A few months ago, we spotlighted one of our master’s students, Larry Dorilus. Now we are saying a bittersweet goodbye to him as he graduates this spring, but the Gator Nation will never be far off his mind.
“There are two kinds of people in this world,” he explained. “Florida Gators and those that wish they were Florida Gators!”
Dorilus is part of the first graduating class under the recently renamed Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Alongside him, 489 masters, 53 doctoral and 678 bachelor students will also receive their diplomas.
To earn the degree, which is a Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering, Dorilus completed 30 semester credits and a non-thesis project under the supervision of UFTI’s Director Dr. Lily Elefteriadou. Titled the Evaluation of Arterial Corridor Improvements and Traffic Management Plans in Florida, the objective of the project is to independently evaluate the implementation and management of advanced signal controls along two corridors in Florida.
Why? The Florida Department of Transportation, District 2 (FDOT D2) will soon be initiating a contract to actively manage traffic signal operations along US 90 and SR 10 in order to improve traffic operations throughout the region. Traffic Adaptive Systems will be employed and managed along these two corridors to provide real-time optimization of traffic signals based on prevailing traffic conditions, demand and system capacity.
The primary objective of implementing traffic adaptive systems is to minimize travel time delay and to decrease the number of points at which vehicles are required to stop while traversing a transportation network. Such systems are known to reduce delays, traffic crashes and periodic re-timing of traffic signals.
For the project, Dorilus wrote a literature review of industry practices in Regional Traffic Operations programs (RTOP) and recommended suitable performance measures. In addition, he obtained Bluetooth data to estimate the arterial travel times before system installation and operation.
In June, Dorilus will begin working as a Traffic Operation Specialist at Albeck Gerken, Inc., in Tampa, Florida. He is excited to start a new chapter in his life and imparted this advice on those just beginning their story at the University of Florida: “Don’t be afraid to fail. Even the greatest minds have failed several times before reaching success. Continue to believe in yourself, have faith in your abilities, and the rest will work out on its own.”
Congratulations Larry!