Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

“Take care of your people, and they will take care of you.” That part of Gen. Philip Breedlove’s mantra for young Air Force officers was also a key message from his remarks during the Hyatt Distinguished Alumni Leadership Speaker Series Oct. 26.

For Georgia Tech alumni Steve Curtis and Justin Norman, the commute to work involves plane flights, buses, pickup trucks and, on a good day, a helicopter. All told, it takes between six and 15 hours to get from home to work, depending on the weather and mode of travel. That’s because they’re working on a massive construction project high in the Peruvian Andes for Bechtel, building the copper concentrator for a $5 billion mine project that will be among the world’s top-producing sources of copper from its very first year.

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering will be well represented at this weekend’s commencement ceremonies — and not just among those receiving their degrees.

Transportation planners have to forecast where you and thousands of your neighbors will go and decide what infrastructure your region needs to accommodate those demands. But the data they’re using today, in 2015, is probably a decade and a half old. So even though what you remember of your travels in 2000 is vastly different from your travels today, the 2000 version of you is who’s accounted for in 30-year regional transportation plans. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. alumna Josie Kressner has a plan to change all that.