ITRE News & Events
Michael to retire from ITRE
Mickey Michael
October 31, 2011
- TIMS program manager to retire after 22 years
- Work has been in GIS-based school bus routing and scheduling
RALEIGH, NC — Mickey Michael may be a Wolfpack fan, but his blood runs school bus yellow. This is evidenced by the collection of miniature school buses, school bus toys, and pictures of school buses housed in his office. His collection even includes a rock shaped and painted like a school bus.
This interest in school buses began when Michael joined the Pupil Transportation Group at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) in 1989 as one of the project leaders implementing a state-of-the-art GIS-based school bus routing and scheduling system in North Carolina known as the Transportation Information Management System (TIMS). Michael, who will retire from ITRE in mid-November, has managed the program for eleven years.
This job has been a perfect fit for Michael who has a degree in industrial engineering and a certificate in computer science from NC State University. In addition to training and supporting TIMS users, a lot of his work involves debugging software programs, writing batch programs, and setting-up network servers.
His commitment to the school bus industry goes beyond the TIMS project. Michael is involved in the management of a yearly pupil transportation conference and each year during the NC State Fair, he is heavily involved setting up a booth that uses a remote controlled school bus named “Buster” to educate children about school bus safety.
"Mickey is respected and well-liked among his peers at ITRE," said Jeff Tsai, director of the Pupil Transportation Group. "In addition to offering help solving technology problems, he also has a wealth of experience with home repair projects. Mickey is always willing to offer advice, his tools, or even lend a hand. His role at ITRE cannot be replaced and he will be missed; however, Mickey is a friend to everyone he meets, so we hope he will visit ITRE often after he retires."
As for his plans after retirement, Michael plans to take a couple of weeks off, but after that he has a list of unfinished projects and renovations waiting for him at home. After his wife retires, they plan to travel – some trips will involve taking the grandchildren to various locations for either educational purposes or just for fun.
"I have really enjoyed my tenure at ITRE and consider this to be as much of a family to me as my real family," said Michael. "A few of us have been with ITRE over twenty years and have watched ITRE/TIMS grow. I am also fortunate to work with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and UNC-Charlotte TIMS staff. When you have that many people that stay together for so long, focused on helping the school children of North Carolina get to school in the safest, most efficient manner possible, it gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment. I am proud to have been a part of that."
The Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE), administered by North Carolina State University, is a non-profit organization that conducts research, education, and technical assistance projects on a wide variety of surface transportation issues with the goals of solving problems and creating new products, better services and smarter workers. ITRE is located on NCSU’s Centennial Campus.
