Category: News

The second annual meeting for the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) was held on Tuesday 12 August 2025 at the University of Notre Dame. Attendees took the time to review accomplishments from year one, receive an update from each of the CoE Principal Investigators including highlights from the prior year and plans for next year, listen to student poster rehearsals, finalize plans for the AREMA conference and discuss a funding reauthorization update. Approximately 30 members attended the meeting either in person or remotely.

The NURail CoE annual meeting was held in conjunction with the Midwest Rail Conference (MRC) which was held on 12-14 August 2025. The theme of the conference was “Railroads 200 Years – Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future”. Wednesday 13 August 2025 consisted of a full day of educational and breakout sessions while Thursday was reserved for field visits including Elkhart Yard and Shipper visits, South Bend Grade Separations and Airport Passenger Rail Station Relocation.

MRC brought together industry leaders, advocacy groups, academia and state organizations to discuss key issues shaping the region’s extensive rail network. Covering freight and passenger rail across states like Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, the conference explored a diverse range of topics, mixing speakers across stakeholder groups.

NURail CoE was a Presenting Sponsor at the Principles of Wheel/Rail Interaction course which preceded the 2025 Wheel Rail Interaction (WRI) Heavy Haul (HH) conference on 10-12 June in Kansas City, MO. J. Riley Edwards, NURail CoE consortium member from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, presented a session on “Track Structures and Components” during the course. This course was an intensive, full-day class providing an in-depth examination of the primary aspects of wheel/rail and vehicle/track interactions.

During the heavy haul portion of the conference, C. Tyler Dick, consortium member from the University of Texas at Austin, presented a session on the “Future of Heavy Haul Railways at the Nexus of Train Control, Energy and Automation”.

Also, a NURail CoE booth was set up in the exhibit hall where members manning the booth could educate conference attendees about NURail CoE and its mission.

The WRI HH conference is specifically tailored for the heavy haul (freight) sector, focusing on the unique challenges and advancements in the railroad industry. It is devoted to examining wheel/rail and vehicle/track interaction on light rail and subway operations. Since 1994, Wheel Rail Seminars (WRS) has produced WRI and over many years the conference has become synonymous with high quality, practical presentations and the very best in networking.

WRI HH 2026 will be in Dallas, TX on 22-24 April 2026.

The March edition of Railway Track and Structures (RT&S) magazine features the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) in Editor-in-Chief David Lester’s monthly editorial.  In the column, Lester discusses education as a major focus for RT&S and their recent partnership with the Wheel-Rail Interaction Heavy Haul conference. This conference, to be held on June 10-12, 2025 in Kansas City, MO, begins with the Principles Course for which NURail CoE is the Presenting Sponsor. To read Lester’s column and more about NURail CoE, click here.

The National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) was well represented at the 104th Annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, D.C. on 5-9 January 2025.

NURail CoE partners from University of Delaware, Kansas State University, Michigan Technological University, Morgan State University, Rutgers University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as well as Center partners from Illinois Department of Transportation, Michigan Department of Transportation, and NJ Transit participated with presentations, in lectern and poster sessions, and on committees.

In total there were nearly 70 separate references involving NURail CoE universities and organization partners covering rail, freight transportation, and public transportation, including 15 authors who are NURail CoE PIs or researchers, one workshop chair, six session chairs, one committee meeting chair, and one discussion panelist.

NURail CoE university partners University of Texas at Austin and Rutgers were recognized by the TRB Committee on Transportation of Hazardous Materials (AT040) with an Outstanding Paper Award for an article published in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. The article, “Quantifying the Influence of Tank Car Position and Train Configuration on Risk of Rail Transport of Class 3 Flammable Liquids,” was written by Di Kang (State University of New Jersey), Jiaxi Zhao (UT-Austin), C. Tyler Dick (UT-Austin), Xiang Liu (State University of New Jersey), Chen-Yu Lin (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University), Zheyong Bian (University of Houston), and Steven Kirkpatrick (Applied Research Associates, Inc.).

During TRB 2025, Cambridge Systematics presented the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) New Faculty Award to NURail CoE Principal Investigator Tyler Dick. Every year since 2003, Cambridge Systematics has recognized a tenure-track faculty member in transportation education who has made outstanding teaching and research contributions to the transportation field. Tyler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT-Austin, he lectures on railway design and operations topics and supervises a team of graduate students engaged in research on railway operations, capacity, and alternative energy topics for a range of Class I railroad, agency, and rail industry supplier sponsors. Before joining UT-Austin in 2022, Tyler spent 10 years as Research Associate Professor, Lecturer, and Principal Research Engineer at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The TRB Annual Meeting brings together transportation research professionals from around the world and is the largest global gathering of transportation professionals and researchers with a focus on innovative solutions for all modes of transportation. The thousands of transportation administrators, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who attended the conference participated in more than 3,000-plus presentations in 350-plus sessions; 350-plus meetings organized by TRB standing committees; curated programs; and three days of exhibits, showcasing transportation-related products and services.

The 2026 TRB Annual Meeting will be held 11-15 January 2026 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C.

Over 750 students, faculty and industry professionals (both in person and online) attended the six William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminars throughout the Fall 2024 semester. These seminars were sponsored by the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) and the University of Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC). 

The initial presentation of the seminar series was given on 30 August by Illinois RailTEC alumni Dr. Chen-Yu Lin.  Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Transportation and Logistics Management at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and he presented on “Adapting to Future Climate for Railway Systems”. Other speaker highlights from the semester included Michael Iden, Mike Cleary, Joe Szabo and Tyler Dick. Click here for a list of the presenters and their presentation titles. 

The Fall series wrapped up on 06 December with Paul Vilter and Peter Swan and their discussion on “Long Freight Trains: Ensuring Safe Operations, Mitigating Adverse Impacts”. Their presentation, as well as a recording of each of the individual presentations for the semester, can be found on the William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar page or on the RailTEC YouTube channel. A big thank you to all the speakers who shared their time and knowledge this semester.

Stay tuned for more Hay Seminars during the Spring 2025 semester where another exciting semester is planned.

The University of Delaware, one of the nine university partners in the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE), a federally funded consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, hosted the Big Data Conference on December 11-12, in Newark, Delaware.

Approximately 160 guests — which included representatives from the Federal Railroad Administration, US Department of Transportation, most Class I railroads, suppliers and academics — attended this year’s conference which introduced new and emerging analysis techniques and how those methods can be applied to the large volume of inspection and operational data collected by railways to improve maintenance programs.

Three NURail CoE partners presented research during the conference, including the University of Delaware, Rutgers University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Piero Caputo, Jeremiah Dzeble, and Monique Head, all of the University of Delaware, presented their research on “Multipoint Vision-based Wayside Monitoring to Estimate Track Moduli.” Joseph Palese, a research assistant professor at the University of Delaware, joined Abel Ayele of Amtrak to present research on “Assessment of Railway Track Geometry Condition Using Advanced Machine Learning Techniques.”

Asim Zaman, a project engineer at Rutgers University, presented his research on “Artificial Intelligence Aided Stopped on Tracks Analysis: A Case Study on the Effects of Dynamic Envelope Pavement Markings.”

Arthur Lima, a UIUC senior research engineer, presented his research on “Cross-Correlation-Based Railway Change Detection: A Novel Approach for Maintenance Detection.” UIUC Graduate Research Assistants Augusto Ramos, Gustavo Ramos, Panshul Jindal, and Yash Kakde assisted with the research. J. Riley Edwards, senior associate director of NURail CoE, also was in attendance at the conference which focuses on the specific needs of railways and the practical application of data analytics to both infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance planning.

National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) partner Professor Allan Zarembski from the University of Delaware (UD) recently received a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) grant for $14.5 million through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program. UD’s plan includes funding for projects that develop safety programs, workforce development and training. While UD will be the lead institute for the project, two other NURail CoE partners, Morgan State University and Michigan Technological University, are partnering with UD on this award.

According to the CRISI Program Project Summaries document UD’s plan was selected for Workforce Development and includes activities at the High Tonnage Loop (HTL) Center at the Transportation Technology Center to educate the next generation of railroad technical professionals through technical training, experiential learning opportunities, and data sharing. The proposed project qualifies for the statutory set-aside for workforce development and training, and for projects in Rural Areas.

For additional information, you can read the Progressive Railroading article here. For the complete FY 2023-2024 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program: Project Summaries click here.

Dr. Quang Tran, an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University (MTU) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumni, visited with RailTEC students Neeraj Thakur, Coleman Froehlke and Alex Roskov and Assistant Professor J. Riley Edwards this week on UIUC’s campus. The group discussed shared research interests, and Tran also presented the research work his team at MTU is conducting. MTU is one of nine universities that comprise the National University Rail Center of Excellence led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the first academic research and education center to be supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration.   

Representatives from three National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) partner universities presented research at the 2024 Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC), including Michigan Technological University (MTU), Morgan State University (MSU), and University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). The 26th RREC was a two-day event on 29-30 October at the I-Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL. NURail CoE also had a booth in the exhibit hall.

Approximately 400 guests, including representatives from the Federal Railroad Administration, federal government agencies, Class I railroads, suppliers, and academics, had the opportunity to hear more than 60 different spoken and poster presentations. Six of these presentations were given by NURail CoE, a federally funded nine-university consortium led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign:

• Research assistant Amir Tajik, assistant professor Yousef Darestani, graduate research assistant Saeed Sohrabi and Associate Dean and Professor Pasi Lautala, all from MTU, joined William Pringle, a coastal ocean and earth scientist at Argonne National Lab, to present their research on “Coastal Railroads Damage Estimation and Mitigation Subjected to Storm-induced Inundation, Surge, and Wave.”
• MTU’s Professor Lautala and research engineers Zachary Stanchina and Jeremy Worm presented “Evaluation of Alternative Methods of Reducing Emissions in Non-Tier Locomotives.”
• “Equity at the Crossroads: Examining Demographic Disparities in Hazardous Material Transport via Railways” was presented by MSU student Nicole Anderson and Robert Starin, who are both with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
• Assistant Professor Tyler Dick and Rydell Walthall, both of UT Austin, joined James Blaze of the Railroad Economist, and Michael Iden of Tier 5 Locomotive LLC to present “Cost and Benefit Risk Framework for Modern Railway Electrification Options.”
• UT Austin’s Assistant Professor Dick along with Jason Lustbader and Chad Baker of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Garrett Anderson and Steven Fritz of Southwest Research Institute presented their work “Maximizing Battery Electric Locomotive Decarbonization Potential with ALTRIOS: Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System.”
• Two NURail CoE partners – UT Austin and MTU – presented their research “Parameterized Life Cycle Information Models and Sensitivity Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Emissions of Railway Track Maintenance Activities.” Researchers were MTU PhD candidate Mohammad Taeb and Associate Dean and Professor Lautala and UT Austin’s Assistant Professor Dick.

RREC featured two women keynote speakers. The conference speaker was Dr. Lee Kindberg, Maersk (retired). The title of her address was “Agility and Decarbonization – Nothing Is Certain Except Change.” Janet Drysdale, CN Railway Senior Vice President and Chief Stakeholder Relations Officer, was keynote speaker for the AREMA Committee 13 Banquet.

During the conference, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) honored four railroaders for their commitment to sustainability and advancing the industry’s environmental efforts. The 2024 John H. Chafee Award for Environmental Excellence went to Union Pacific’s Jason Fox, the Environmental Excellence Award to Canadian National’s Reid Bodley, and the Career Achievement Award to both Canadian National’s Seble Afework and CPKC’s LeeAnn Thomas. These are the highest honors for environmental professionals in the railroad industry and are presented annually at RREC. Detailed information on these awards and their winners were featured in Railway Age, Progressive Railroading, and on the AAR website.