Development of interdisciplinary undergraduate railroad engineering course and rail program Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Final reportPDFTech ReportNURail2012-RHIT-E01DTRT12-G-UTC18College studentsCurriculaEducationEngineering societiesRailroad engineeringTransportation careersUnited StatesNational University Rail Center (NURail)McKinney, James L.Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Department of Civil EngineeringNational University Rail Center (NURail)United States. Dept. of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and TechnologyUniversity Transportation Centers Program (U.S.)US Transportation CollectionProfessor James McKinney was a participant in the AREMA 2008 Railroad Engineering Education Symposium (REES) held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as the AREMA 2010 REES held at the Johnson County Community College/BNSF's Training Facility in Overland Park, Kansas. Materials and information garnered from the Symposiums was incorporated in CE 481 Transportation Engineering, an undergraduate introductory transportation course for civil engineering students. The 10 week course was offered in the spring quarter of 2010, 2011, and 2012, and contained two weeks of railroad engineering. As a result of the collaboration with the National University Rail Center (NURail) railroad engineering has been greatly expanded on the Rose-Hulman campus. A new multi-discipline railroad engineering course was developed and vetted by Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering faculty. An active AREMA student chapter was organized and conducts a technical meeting each month, as well as a site visit each month. The Indiana Rail Road has been an active participant in railroad engineering on the Rose-Hulman campus sponsoring activities to introduce engineering students to railroad activities, operations and potential career paths