{"id":347,"date":"2026-02-13T18:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/?page_id=347"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:49:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:49:05","slug":"2026-kotaa-annual-meeting-highlights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/2026-kotaa-annual-meeting-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 KOTAA Annual Meeting Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This year, total 136 Members,<\/strong>
including 56 Award and Travel grant awardees attended the meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sincerely thank all members who participated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

56 Professionals, 77 Graduate students, 3 Undergrads<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This year, we focused on
Breaking the Silos<\/strong> among members<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In our past meetings, many members expressed a desire for more opportunities to connect across different institutions and fields. In response, we introduced two new initiatives this year to foster deeper engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we hosted the “Connect with Your Future Collaborators”<\/strong> event for travel grant and presentation award recipients. This session allowed students to exchange names, affiliations, and research interests. To encourage these new bonds, selected participants were awarded Starbucks gift cards to enjoy a coffee chat with their new peers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Second, we implemented randomized seating for our Networking Dinner<\/strong>, ensuring that students, professors, and practitioners from various backgrounds sat together. This successfully broke down silos and sparked fresh conversations that might not have happened otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these inaugural attempts faced some minor logistical challenges, they represent a significant step forward. The EC members remain committed to making the KOTAA Annual Meeting a vibrant hub for meaningful new connections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The first Dr. Hosin Lee Distinguished Best Presentation Award<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We launched the new award for students who applied for travel grant, endowed by Dr. Hosin Lee, the 5th President of KOTAA and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Iowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first awardee is Seung Jae Lieu <\/strong>at Georgia Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you for our supporters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We raised $1,500 donation during the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Dr. Eil Kwon, University of Minnesota Duluth: $450<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hyun-jin Kim, Senior researcher at Poinix, $450<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dr. Brian Park, University of Virginia, $250<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dr. Sung-Hee “Sonny” Kim, University of Georgia, $150<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • $200 from others<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    All the supports are spend on travel grants for future researchers and the annual meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    This year, total 136 Members,including 56 Award and Travel grant awardees attended the meeting. We sincerely thank all members who participated. 56 Professionals, 77 Graduate students, 3 Undergrads This year, we focused on Breaking the Silos among members In our past meetings, many members expressed a desire for more opportunities to connect across different institutions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-347","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"campaignId":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/347\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kotaa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}