Charles R. Stevens Jr., P.E., PTOE, was recently named the 2015 Young Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers at its annual meeting in Seattle.

The Young Engineer of the Year Award recognizes young NSPE members who have made outstanding contributions to the engineering profession and their communities during the early years of their careers. Any licensed professional engineer or engineer intern who is an NSPE member in good standing and is 35 years of age or younger as of January 1 is eligible for nomination. The NSPE Honor Awards Committee selects the recipient on the basis of educational and collegiate achievements, professional and technical society activities, civic and humanitarian activities, continuing competence, and engineering achievements.

Stevens is currently a research engineer for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research and Implementation Division. Since returning to TTI, after seven years in private practice as a consultant, he has focused his efforts on developing a long-range “smart corridor” intelligent transportation systems plan for the 407 mile long IH-35 Corridor from Oklahoma to Mexico’s border. In addition to this effort, Stevens has participated in autonomous vehicle research for the U.S. military and unmanned aerial vehicles application research.

Prior to joining TTI in 2014, Stevens was a managing director and statewide traffic engineer for Binkley & Barfield Inc., where one of his mentors, Larry M. Barfield, P.E., sponsored his initial membership in NSPE and TSPE. While at BBI, Stevens built the traffic group from two persons to its peak of nine professionals in 2012, and he successfully managed over $4 million of plans, specifications, estimates, and study work in less than three years.

Stevens earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering in 2003 and a master of engineering in civil engineering in 2005 from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. As an undergraduate research assistant, he conducted research on rural highway safety. As a graduate research assistant, he authored “Evaluating Safety Effects of Daylight Savings Time on Fatal and Nonfatal Injury Crashes in Texas” from his own private research, and won an award for best student paper for “Financing Texas Transportation” at the 2005 Brazos Valley Transportation Summit.

Stevens served as an adjunct professor for Prairie View A&M University, where he taught transportation and systems engineering to undergraduate students from 2005 to 2007. He has led several transportation engineering seminars for different organizations, including the Transportation Research Board, Texas District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. He is active in NSPE and has served in many roles at the state and local level. He is a director on the board of the Houston Chapter and has served as chair of several committees. He is also serving as a member of the Texas Society’s Young Engineers Committee.

For more information on the NSPE Award, please visit the NSPE web site at www.nspe.org/Awards.