BART interns focus on safety, reliability

Written by Maggie Lancaster, assistant editor
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Armen Chouldjian demonstrates web app he and Anuj Shah developed
BART

The Bay Area Transportation Authority (BART) is utilizing interns this summer to create useful technology.

Two BART engineering interns created an internal web application that is being used to quickly diagnose and resolve transportation issues for the transportation authority.

University of Cincinnati students Armen Chouldjian and Anuj Shah are two of 11 engineering interns for BART’s Maintenance and Engineering Department. According to BART, the interns were chosen from more than 200 applicants across the nation.

According to Jonathan Lin senior computer systems engineer, as stated in Melissa Jordan’s article about BART’s summer interns, the web application created by the two interns has turned what used to take him a half-day of work investigating issues (such as delays) and reduced it to less than one hour.

Colin McGill, a student at the University of California, Merced, studies mechanical engineering. During his internship with BART this summer, McGill focused on building a model that forecasts rail-grinding levels and resources.

McGill’s mentor Lyn Williams, program manager/capital programs for Maintenance & Engineering was quoted in Jordan’s article saying: “This will help us to allocate our rail-grinding resources much more accurately. I’ve been very impressed by the interns’ ability to come in, assess what a problem is and solve it very quickly.”

Jordan’s article also stated that “all three interns said they would look at jobs in the public sector as well, such as in public transportation.”

To read the full article click here.

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