While the Gator Football Team may have the Pride of the Sunshine, UFTI has Larry Dorilus – a second year master’s student, whose lively smile and cheerful approach to life are sure to brighten anyone’s day. You couldn’t tell by his laid back exterior that he was juggling school, research, and a job at the Gainesville Traffic Management Center (TMC).
“University of Florida was my #1 school and I always wanted to be a Gator,” Dorilus said when asked about what brought him to UF. “It helped that they had a great engineering program. I was offered basically a full-ride to come here, and it was close enough to home where I can commute to see my family every now and then.” Larry is Florida native from Naples.
Though always fascinated about how people and things get around, it was while taking undergraduate classes that Dorilus noticed a penchant for the transportation courses. This ultimately led him to apply to the UF Transportation Engineering Master’s Program. Currently, he is a graduate research assistant under the tutelage of Dr. Lily Elefteriadou, professor and director of the UFTI. Dorilus is working on the Evaluation of Arterial Corridor Improvements and Traffic Management Plans in Florida, a study funded by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
“The objective of the project is to evaluate the implementation and management of advanced signal control along US 90 and SR 10,” he explained. “Presently, my duties include reviewing and writing a literature review on Regional Traffic Operations Programs (RTOP) and soon, I will be collecting previous data and data obtained from the field.”
“Larry is such a pleasure to work with,” Dr. Elefteriadou said. “He juggles all these responsibilities with a smile on his face.”
When not in class, studying, or performing his research duties, you can find Dorilus at the Gainesville TMC where he has also been working for the past year. When asked how he landed the job, he brought up the ever-important point of networking.
“Matt Weisman and Max Elliott were two former UF alumni that worked as traffic engineers for the City of Gainesville,” he explained. “I was blessed to know them and kept in contact with them about any openings. One day I was notified, came for interview, and the rest is history.”
However, working at the TMC can be a catch-22. Dorilus gets to assist with the escorts for the Gator athletic teams, including football, while gaining experience in his field, but he also has to give up several of his Saturdays to help out with game day traffic.
“It’s not too bad, I’m glad that I can contribute,” he said.
When talking about his plans after graduation, Dorilus mentioned that nothing is certain. Though he wants to join an engineering company and later obtain a Professional Engineering License (PE), he hasn’t counted out coming back for his Ph.D. and becoming a professor.
When asked if he had any advice for students, his reply was this: “Make an effort to learn as much as possible and establish long-lasting relationships. ‘You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think’.”