Session No. 6B
Data, Data Everywhere: Getting and Using the Data You Need
In a world where everyone has more data, how can you make sure you are spending effort gathering the right data for your need? This session will focus on selecting and displaying the right data as well as engaging staff and consultants to effectively use data sets obtained by agencies.
Moderator(s): Shannon Warchol, Kittelson & Associates
Speakers
- Rob Watts, P.E., PTOE, AICP, Transportation Engineer, McCormick Taylor
- Lake Trask, Data Scientist, Kittelson & Associates
- Matt Harris, SafeGuard
Bios
Robert Watts is a Project Manager in McCormick Taylor’s Harrisburg/State College office and has more than 22 years of experience in traffic engineering, transportation planning, and travel demand modeling. He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia and a certified planner. He enjoys the challenge of working across the planning and engineering disciplines to discover novel solutions and deliver well-thought out projects. Watts enjoys vacationing at the Delaware beaches with family, leading a high-energy group of Cub Scouts (including his eight-year-old son), and finishing the occasional home improvement project.
Lake Trask’s experience includes analysis, programming, and tool development work on transportation planning and operations projects. He has worked on projects for FHWA and multiple state agencies, where he used his modeling and optimization background to work on system analysis and algorithm development and implementation. Throughout his project work, he has developed a variety of computational tools, including the FREEVAL engine for the 6th edition of the Highway Capacity Manual and extensions for reliability analysis, active traffic demand management, and planning-level work zone analysis. His research and project interests include optimization, modeling, big data analysis, network analysis, and programming. He is proficient in Java, Javascript, Python, PHP, Matlab, and VBA. Trask has a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Davidson College and a doctoral degree in operations research from North Carolina State University.