Why an Engineer and Not a Politician?

Panos Prevedouros, Ph.D.
Civil Engineer
University of Hawai`i Professor

Engineers transform problems into real solutions.
Engineers are visionaries and problem solvers. They work to develop economic and safe solutions to practical problems.

As a matter of fact, 20% of CEO's of Fortune 500 companies have an engineer at the helm. And if you're wondering if an engineer can manage a budget, the answer is yes. Engineering management includes experience with engineering economy, financial management and industrial and human resources.

Panos is an engineer who has lived in Hawaii for 20 years. Like you and me, he has watched the roads deteriorate. He has watched taxes go up. He has watched the traffic build. He has driven into more than his share of potholes. He has watched bridges collapse, streams overflow, untreated sewage flow into our beautiful oceans. He has sat at one unsynchronized traffic light after another. He has waited for recycling to become a reality. He has watched the trash build up. And he is sick of it. He knows how much things cost. He knows whether we need them. He knows whether we can afford them. He knows whether we can maintain them.

Like most of us, Panos went to public school all his life. He studied at the engineering college at Aristotle University, and came to the United States where he received both his Masters and Doctorate degrees in transportation engineering at Northwestern University. Northwestern, by the way, is one of the top ten engineering schools in the world. Panos joined the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Hawaii in 1990. He is a tenured professor. He has been the Chair of UH’s civil engineering Graduate Program since 2003. He developed UH’s Traffic and Transportation Lab in the late 1990s.

Panos is considered to be one of the preeminent authorities in his field. Over the past ten years, he has been invited to give his professional opinion in ten countries and 33 large cities worldwide, including Beijing, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, Munich, New York, Paris, San Diego, Tokyo, Venice, Vienna and Washington, D.C.

Since its opening before the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens, Panos has been assisting the Attica Toll way Operations Authority with freeway operations analysis to optimize its traffic flow. Attica Toll way was built between 1998 and 2004 in the dense periphery of Athens, Greece. Athens is a metropolitan area of five million people. Attica Toll way’s length is longer than the H-1, H-2 and H-3 combined. It was built as a public private partnership with Greek, French and American partners with co-financing by the European Union.

In 2006 it received the International Road Federation award as one of the safest freeways in the world. It was forecasted that in 2008 Attica Toll way will have about 250,000 daily entries, but the most recent count is 330,000 entries. A wide corridor in Athens has been decongested and motorists have the option to pay a 2.7 euro flat toll and drive 15 miles in 15 minutes, or they can use parallel free arterials and make the same trip in 40 to 50 minutes.