By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI
The UF Institute of Transportation Engineers (UFITE) student chapter has won the Florida Puerto Rico ITE (FLPRITE) District Traffic Bowl competition once again, marking an exciting eight-year consecutive winning streak that speaks to the quality of its students and transportation program.
“It feels so surreal to stand on the shoulders of our other traffic bowl members who have won for the past seven years and so amazing to have been able to help bring us to our eighth,” said Kyle Groome, a third-year civil engineering student and a member of the UF team.
The competition was held on February 7, 2026, in Orlando, Florida, during the ITE Student Leadership Summit (SLS), the largest student-led transportation meeting in the nation. The UF team competed against seven other districts. Traffic Bowl is a Jeopardy-style game with transportation-related categories, such as traffic engineering, road safety, planning, roads, signage and ITE history.
“Having the goal of bringing the championship back to Gainesville was a massive motivator for the team,” said Hugo Resendez, a second-year civil engineering student and fellow UFITE Traffic Bowl team member. “Understanding that a good performance now would set us up for success in Detroit, we prepared by reviewing past competitions and highlighting frequently covered topics. Additionally, we wanted to ensure our knowledge wasn’t just technical, but also that we knew influential people in the ITE community. Taking this approach for Detroit will hopefully put us in a spot to win it all.”
The UF team will now go on to compete in the 2026 Grand Championship of the ITE International Collegiate Traffic Bowl, scheduled for July 20 in Detroit, Michigan, during the Joint ITE International and Great Lakes District Annual Meeting.
This is not the chapter’s first time competing in the Grand Championship. In 2013, the team won the International Traffic Bowl Championship, competing against schools such as Penn State and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. And in 2025, the chapter scored another Traffic Bowl Grand Championship win, defeating Brigham Young University and the University of Washington.
As UF’s ITE student chapter looks ahead to the International Collegiate Traffic Bowl Grand Championship, the students will be hard at work studying and preparing for the competition in hopes of bringing home yet another national title.
“I’m confident we have the best traffic bowl team in the country,” said Michael Hayes, a third-year civil engineering student and president of the UFITE student chapter. “They study harder than anyone, and I’m looking forward to bringing home back-to-back trophies in July.”