Applications for the 2025 TCD Student Challenge are now available

Applications for the 2025 TCD Student Challenge are now available

Each year, the Traffic Control Device (TCD) Student Challenge brings together some of the brightest engineering minds and roadway safety professionals across the nation to promote ingenuity and innovation in the traffic control device industry.

The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on Traffic Control Device (ACP55) co-sponsor and conduct this design challenge to stimulate innovate growth and ideas in the traffic control devices space with the core focus of optimizing worker and roadway safety.

The 2025 challenge theme is: Innovative Traffic Control Device Solutions to Improve Roadway Worker Safety

Problem Statement

The theme for the 2025 TCD Student Challenge is: Innovative Traffic Control Device Solutions to Improve Roadway Worker Safety. Over the period from 2017 to 2021, data from the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse revealed an annual average of 108,000 work zone crashes nationwide, with the number of estimated crashes ranging between 94,000 and 123,000 annually. Correspondingly, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) during the same time frame indicated that these crashes resulted in 616 fatal worker injuries at road construction sites, with yearly fatalities varying from 108 to 135.

Roadway construction and maintenance are often done in complex environments near open travel lanes, placing workers at risk from construction vehicles and equipment, and the traveling public.

While current practices, such as complying with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and utilizing devices like intrusion alarm systems, have proven effective in improving roadway worker safety, there exists a critical need for innovative TCD solutions to further enhance worker safety.

The objective of the 2025 TCD Student Challenge is to devise an innovative approach to improving roadway workers safety through the use of TCDs. The TCD strategy can target the improvement of worker safety in various work zone operations, including construction, maintenance, and TCD setup or removal.

Eligibility & Opportunity

The Challenge is open to individual high school, junior college, college or university students or teams of students with a keen interest in transportation, safety and an understanding of TCDs.

Participants will have the opportunity to present their designs during the 2025 TRB Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. With a top prize of $1,500, up to three winning submissions will also be invited to present their innovations at ATSSA’s 55^th Annual Convention and Traffic Expo in Orlando, Florida.

Applications are due by Oct. 1, 2024. Visit the TCD Challenge website to learn more about the challenge and previous winners.