway network development strategies, transportation policies, traffic engineering and feasibility studies for highway infrastructure.

I began my studies at McGill University in January 1998. I am currently in my first year of M.ENG., Civil Engineering, majoring in Transportation Planning. My research covers the area of relationships among transportation, land use, and environment. It is clear that there is a two-way relationship between land use and transportation; at the same time, transportation is generally known as a major source of air pollution and energy consumption. By modeling the relationships among transportation, land use, and environment, I will attempt to assess to what extent they affect each other and to assess the outcomes of transportation and land use policies.

In the future, I would like to work as a transportation planner in a transportation-based consulting firm or in a local, provincial or federal government.