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About the Forum

The Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum is an annual event where implementers of ITS technologies have the opportunity to share technical information on best practices and field deployment experiences with fellow practitioners from across the western United States. Forum attendees include professionals with hands-on involvement in ITS design and engineering, communications system development, systems integration, and field maintenance. The Forum consists of five to six highly interactive technical presentations, ranging in length from 1 to 2 hours each, in-depth equipment demonstrations, and numerous opportunities for networking with peers. The goal of the Forum is to provide for a high-quality exchange of technical information that can help to support better ITS deployment in rural areas.

The Western States Forum is sponsored by the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium. With this support, registration and participation costs have been subsidized to make it easier for people to attend.

Topic Areas

We are looking for speakers who will give presentations or demonstrations regarding actual projects and applications (not research or proposed projects), with a highly technical level of content and transparency regarding what works and what does not. Participation is highly encouraged from speakers who can discuss and/or demonstrate a project implemented or improved because of participation in a past Forum. Speakers are asked to prepare PowerPoint slides to guide their presentation and are encouraged to bring system components for attendees to examine, or use live demonstrations to provide a more interactive presentation. Demonstrations should have equipment on site and be fully functional with enough documentation to clearly explain what is being shown.

We welcome presentations or demonstrations on a variety of topic areas related to ITS design and engineering in rural areas, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Design, engineering and installation of rural ITS field applications, such as warning and safety systems
• Design, installation, calibration and evaluation of roadside traffic detection equipment (loop or non-intrusive)
• Applications of microwave, radio, cellular, and/or 802.11 WiFi communications
• Custom ITS application development
• Innovative applications of commercial ITS applications
• Lessons learned with application and development of standards and specifications (e.g., NTCIP, DOT specifications)

To get a sense of the breadth of topics and depth of the presentations covered at the Forum, review a full list of presentations from previous Forums on the Past Forums Page.

Download the 2025 Call for Abstracts (pdf) here.

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Submission Instructions

If you have a topic which you would like to present at the Forum, please e-mail the following information to leann.koon "at" montana.edu by Friday, January 17, 2025:

• Presenter’s Name, Title and Organizational Affiliation
• Presenter’s Contact Information (mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number)
• Presentation Title
• Abstract (150-200 words about what your presentation or demonstration would cover)

If your abstract is selected for presentation, your travel and lodging costs to attend the Forum will be covered.

The deadline for abstract submission is Friday, January 17, 2025.

For more information, please contact Leann Koon at the Western Transportation Institute
Email: leann.koon "at" montana.edu; Phone: (406) 994-7643