Fall 2024 Update – CARSP Young Professionals Committee

Welcoming Our New Members
The CARSP Young Professionals Committee (YPC) is thrilled to welcome five new members to the team! You can learn more about our members and read their bios on the CARSP Website.

Reflection on YPC Growth
Over the past five years, the YPC has experienced significant growth. We want to take this opportunity to reflect on some of our successes. 

Since 2020, 19 students and young professionals have served on the YPC Executive Board. Their contributions have resulted in several successful initiatives aimed at developing the next generation of road safety professionals.

At the 2022 CARSP Conference, we launched a student travel award program (sponsored by Western Ergonomics), which enabled seven students to attend the event. In 2023, we had a record number of student attendees at the CARSP Conference—nearly 60 in total. This high turnout was driven by the joint Conference with ITE Canada, the return of the student travel award program (again sponsored by Western Ergonomics), and reduced student registration rates.

This year’s CARSP Conference broke several more records. The 2024 Conference had the highest number of student paper submissions to date, with 16 in total. More than 40 students attended the Conference, and over 30 presented their work—a new record. We also saw record participation at the "Young Professionals & Young at Heart" networking mixer, with over 70 attendees, and set a new milestone by raising $1,500 for the YPC 50/50 raffle. Finally, we launched the YPC Mentorship Program, with 12 students and four mentors participating. Initial feedback has been very positive.

2025 Conference Updates
It's that time of year again! We're beginning to plan the 2025 Conference, which will be held in Quebec City in partnership with Parachute Canada and the International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic Safety (ICTCT). As always, we’re bringing back the student paper and poster competitions, in-person social and professional development events, and—returning for a second year—our newly launched mentorship program!

Important: As with the 2023 Conference, we are aligning the student paper and poster competition abstract submissions with the general call for abstracts. This means all students must submit their paper or poster abstract in November, with the full paper due at a later date. More details to follow.

We’re excited to see what 2025 has in store and encourage all students and young professionals to join the YPC!

Cheers, 

Robet Colonna
Chair, CARSP YPC