Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State graduate engineering student is an award winner for his visual display explaining how natural disasters or terrorist attacks might disrupt the nation's highway transportation system.
Michael A. Hamilton of Louin won first place in the Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi 2006 Winter Scholar Symposium poster competition. He competed against other Mississippi university students in the computer science, mathematics and physics division.
"He designed and conducted a survey to understand general drivers' routing response when the highway infrastructure is disrupted by natural disasters or terrorist attacks," said Hamilton's faculty advisor, Mingzhou Jin, an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering.
The AGEM symposium, held recently in Oxford, is designed to highlight the importance of graduate education, campus diversity and outreach for minority students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Jin said Hamilton, who is pursuing a master's degree in industrial engineering, is a "smart and ambitious" student who has been working in an alternate highway routing project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Last May, Hamilton received his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from MSU's Bagley College of Engineering. He earlier graduated from Jones County Junior College.
Hamilton's poster focused on improving the nation's economy by reconstructing the transportation system. His presentation highlighted the insufficiency of existing transportation tools to keep highway freight and intercity buses flowing in the immediate aftermath of a major natural or man-made disaster.
"The U.S. economy and safety heavily depend on transportation, especially highway transportation," he said. "Keeping freight flowing and passengers moving is critical for the national economy and homeland security.
"This project provides solutions to minimize disruption of freight and passenger flow in the event of terrorist attacks or natural disasters," Hamilton added. "The simulation results demonstrate that alternate route planning significantly improves traffic flow over the simple detours."
AGEM is a consortium comprising Mississippi's four doctorate-granting institutions: MSU, Jackson State University, and universities of Mississippi, and Southern Mississippi.
For more information, contact Julie Lemons at (662) 325-8098 or jlemons@engr.msstate.edu.
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EDITORS: Hamilton, 23, is the son of Dillard and Lucille Hamilton of Louin, which is located in Jasper County just north of Bay Springs.