Patricia F. Waller Scholarship

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The Patricia F. Waller (PFW) Scholarship was created to honor Dr. Waller and is intended to fund scholarships for U-M graduate students and senior undergraduate students who elect a thesis, dissertation, or special project that addresses the human aspect of transportation policy or practice. Students may apply from all U-M departments and schools who are interested in conducting research on transportation equity, mobility, or safety with a focus on improving transportation for people. 

Application (pdf)

Details:

  • Applications will be accepted for two deadlines: July 31, 2024 and November 30, 2024.
  • Multiple awards are possible depending on application funding needs.
  • Send completed application to: UMTRI-Waller.Scholarship@umich.edu.
  • Scholarship questions can be addressed to Dr. David Eby (eby@umich.edu).
Requirements
  • Applicants must be a U-M graduate student or senior undergraduate student, who will complete the research/activity while they are still enrolled as a student.
  • Applicants must have a faculty supervisor who will oversee the research/activity and the expenditures for the scholarship funds.
  • Must agree to provide the PFW Scholarship Committee with a final report that documents the research/activity and give permission for their likeness to be used in reporting on and promoting the PFW Scholarship program. 
  • If possible, the student must present on the project/activity at UMTRI’s Student Research Symposium.

Acceptable Use of Funds:

  • Funds can be used for direct expenses connected with the project, such as subject payment, copying, computational services, etc.
  • Travel can be funded to support presentation of project outcomes.
  • Funds can be used to cover the student’s employment.
  • Funds can be used for tuition support.
  • Funds cannot be used for faculty salary.
  • Other expenses may be covered outside of the above categories, but must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the PFW Scholarship Committee.

Patricia F. Waller
Dr. Waller had a distinguished career as a leading research scientist and advocate for policy reform in the area of transportation safety and injury control. She worked tirelessly to ensure that research findings were implemented through legislative and administrative measures, and to ensure that injury control and the health and human dimensions were incorporated into the national transportation agenda.   Dr. Waller also was devoted to nurturing and encouraging students who showed an interest in applying their scientific training and skill to improve the safety of the transportation environment.

In 1989, Dr. Waller was appointed director of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, where she also held academic appointments in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Department of Psychology. She retired from the University of Michigan in 1999, but continued to be actively engaged in research projects around the world, authoring publications until shortly before her death on August 15, 2003.

Prior to coming to Michigan, Dr. Waller served as Associate Director for Driver Studies at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC), and she was a faculty member of the UNC School of Public Health. In 1987, she became the founding director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, a center of excellence funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She joined the HSRC in 1967 after practicing and conducting research as a clinical psychologist.

2024 Scholarship Recipient

Brennen McManus U-M Biomedical Engineering

Exploring Wheelchair Users’ Perception of WC19 Wheelchairs.

“BME is very proud of Brennen’s remarkable achievement,” said Mary-Ann Mycek, the William and Valerie Hall Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Professor, Biomedical Engineering. “His collaborative research with UMTRI is an example of the diverse research opportunities across campus for our BME students.” 

Read more about McManus’ project.

Supervisor, Dr. Kathleen Klinich

Past Recipients

2023 Collin Brennan-Carey; U-M Data Science Engineering; Supervisor: Dr. Paul A. Green.

This project will enhance the development of an easy-to-implement method to assess the extent to which driver interfaces compromise driver safety.  Consistent with UMTRI’s vision and values, this research is being supported by a multidisciplinary team (Data Science, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering).  Also consistent with UMTRI’s Strategic Plan, this innovative research will enhance UMTRI’s role as a leader in distraction research.

2023 Shubhayan Ukil, U-M Urban and Regional Planning; Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Levine U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

This project will enhance the development of an easy-to-implement method to assess the extent to which driver interfaces compromise driver safety.  Consistent with UMTRI’s vision and values, this research is being supported by a multidisciplinary team (Data Science, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering).  Also consistent with UMTRI’s Strategic Plan, this innovative research will enhance UMTRI’s role as a leader in distraction research.

2023 Saumya Sharma, U-M Integrative Systems and Design; Supervisor: Byoung-Keon “Daniel” Park, UMTRI

This projects primary objective is to design an online modeling tool for manual and powered wheelchairs. By creating an accessible and  user-friendly platform, this tool will facilitate the development of safe and ergonomic wheelchair  designs, ultimately enhancing the mobility and safety of wheelchair users.

2022 Jiacheng Liu, U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering; Supervisor: Jingwen Hu, UMTRI, Judy Jin, I&OE

This project aims to achieve safety equity by considering human variations in design policy  optimization for vehicle restraint system, which fits the mission of UMTRI to conduct research  to advance safe, equitable, and efficient mobility. Bayesian Optimization approach, which is  widely used in machine learning algorithms, will be used to predict the injury responses of the  computer simulation runs, and informative new samples will be introduced efficiently through  Bayesian Optimization to optimize the design policy. This multidisciplinary study will improve  the existing injury prediction and address the one-model-fits-all issue of the current vehicle  design strategy by theoretical and numerical approach.  

2021 Ekim Koca, Mechanical Engineering, U-M Mechanical Engineering; Supervisor: Paul A. Green, UMTRI

This project will begin with a review of publications, guidelines, and standards that discuss in-vehicle  lighting, its measurement, and its effects on driving in all situations. Subsequently, pending on COVID-19  restrictions, the plan is to conduct an experiment using a driver interface simulator. The task simulated  will be a nighttime drive, in which subjects avoid obstacles. Across trials, the interior lighting conditions  will be varied and measured. In addition to standard driving performance measures, eye tracking  hardware and software will be used to record where drivers look and when, and potentially measure  pupil dilation and eye fixation. Given time and funding, the sample size will be small, potentially 12  subjects (6 young, 6 old). The project deliverable will be a paper and potential presentation. 

2018 Victor Le, Mechanical Engineering

2018 Aritra Suha, Statistics

2017 Ke Liu, Industrial and Operations Engineering

2013 Alana LeBron, School of Public Health

2012 Rebecca Mandell, School of Public Health, Health Behavior & Health Education

2010 Andi Eisman, School of Public Health, Health Behavior & Education

2007 Nancy Gallagher, School of Nursing