Former ODOT official takes a job at YSU

Staff report

youngstown

Joann Iudiciani Esenwein of Lowellville, formerly the capital planning manager at the Ohio Department of Transportation, is the new director of the Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering at Youngstown State University.

The Center, formed in 2006 in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is one of only 22 such U.S. Department of Transportation-funded research centers in the nation.

“We are excited to be able to bring an individual of Joann’s caliber to YSU,” said Martin Abraham, STEM dean.

“Her background and skills will allow us to become more engaged in transportation research that has a direct impact on the Mahoning Valley.”

Esenwein has 30 years of experience with ODOT, including stints as a project engineer, design engineer, consultants contract coordinator, major/new coordinator and, for the last 10 years, capital planning manager.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from YSU in 1980 and a master’s degree in business administration from YSU in 2003.

Abraham said the focus of the Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering is on applied research and applications, through the use of materials engineering and advanced manufacturing to increase the longevity, mobility and sustainability of the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

The center has about 10 ongoing research projects studying issues such as new brake rotors for vehicles, electric-vehicle charging stations, vibrations resulting from vehicles entering bridges, and fish passage under bridges.

Abraham said that Esenwein will help put the focus of the center squarely on transportation.

“We would like to become more engaged in the efforts of ODOT to develop the transportation infrastructure in our region,” Abraham said.