Outstanding individuals in the Australian road research sector have been honoured at the Inaugural ARRB Gala Dinner and Awards Night, held this past July.
More than 200 guests from across industry and academia attended the event at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, including; Chair of the ARRB Board of Directors Peter Duncan, Director General, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and member of the ARRB Board Neil Scales, VicRoads Deputy Chief Executive Peter Todd, and many more.
Lead Scientist of Victoria Dr. Amanda Caples opened the celebrations as the guest speaker of the night, and was followed by the presentation of the inaugural awards.
The first two awards commemorated achievements through the Australian and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI) and the National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP), based on the Re:act campaign.
The ADVI – State Innovation Award for Victoria recognised Bosch for its progress in the driverless vehicle space within the region.
The NRSPP sponsored award recognised achievements in the Re:act campaign – a collaborative effort between Hard Edge Media and Swinburne University with the support of ARRB, TAC, RACV and Transurban. Re:act is a behavioural change project aimed at increasing awareness among younger people of the dangers on the roads, with this year’s brief revolving around communicating the ‘morning after’ message about whether people should be driving the morning after a night out drinking.
Swinburne University student Lucy Boehme won the prestigious award and led the audience through her campaign, the inspiration behind it and its recent progress.
Following the first two awards, ARRB Awards section of the night began.
The 2017 ARRB Award Winners are:
Knowledge Transfer Commitment Award
– Paul Hillier, National Technical Leader (Incident Investigations & Reviews) at ARRB.
Implementing Agency Applied Research Award (Joint first place)
– Simon Harrison (TMR) for the High Risk Roads process, initiated by TMR.
– Gerhard van Blerk (New Zealand Transport Agency – NZTA) for the ‘Hi-Lab’ construction technique, initiated by NZTA.
New Research Talent (female)
– Melissa Dias, Pavement & Surfacings Engineer at ARRB
New Research Talent (male)
– Arooran Sounthararajah, PhD Candidate at Monash University – Department of Civil Engineering
Research Impact Award
– Professor Graham Currie & Dr. Alexa Delbosc (Monash Institute of Transport Studies) for ‘A Global Shift in Public Transport Revenue Compliance Using Cross Disciplinary Research in engineering, Psychology and Operations’.
Lifetime Research, Development & Implementation Award
Dr. Ahmad Shayan, Chief Research Scientist (Concrete Materials) at ARRB
Nominations for the 2018 Awards are set to open soon. Contact training@arrb.com.au to enquire now.