Skip to main content

Allison Daniello wins IRF Student Essay Competition

Students from nearly two dozen universities entered the 2008 IRF Essay Competition. Each student was asked to submit an essay which addressed a topic under this year's theme of road safety The winner was Allison Daniello, a junior mechanical engineering student at Virginia Tech. She completed her paper, titled 'Motorcycle-Guardrail Crashes: How can the risk of severe injury and fatality be reduced?' under the supervision of Dr Clay Gabler. Her work was selected by a panel of international judges with expert
July 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Allison Daniello
Students from nearly two dozen universities entered the 2008 2462 IRF Essay Competition. Each student was asked to submit an essay which addressed a topic under this year's theme of road safety

The winner was Allison Daniello, a junior mechanical engineering student at Virginia Tech. She completed her paper, titled 'Motorcycle-Guardrail Crashes: How can the risk of severe injury and fatality be reduced?' under the supervision of Dr Clay Gabler. Her work was selected by a panel of international judges with expertise in the road industry.

Daniello will receive her grand prize of US$3,000 during the IRF Awards Program being held 12 January, 2009 at the Mayflower hotel in Washington DC. As her academic supervisor, Dr Gabler will be awarded the $1,000 prize for professors.

The three $1,000 runners-up in the competition were: Christopher Lindsey from Georgia Tech; Christine Conron and Chiara Silvestri from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and, Chung-Jen Hsu from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

An abridged version of Allison Daniello's essay is reproduced here.

Related Content

  • Smart road test facility in Virginia
    July 28, 2015
    A test stretch of road in the US is playing a valuable role in developing technology and boosting traffic safety -*Tom Gibson writes Located a short distance from the Virginia Tech campus in the mountains of rural southwest Virginia in the mid-Atlantic region of United States, the Virginia Smart Road looks like a conventional road. But venturing to either end of the 3.5km-long thoroughfare reveals that it actually goes nowhere, at least for now. The result of a plan conceived back in the 1980s, the Vi
  • IRF Washington announces key events programme
    November 4, 2013
    The Road Scholar Programme identifies promising international students currently enrolled in graduate programs at IRF Member Universities in the United States. The Road Scholar helps the IRF’s Educational Program (IREF) accomplish its mission to apply current transportation technology and management techniques to improve infrastructures around the world.
  • The IRF’s 17th World Meeting & Exhibition in Riyadh will set new standards
    May 29, 2013
    The 17th IRF World Meeting & Exhibition, to be held November 9-13, 2013 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is set to be an event that any industry professional can benefit from in numerous ways. The World Meeting’s strength lies in its solid foundation of eight components, each interlocking and with and building off of the others. Executive sessions will feature standard presentations by industry experts, followed by questions and answers in a panel format. The technical sessions, driven by the yearlong call for paper
  • 16th IRF World Meeting
    February 14, 2012
    International Road Community Rises to the Challenge of Safe, Smart and Sustainable Mobility. Songs are like roads - highways to the heart - opening new vistas, new challenges and new opportunities." Singer, Mafalda Arnault's words during a splendidly moving opening ceremony were an apt introduction to the spirit and achievements of what proved a highly successful 16th IRF World Meeting in Lisbon. A capacity audience clapping in unison to the soulful sounds of Fado was symbolic of an industry showing it can