The Board of Directors of CTRF is pleased to announce the five scholarship winners that are being awarded scholarships for the 2008-2009 academic year. 

CTRF wishes to thank once again the  sponsors for the current scholarship program, namely Transport Canada, CN, Canadian Pacific Railway,  Government of Quebec, and many other personal donations.

Scholarship Competitions 2008 - 2009

- Award Winners -

Transport Canada Scholarship in Sustainable Transportation ($4000)
 

Muhammad Ahsanul Habib, University of Toronto

Muhammad Ahsanul Habib is a PhD Candidate in the field of Transportation Engineering and Planning at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto. He received Bachelor and Master Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). His multidisciplinary academic background allows him to explore innovative methods to understand complex transportation-land use interactions. For his PhD research, he is investigating advanced disaggregate econometric modeling techniques to implement residential location choice module within microsimulation-based Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environment (ILUTE) modeling system for the Greater Toronto Area. He has a wide research experience on residential mobility, location modeling, real estate market, application of discrete choice techniques, duration analysis, hedonic pricing etc. His areas of interest also include transportation planning and policy analysis, freight demand modeling, smart growth, urban redevelopment and microsimulation of urban systems. He regularly contributes to the state-of-art integrated urban modeling literature by publishing papers and presenting his research results at international conferences.

 Muhammad is an elected member of the Faculty Council for the period 2007-2008 and serves as a GSI Ambassador and CUPE steward since 2006. He was a countrywide renowned debater and won various awards in national competitions during his undergraduate years. He has won four professional awards during his graduate studies including CTRF, TAC Foundation and CITE Dr. Michel Van Aerde Memorial Scholarship. He received Dr. Rashid Gold Medal for the best performance among all the Master Degree recipients at BUET in the year 2004. His career goal is to work either in academia or transportation consulting firm, and demonstrate leadership in advancing integrated transportation-land use models.

Transport Canada Scholarship in Sustainable Transportation ($4000)

Dominik Papinski, McMaster University

Dominik Papinski is currently studying at McMaster University in the field of transportation geography, focusing specifically on route choice analysis.  He is working on data collection, route choice analysis and modeling.  The research is based on data collected using GPS and traditional survey methods. 

Dominik would like to address the critical issues dealing with transportation.  This involves investigating issues on how people plan and select routes, as well as, how the underlying transportation network impacts route choice.  After obtaining a PhD degree in geography Dominik plans to continue in academia.  He plans to continue teaching and making valuable contributions through presentations and publishing peer-reviewed journals.

Transport Canada Scholarship in Sustainable Transportation ($4000)
 

Matthew Lee,  University of Waterloo

Matthew Lee is a Master’s candidate in the School of Planning at University of Waterloo. His research interests lie in the field of transportation planning, specifically in transit infrastructure financing. He completed his Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree in Planning at the University of Waterloo, with a specialization in Land Development Planning. During his undergraduate studies, his employment with the Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the Toronto Transit Commission sparked his interest to examine ways to accelerate transit infrastructure investment, given the cash-strapped nature of today’s public sector. Specifically, he explored a variety of alternative financing options used in other jurisdictions, namely in the United States, for the purpose of speeding the delivery of transit capital projects. 

During Matthew’s first year of graduate school, he assessed the merits of Value Capture Financing in facilitating transit infrastructure investment within the Ontario context.  Moving forward, he intends to refine his research by examining historic trends in residential land value as a result of transportation investment in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  Through the use of GTA housing sales data, he will compare the changes in residential land values in areas surrounding key road and transit investment with the areas outside of these investment areas.  Matthew will control for other variables affecting land values that are external to transportation.  He hopes this study will provide planners and policy-makers greater knowledge related to the direct economic benefits of transportation investment.

Dr. Jeff Casello will continue to guide his scholarly efforts.

In the future, Matthew hopes to become a transportation planner, particularly focusing matters related to infrastructure financing, transit-oriented development, and transit service planning.

Canadian Pacific Railway Scholarship ($4000)

Stephanie Sodero, University of Oxford

Stephanie has five years of experience as a transportation project and policy coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre, an organization that aims to build a healthier, more sustainable Nova Scotia. Stephanie has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Dalhousie University. Her research focused on sustainable urban transportation with a focus on university transit pass programs. She is currently working on her doctorate in transportation planning at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include transit funding and carbon pricing.

CN Scholarship ($4000)

Marie-Lyne Doré, Ecole de technologie supérieure
 

Biographie Marie-Lyne Doré Bourse CTRF
 

Marie-Lyne Doré a obtenu un baccalauréat en ingénierie de l’école Polytechnique de
Montréal en 2006 et a poursuivi ses études au deuxiéme cycle. Elle compléte actuellement
son programme de maétrise en ingénierie é l’école de Technologie Supérieure de Montréal.
Elle a débuté son projet de maétrise qui consiste é analyser la gestion du risque dans un
projet autoroutier en partenariat public / privé et de présenter la sécurité et la séreté des
transports lors de la conception d'un projet autoroutier ainsi que le respect des normes de
conception du MTQ en ce qui attrait é la géométrie et aux risques présents au niveau de la
sécurité des transports. Le projet autoroutier é analyser devait étre celui de l’autoroute 30,
mais pour des questions de confidentialité, le projet ne peut étre utilisé comme fin de
référence. De ce fait, le projet choisi est alors celui du complexe Turcot, un projet sur lequel Madame Doré travaille depuis quelques mois. Son directeur de projet est Monsieur Edmond Miresco, ing. M. ing., PhD. Elle prévoit terminer sa maétrise au trimestre d’été 2009.
Madame Doré envisage de poursuivre ses études au doctorat étant donné le fort intérét
qu’elle porte pour le domaine des transports et elle désirerait approfondir ses connaissances en étudiant davantage un sujet précis tel que la gestion et l’entretien des autoroutes. Si elle ne poursuit pas au doctorat, Mme Doré souhaite grandement faire une maétrise en administration des affaires pour cadre. (MBA)

Mme Doré a joint l’équipe de CIMA+ é titre d'ingénieure junior en décembre 2006. Elle a
aussi agit é titre de surveillante de chantier et stagiaire sur divers projets durant les étés
2003 é 2006. é ce jour, elle travaille pour le département de génie routier comme ingénieure de projets. Responsable de la conception et de la mise en plan des ouvrages d’ingénierie, Mme Doré maétrise bien les logiciels Autocads et InRoads ainsi que plusieurs autres dont ceux de planification tels que Ms Project et Primavera ainsi que Chaussée 2 pour la conception routiére et SWMM 5 pour le drainage. Elle a acquis une bonne expérience dans la planification des coéts et des échéanciers gréce aux différents cours de gestion de projet suivis dans le cadre de sa maétrise.
 

Elle posséde également une bonne expérience dans les domaines de gestion de
l’exploitation, de l’entretien et de la construction des autoroutes et dans le domaine de
conception des différents types de pavage selon les méthodes de conception appliquées en Amérique du Nord (chaussées souples, chaussées rigides, chaussées en béton compacté au rouleau). Elle posséde plusieurs qualités dont un bon leadership, un bon esprit d’équipe, autonome, facilité é communiquer, capacité d’adaptation et de travailler sous pression. Son engagement, sa détermination, sa capacité d’exécution, son organisation ainsi que sa capacité é prendre des décisions rapides et éclairées la qualifient comme une excellente ingénieure.

Dans le cadre de son travail, elle a su démontrer sa polyvalence en réalisant de la
surveillance des travaux en chantier, des études de géométrie routiére, de la conception de
services municipaux, la préparation d’estimation de coéts, de plans et devis, etc. Elle
posséde une bonne expertise technique malgré son jeune ége et réussit tout aussi bien é
faire de la gestion que de la technique. Elle est trés soucieuse des contréles et des résultats et comprend les enjeux des projets qui lui sont confiés.
Elle deviendra éventuellement chargée de projet en génie routier. De ce fait, elle dirigera
plusieurs personnes travaillant sur différents projets autoroutiers de grande envergure. Elle
aspire bien évidemment devenir associée de la société d’ingénierie CIMA+. Elle a su bien
s’encadrer de gens compétents afin de parfaire ses connaissances.