2020 University of Canterbury Webinar

This event was held on 19 November 2020.

UC-TRANSPORT held a “Transportation Webinar” online event to offer some insights about the rewards and challenges associated with a career in the Transportation Engineering sector, accompanied by a talk on “Connected Vehicles Technology”.  This event aimed to benefit students in considering Transport Engineering as a career path-way and promote interest in ITE and the UC Chapter.  The event was supported by the ITE-ANZ.

We heard presentations from two speakers from different transport consulting firms operating in New Zealand and the USA, who shared their experiences working in this sector.

  • John Lieswyn, PTP, MET, BSc, Director, Senior Transport Planner, ViaStrada Ltd
    Presentation – “Transport Planning and Design”
  • Hassen Alwalie, MScEng, ITS Project Manager – Connected Vehicles, Danlaw Inc.
    Presentation – “Connected Vehicles and ITS Engineers”

The presentations helped answer the following questions:

  • Why consider Transportation Engineering as a profession?
  • What kind of projects will you need to undertake as a Transport Engineer/Planner?
  • What kind of tasks will be involved in your role as a Transport Engineer?

While numbers were not huge, the webinar was very successful.  It was interesting and interactive, and the team received lots of positive feedback.

For those unable to attend, here is a YouTube link: UC Chapter Transportation Webinar 19 Nov 2020

Speaker biographies

John Lieswyn, PTP, MET, BSc
Director, Senior Transport Planner, ViaStrada Ltd
Member, Institute of Transportation Engineers
ITE-Certified Professional

John has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, a Masters of Engineering in Transport (MET) from the University of Canterbury, and is an Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) certified Professional Transportation Planner (PTP).

John is a former USA national road cycling champion who now plans and designs streets for all transport modes, ages and abilities.  John prepares master plans, business cases, and undertakes a variety of transportation research.  He has extensive experience in automatic data collection, demand estimation and level of traffic stress modelling.  Since 2016, John has curated the website of the New Zealand Travel Planners group with 24 members representing 14 local authorities, collating resources for school and workplace travel planning.  He is active in the Engineering NZ Transportation Group.

Hassen Alwalie, MScEng
ITS Project Manager – Connected Vehicles
Danlaw Inc.

Hassen is an ITS Project Manager with Danlaw, a global technology company specialising in connected vehicle solutions.  He joined the company in 2019, bringing an extensive background in ITS and Traffic engineering along with a Master’s degree in Transportation and Highways systems from Wayne State University in Michigan, USA.  Hassen has hands-on experience conducting data-driven analyses, developing traffic signal timings, and programming traffic signal pre-emption from both Traffic and v2x perspectives.  He hopes to drive the smart mobility revolution by bridging the gap between traffic operations and connected vehicle solutions.