Meet with AASHTO RAC and TRB State Reps this Summer?

AASHTO Research Advisory Committee (RAC) and the TRB state representatives plan to meet in Orlando July 20-24, 2009. The T2 Committee would be able to tag onto the end of that meeting. What do you think? Respond to the poll to the left. Thanks.

Our recent committee meeting

I just wanted to share some of my observations and ideas about our recent committee meeting at the TRB Annual Meeting (minutes have been posted on the committee’s wiki). I am naturally cynical about life but even I got my enthusiasm on by the energy displayed at the committee meeting. (And, the next week’s celebration of democracy also helped.)

For this blog, I’d like to mention some of the reasons for the decrease in my ADC (average daily cynicism). So, let’s get started.

• Leap Not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation is a two-day course sponsored by FHWA’s National Highway Institute. Its origins harken back to discussions around the T2 Committee campfire about a T2 Toolbox, which would create a T2 implementation plan for anyone. I felt that the toolbox lacked one component – training the user in the tools and techniques specified in the plan. Committee member Laura Melendy did a great job of representing the committee on the course’s steering group, adding her “in the trenches” experience to the effort. Kathleen Bergeron of FHWA’s Highways for LIFE also added her expertise and coordination. My ADC levels were lowered when Laura and Kathleen both noted during our “definition of T2” discussion that their group had also dealt with these issues. Sounds like we’re on the same pages. Now that we’re starting to see some courses on technology transfer, the next step may be a certificate program in technology transfer. My ADC levels would really go down if that happened!

• The sharing of best practices also affected my ADC levels. It was great to hear about the National Transportation Training Resources (NTTR) database, New Jersey DOT Research Implementation Studies, and Road Safety Assessments. We hope to have some guest bloggers add more detail about the process of developing their best practices as well new ones. We will also post the presentation on the wiki. If you want to decrease your own ADC levels and share a best practice, let me know.

• Also, another way to decrease your own ADC levels is to get involved with the committee. The committee is due for member rotation this year, so if friends are interested in membership please contact the co-chairs. We’re also seeking volunteers to plan annual meeting sessions, update the committee’s wiki and report on news in technology transfer in the committee’s blog. We’ve already gotten some new members and friends involved in the strategic planning process being spearheaded by co-chair Larry Orcutt.

International Perspectives on Technology Transfer session

If you missed the Sunday sessions sponsored by the T2 Committee and the International Affairs Committee you missed an technology transfer treat.
Organizer John Munro, FHWA brought together T2 experts who exhibited wide ranging perspectives, by mode, country and technology transfer perspective.
Some immediate takeaways included:

• Some in transportation call their strategic plans “road maps,” but the FAA calls theirs “flight plans.”
• FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center certainly looks “outside the box” with plans for an office park near their headquarters, which will enable close collaboration with potential partners.
• The best way to cooperate is to determine the most important needs.
• Critics have an important role in technology transfer efforts.
• We need to find and use ways to make technology transfer collaborative efforts legal.
• We also need a variety of agreements to accomplish technology transfer.
• Although all countries have similar needs, local applications of global knowledge is necessary.

Thanks to John and co-organizer Nelda Bravo for a thought provoking session. --- Lisa Haakon Pogue

T2 Committee's got a brand new (almost) blog

This is the new TRB T2 Committee blog, which will replace the newsletter I usually send out several times a year. It will serve many of the same purposes – to inform the members and friends of the committee what TRB and the committee are doing, share news about members and friends, and share news of new T2 methods, technologies and best practices. Hopefully, it will also provoke some new thinking and allow members and friends to share their experiences doing technology transfer.

When preparing this (almost) first blog for the T2 Committee, I noticed that my first posting was in 2006. Then blogs weren’t as popular or sometimes as respected as they are now. There are now corporate, well funded, and even governmental blogs now, in addition to the same old blogs concerned with political rantings and pictures of people’s cats.


We have a great agenda for this year’s annual meeting - Monday, January 12, 2009, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Hilton, Caucus room. Co-chair Larry Orcutt will share his master’s degree paper on “Overcoming Roadblocks Facing the Implementation of Innovations: Three Case Studies at Caltrans.” We’ll also hear an update on the National Highway Institute technology transfer course, “Leap Not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation,” from Kathleen Bergeron. And, we’ll discuss the committee’s future when Larry leads our session on strategic planning. And, there’s more! Several members and friends will share their “best practices” with us.

We’re also looking for some guest bloggers for this blog, so if you have a new idea, have used (successfully or not) a new technique, or just have something to get off your chest about technology transfer, let us know.
See you at TRB --- Lisa Haakon Pogue, co-chair