Western States Forum 2022: Image Gallery
Forum participants pick up their Forum notebooks on the first day of the conference. These personalized notebooks include the presentations, a detailed agenda, and contact information for Forum attendees to facilitate networking after the event.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Participants take a look at equipment and network during the first evening’s social and reception. The Forum is structured to give attendees ample time to network and share ideas.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Forum attendees talk with one another during the Tuesday evening social and reception.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
The Forum facilitates dialogue about rural ITS. In this image, attendees discuss the day’s presentations and events.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Attendees sit down to enjoy a meal, which is provided as part of the Forum experience. Meals are another opportunity for Forum participants to network with each other.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Forum participants talk to one another during a meal. The Forum encourages casual discussions like these, providing a valuable networking opportunity for attendees.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
This year’s Forum was attended by 45 engineering professionals. They represented nine different states, five state departments of transportation, four universities, and the Southwest Research Institute. In the image below, participants are shown listening to a technical presentation.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Presenter Skylar Knickerbocker answers a question from an audience member during his presentation, which addressed the evaluation of road weather messages on dynamic message signs. The Forum encourages interactions like these, which facilitate dialogue about actual project deployments.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Participants listen to and take notes on a presentation. Attendees are each given a binder containing detailed presentation materials.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Troy Torgersen delivers a presentation on UDOT’s implementation of Rural Intersection Conflict Warning Systems, which were deployed to reduce the number of serious crashes at rural intersections. This presentation was an update on the RICWS projects that Troy discussed at the 2019 Forum.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Audience members listen to a technical presentation.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Interstate 5 is a major north-south corridor. In northern California, it is particularly impacted by winter operational and safety issues. Keith Koeppen (Caltrans District 2 Office of ITS Engineering and Support) discussed the chain-control system his office developed jointly with maintenance and operations to improve safety and more effectively manage the corridor when winter restrictions are in place.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Troy Torgersen presents UDOT’s Region Four Variable Speed Limit system, which has been deployed along the I-15 corridor of rural Utah. This year, Troy delivered two detailed presentations on behalf of Utah DOT.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Skylar Knickerbocker delivers a presentation about the evaluation of road weather messages on DMS using roadside pavement sensors.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
LaShonn Ford discussed Nevada DOT’s efforts to move towards a focus on systems management and operations, a strategy known as Transportation Systems Management and Operations, or TSMO.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Sean Campbell (right) recognizes speaker LaShonn Ford (left) on the last day of the Forum.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
In the photo below, Justin Belk gestures at his slides while he and Joshua Hudson (right) deliver a presentation. Forum presentations are meant to be informative and engaging and include ample time for questions and discussion both during and at the end of presentation.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
The Forum encourages presenters to give demonstrations that help facilitate learning and understanding. Here, Justin Belk shows the audience the Pi-Lit technology addressed in his presentation.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Sean Campbell (right) passes the microphone to Jeremiah Pearce (center) after introducing the Forum, welcoming attendees, and reviewing the presentation schedule on Day 1 of the event. Sean (Caltrans DRISI), Jeremiah (Caltrans District 2), and Doug Galarus (left, Montana Tech), along with Leann Koon (not pictured, WTI) make up the Steering Committee which organizes and facilitates the Forum.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
The Forum would not be the quality event it is without the speakers who take the time to develop and present their project work. Forum speakers prepare and submit two drafts before the final version. These drafts are reviewed by the Forum Steering Committee and feedback is provided to the speakers to incorporate into the final presentation. In recognition of their efforts and to say thank you, speakers were given Forum branded padfolios and locally made and Forum branded sweets.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Dan Rossiter delivers a presentation on the use of commodity traffic cameras as a more cost-effective alternative to traditional sensing hardware.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
An audience member discusses a topic with presenter Dan Rossiter.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Charles Price from Caltrans District 2 managed the sound system for this year’s Forum.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
An audience member asks a question during Jeffrey Bickett (left) and Eric MacGill’s (right) presentation. Forum attendees are encouraged to engage with speakers during and after presentations, a unique aspect of the Forum’s mission and format.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Jeffrey Bickett (left) and Eric MacGill (right), from the Nevada DOT, give a presentation on the use of fiber optic sensing in traffic monitoring.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Sean Campbell (center) thanks Forum attendees and presenters for a successful event.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
To maintain the rural perspective and continue to foster transparency and trust with an informal atmosphere, the Wednesday evening dinner and networking session were held at Upper Greenhorn Park in Yreka.
Photo By: Doug Galarus
Sean Campbell, Caltrans DRISI, is one of the founders of the Western States Forum. As project manager, he has helped build the Forum into a premier event for tech transfer among Rural ITS designers, engineers, and maintainers. His guidance and dedicated efforts have been essential to the success of the Forum. This year, in recognition of his years of work on the Forum and its supporting projects, Sean was recognized with a framed collage depicting the Forum since its inception in 2006.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Sean Campbell introduces and thanks Marlene Woodard, the Forum’s event planner. Marlene has helped with the Forum since its inception and her input as a member of the Steering Committee is greatly valued.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Doug Galarus (right) hands Tony Leingang (left), Washington State DOT, a certificate of participation at the end of the Forum. The participant certificates also list the other years which the attendee participated in the Western States Forum. The goal of presenting certificates to all attendees is to recognize attendance and the effort required to attend. The goal is also to distinguish those who have attended the Forum in multiple years and encourage those who were participating for the first time to attend again in the future.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
A statue of a miner outside the Forum’s hotel in Yreka, California acts as a reminder of the town’s historical roots. The small rural community provides the perfect setting for discussion on rural transportation issues and solutions.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
Having equipment on display for demonstration during networking sessions and breaks provides opportunities for participants to get their hands on some of the technologies discussed at the Forum and being deployed in the Western States region. This is an ITS node equipment cabinet used in Caltrans District 2.
Photo By: Jeff Worthington
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