Vishal Khanapure’s title at the McTrans Center is computer research specialist, and it truly does fit him. The McTrans Center at the University of Florida Transportation Institute distributes and supports a variety of software programs for traffic engineering and transportation planning applications, with training courses also available. Passionate about his work, Khanapure assists in various ways to ensure the maintenance and delivery of the center’s flagship product, the Highway Capacity Software (HCS).
The HCS has several modules that correspond with parts of the latest edition of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The HCM is a publication of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Science (NAS). It contains concepts, guidelines, and computational procedures for computing the capacity and quality of service of various highway facilities, including freeways, highways, arterial roads, roundabouts, signalized and unsignalized intersections, rural highways, and the effects of mass transit, pedestrians, and bicycles on the performance of these systems.
“You could theoretically do the calculations by hand, but it would take a long time,” Khanapure said. “There are so many complicated procedures, and it’s our job is to make sure the software can implement them correctly.”
HCS is sold on the McTrans website, and there will be a major new release this year that will coincide with the release of the 6th Edition of HCM. Before the manual is published to everyone, McTrans receives the draft chapters to ensure an updated HCS is ready by the time the new HCM is published.
“The 6th edition will have major changes because it’s affecting many chapters,” Khanapure explained. “Which in turn affects almost all of our software’s modules.”
Each module has a team that varies depending on its size and complexity. McTrans has full-time staff, along with graduate (and sometimes even undergraduate) students. Civil Engineering students are generally hired by the director, Bill Sampson, who helps in the testing of the software. Khanapure generally hires computer science and engineering students, who work in the software development side. McTrans provides graduate assistantships to many of these students.
Khanapure himself was once one of them. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2005 and working in industry for a little over one year, he came to the University of Florida for graduate school in 2007.
In 2008, he started working in a software development student position at McTrans. Though he was supposed to graduate in 2009, he found himself increasingly interested in transportation.
“Phil (Hill), my supervisor back then and colleague now, suggested that I get a degree in transportation as well after my Masters in Computer Engineering.”
After looking into it, he discovered that it would only take another 21 credits, which was just about another year of school. So, in 2010, he graduated with a Master’s in Civil Engineering, with a focus on transportation. With such a focus and love for his work, it was no surprise that McTrans hired him full-time after graduation.
In addition to managing development teams, Khanapure provides technical support to users experiencing issues with HCS. In addition, he performs website maintenance and administration and talks with companies to ensure their software integrates with HCS.
“We also work on research projects with UF faculty,” he said. “Dr. Elefteriadou, Bill Sampson, and I are currently all working on a Federal Highway Administration project together.”
Currently, McTrans is assisting with software development based on Dr. Elefteriadou’s research on procedures for evaluating interactions between freeways and urban streets.
“Vishal and all of McTrans are a great resource for the UFTI,” Dr. Elefteriadou, director of the University of Florida Transportation Institute, said. “They can take our research and immediately develop products that can be used by transportation professionals.”