CTIPS Student of the Year
2024 Recipient
Download High-ResRyan Jones, a Ph.D. student in Transportation and Logistics at North Dakota State University, has been named the 2024 Student of the Year for the Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability (CTIPS). He will be honored with other award winners from across the country during an awards ceremony January 4 in Washington, D.C.
Jones is a third-year Ph.D. student and also a research specialist with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) at NDSU. He received his B.S. degree in mathematics and M.S. in industrial engineering from Kansas State University. Before coming to NDSU, he was an operations analyst for six years with YRC Freight (Now Yellow Corporation).
His Ph.D. research focuses on developing business cases for autonomous trucks in North Dakota and identifying their most likely applications. Understanding the initial applications for autonomous trucks in North Dakota will help trucking companies, industries, governments, the public, and academia prepare for the adoption of autonomous trucks. This study is focused on level 4 autonomous trucks that operate over the road outside of major cities. He expects to earn his Ph.D. by the end of the 2025 fall semester.
Jones, who has published two journal papers focused on autonomous trucking, is the primary student researcher for a UGPTI project funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, "Preparing for Autonomous Trucking in Rural Areas: Impacts on Safety, the Environment, and Economic Development in Rural and Tribal Regions."
Jones was selected for the award based on his accomplishments in technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership. The $1,000 award is part of a nationwide effort to recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in students involved with the U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Centers (UTCs). The CTIPS Outstanding Student of the Year Award annually recognizes an outstanding transportation student at one of the UTC member universities: Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University, United Tribes Technical College, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, University of North Dakota, University of Utah, University of Wyoming, and Utah State University. CTIPS is one of 10 competitive UTCs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.