Student Spotlight: Clark Letter

Coming from an extensive family tradition of Florida Gators, Clark Letter did not think twice about attending UF after graduating from high school. His grandfather and father both attended UF and so did his brother and sister. His great-grandfather, a horticulturalist, also worked on campus in the 1950’s and 1960’s. So it was that Letter continued this long tradition, enrolling at first in the physics department but changing his major after a couple of semesters.

“Initially I came to UF as a physics major, and after two years, I decided that engineering was a more promising career path,” Letter said. “I looked into all the engineering programs and decided that civil was the best fit for me.”

While taking the Introduction to Transportation Engineering course in his junior year, he started noticing that transportation became more and more appealing to him. Letter was instantly hooked, and he doesn’t regret it.

“I became very interested in everything about traffic operations,” Letter said. “Since then I haven’t looked back.”

Letter is now a doctoral student in transportation engineering, teaching the very same class, which initially sparked his interest in field. He says he is thrilled with the opportunity to inspire other students to pursue the transportation field through the class he is teaching.

In addition to teaching, Letter is working on the coordination of autonomous vehicles at on-ramp junctions, which is the topic of his doctoral dissertation. An on-ramp junction is the length of road that allows a driver to merge onto a highway.

”I am developing a control strategy to ensure a safe and efficient merging process for autonomous vehicles,” Letter said. “The greatest challenge so far is ensuring a level of safety for the vehicles, and level of comfort for passengers.”

The project has real-world implications as Florida is one of four states to approve the on-road testing of autonomous vehicles, and the research team is working closely with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The other states to approve road testing are California, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Letter is working closely with Dr. Lily Elefteriadou, his doctoral dissertation adviser on the autonomous vehicles project. Elefteriadou, professor and the director of the UFTI and the 2012 regional (Southeastern) University Transportation Center (UTC) housed at the Institute, is also carrying out extensive work on this topic and has received funding from FDOT and NSF. Elefteriadou served as Letter’s master’s thesis adviser on his project titled “A Framework for Simulating Variable Speed Limit Algorithms in CORSIM” and knows him very well.

“Clark is a wonderful student, extremely intelligent, capable and meticulous, with a genuine interest in research,” Elefteriadou said.

Letter enjoys working with Elefteriadou because her advising style provides the right amount of balance, delivering guidance, but allowing her students to express creativity in their research projects.

“Dr. Lily is a great advisor.” Letter said. “She trusts me to do a professional job on our projects, and find solutions to problems on my own. She definitely gives guidance when needed, but provides freedom for me to do my own work.”

Letter is satisfied with his decision to pursue transportation engineering at UF. He says the transportation engineering faculty at UFTI have made his graduate experience beneficial because they are always available and willing to provide guidance to students. He considers UF engineering one of the top programs in the country, and he is confident that he will have many opportunities once he graduates with a Ph.D.

His advice for undergraduate students considering transportation engineering is to do internships, volunteer, get involved in student groups and know who the transportation faculty are.

“You won’t really know that you like something until get involved,” Letter said. “Talk to your professors and ask them questions. They are great resources.”