The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Transportation Workforce Development

This article is a collaboration between Eric Rensel (President of Rensel Consulting, LLC and 2024 International ITE Vice President Candidate) and Todd Szymkowski, PE, PTOE, PMP with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and ITE Member. It includes interviews with the Iowa Department of Transportation Director, Mr. Scott Marler, as well as ITE Member John Corbin . All comments in this article are the individuals they are attributed to and should not be misconstrued as the viewpoint of any agency or group.

Introduction

As with other advancements in practice and technology over the past 100 years, the practice of engineering and planning will evolve.? However, with the proliferation of advanced data applications to solve engineering, planning, and overarching societal challenges this evolution does more than change the way existing professionals practice.? It also changes the types of practitioners needed to be brought into our industry.? The diversification of professionals practicing in transportation engineering and planning generates both excitement and anxiety.? From an exciting point of view, engineers and planners will be able to solve problems more analytically than ever before.? A reduction in engineering judgement and an increase in data-driven results hold the promise to make our communities more resilient, equitable, sustainable, and vibrant.? From an anxiety point of view, the entry of non-traditional practitioners could result in a loss of credibility of engineers and planners as the primary problem solvers or could result in a degradation of ethical conduct that might threaten the credibility of an entire industry entrusted with enabling safe, efficient travel.? This primer is designed to explore these ideas and more.? It’s also intended to offer up some provocative topics to drive the dialog rather than provide edicts or absolutes.? The thoughts and opinions in this paper are not intended to represent the official positions of the employer agencies of the authors and collaborators but rather the ideas from a group of professionals and their experiences of navigating this current inflection point of the transportation profession.

Evolution of the Practice of Transportation Engineering and Planning

Today, transportation engineers and planners are amid an evolution where the built environment is increasingly being developed using three dimensional and even four-dimensional tools as part of an overall organizational asset management strategy. The benefits of starting with a virtual environment can lead to many efficiencies across the cycle of land use planning, site planning, simulation, design, prototyping, construction staging, construction inspection, commissioning, permitting, and facility operations and maintenance. To realize the benefits across the asset lifecycle, many skill sets are required. Work previously completed through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) in close coordination with the National Operations Center of Excellence focused on the need for transportation organizations to plan by hiring a diverse workforce around systems operations and management. More positions like computer engineers, data scientists, GIS professionals, visualization specialists, operational technology technicians, and even artificial intelligence (AI) scientists are key in realizing the benefits of improved life cycle asset management. AI tools and a general understanding of their use (and non-uses) will help agencies expedite their transportation to be more focused on asset management and getting the most out of their infrastructure. The TSMO Workforce Development Guidebook specifically cited AI scientists as a critical part of organizations that want to mature to be optimized. AI scientists are expected to lead the selection and development of next generation AI/machine learning (ML) enabled Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for traffic systems operations and management.? Areas of focus include traffic data analysis, traffic flow theory, traffic signal operation/control, traffic network management, tolling and connected and automated vehicles (CAV).?

The Future of Engaged Professionals

The future is full of increasingly diverse practitioners coming together to solve complex issues.? If implemented correctly, AI will offer insightful automation for repetitive tasks.? This will allow engaged professionals to participate in higher-level thinking about outcomes, avoiding bias, and how to create connections with other related topics.? The six core elements of capability maturity among professional development will not change.? However, our ability to include and interpret data, the processes needed to get the outcomes we desire could be our focal point.? For transportation, certain traditional professions will experience a resurgence while new types of professionals will emerge.? For example, industrial engineers, quality engineers, and production supervisors have transferrable knowledge skills and abilities (KSAs) useful for transportation topics. As repetitive tasks become increasingly automated, we will need different types of oversight that these professionals offer.? Consider the list of transferrable KSAs from industrial engineering to transportation below.

Systems Thinking: Industrial engineers often analyze complex systems to optimize efficiency and productivity. This skill is directly applicable to transportation engineering, where understanding the interplay of various components such as traffic flow, infrastructure, and logistics is essential.

Optimization Techniques: Industrial engineers are adept at using mathematical modeling and optimization techniques to improve processes and resource allocation. These skills can be applied in transportation engineering for route optimization, traffic management, and infrastructure planning.

Statistical Analysis: Industrial engineers frequently use statistical methods to analyze data and identify patterns. This proficiency is valuable in transportation engineering for analyzing traffic patterns, forecasting demand, and evaluating the effectiveness of transportation systems.

Supply Chain Management: Industrial engineers often work on optimizing supply chains to ensure efficient movement of goods. This knowledge can be leveraged in transportation engineering for planning freight logistics, optimizing freight mode shifts, managing inventory, and improving distribution networks.

Operations Research: Industrial engineers use operations research techniques to solve complex problems related to resource allocation, scheduling, and decision-making. These skills are directly applicable in transportation engineering for optimizing transportation networks, scheduling public transit services, and managing fleet operations.

Human Factors Engineering: Industrial engineers consider human factors such as ergonomics and user experience in system design. In transportation engineering, understanding human behavior and factors affecting driver or commuter experience is crucial for designing safer and more efficient transportation systems. Human factors are also an important element in traffic management centers, where operators work long hours interpreting data and performing repetitive tasks.

Simulation and Modeling: Industrial engineers often use simulation tools to model and analyze system behaviors before implementing changes. In transportation engineering, simulation modeling can be used for predicting traffic flow, evaluating proposed infrastructure projects, and assessing the impact of policy changes.

Lean Manufacturing Principles: Industrial engineers are familiar with lean principles aimed at minimizing waste and improving process efficiency. These principles can be applied in transportation engineering for streamlining operations, reducing congestion, and optimizing resource utilization.

Project Management: Industrial engineers often lead projects involving process improvement or system implementation. Project management skills, including planning, budgeting, and resource allocation, are valuable in transportation engineering for managing infrastructure projects and transportation initiatives.

Sustainability and Environmental Impact: Industrial engineers are increasingly concerned with sustainability and environmental impact in system design and operations. This knowledge is relevant in transportation engineering for designing eco-friendly transportation systems, promoting alternative modes of transportation, and reducing carbon emissions.

Of course, some of these KSAs can also be found in existing transportation curriculum, but the need for more depth is anticipated.? The list above also affirms that these are essential for successful integration of AI into the workforce, but all of these are uniquely human traits.? As Scott Marler, points out “a strong policy structure that unleashes the power of AI without taking the human out of the loop is the secret to success.”? Mr. Marler went on to say, “we are ready for the efficiencies and potential that AI presents to solve things like achieving zero deaths in our transportation system, but we are not yet ready to put things on autopilot and release oversight.”?

John Corbin is focused on the emergence of a new type of professional that he describes as a “civil infrastructure systems manager (CISM).”? This implies, not surprisingly, a future where managing all civil infrastructure will be tied to excellent integrated systems management.? CISMs will have equal parts civil, electronics, electrical, environmental, data, industrial, economic, and policy education to enable true oversight.? Corbin said, “while the world continues to change, for the foreseeable future, sustainment of the civil infrastructure implies a continued connection between industry and government.”? Corbin points out that in the United States, within the current generation of professionals, a reckoning between the role of government in the future must occur around mega-issues such as national debt in the context of rapidly growing non-discretionary spending obligations such as social security.? In Corbin’s view, AI won’t just be a nice to have capability, but rather a mechanism for successful implementation of transportation digital infrastructure.? So CISMs may not just exist in 20 years, but they may be the dominant practicing professional.? Corbin went on to say that this underscores the importance of an approach to workforce development that includes a rethinking of our approach to work-based learning as a recruitment and retention strategy, the need to focus on curating data in a way that enables a high level of public trust, and making sure the transportation community is in sync with activities occurring globally.

Call to Action

ITE can play a leading role in achieving a transition between the practicing professionals of today with the needed professionals that coexist with AI of tomorrow.? Here are five issues where ITE can make a difference.

1. ITE must continue to be a home to transportation planners and other analysts and planners with a strong interest in transportation.? The universal understanding of needs that these professionals possess is of utmost importance to continue pointing us all in the right direction.
2. ITE should work together with other industry associations and relevant stakeholders to determine the right balance of AI integration that allows for improving safety and efficiency of the transportation system for all users while making sure that public confidence is not lost.
3. ITE, together with partners, should initiate transportation career pathway planning for industrial engineers, quality engineers, and production supervisors.? We also must recognize that pay rates for these careers may be higher than those of transportation professionals and that will need to be reconciled to recruit.
4. Transportation is migrating away from being a subset of civil engineering.? ITE should continue to promote this fact in everything that it does.
5. ITE’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is not just the right thing to do, it’s imperative to our future.? Efforts to strengthen this focus area, such as those called for in the most recent ITE Strategic Plan, should be fast-tracked and even expanded to leverage ITE’s global presence.