The Cameron Rian Hays Transportation Innovation Conference hosted by George Mason University School of Public Policy (and sponsors), supports innovative and “outside the box” solutions to challenges in transportation. The conference coincides with the Cameron Rian Hays Competition and serves as a platform for spotlighting transportation innovation, particularly as developed by students and young professionals. It considers the complex and diverse challenges and solutions facing transportation initiates in the public and private sectors.
Winner(s), runners-up, and accepted papers, at the discretion of the blue-ribbon panel and the competition committee, will be invited to a conference at the School of Public Policy’s Arlington, Virginia campus. More information will be released as conference details are finalized.
This competition and conference, a memorial tribute, has been made possible through the generosity of the family of Cameron Rian Hays, an “outside the box” thinking Master’s graduate of the George Mason University School of Public Policy.
About the Competition:
Fostering the development and implementation of new ideas is at the heart of the Cameron Rian Hays “Outside the Box” competition. First introduced in 2013, the competition encourages fresh and innovative ideas in transportation policy that push us all to move forward and ultimately, have the ability to affect change in our communities.
Last year’s competition received many exciting and diverse applications, which were whittled down to three finalists, all of whom presented their ideas at the competition conference. The Blue Ribbon Panel included head of the Virginia Department of Transportation Sean Connaughton, the head of the Federal Transit Administration Peter Rogoff and influential venture capitalist Hooks Johnston with Valhalla Partners.
Josie Kressner of Georgia Tech University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering won the top prize in 2013 for her both inventive and practical concept “CTPP and New Data.” Her proposal suggested creating a synthetic data set by combining cell phone and census data to yield household travel surveys that cost less than a tenth than current models. Her original video submission can be seen here: Kressner Submission 2013. Josie won $10,000 for her concept and has since received business offers and used the money and exposure the competition afforded her to develop and refine her idea further: .
The second annual Cameron Rian Hays competition conference will take place this year on June 27th at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus. Final submissions will soon be chosen by this year’s Blue Ribbon Panel. Come to join the conversation and to sneak a peak at our transportation policy future.