Noah Roberts (’27)

This summer I interned at the Department of Transportation in the Volpe Center. I was in the Economist Trainee role in the Program Development and Capacity Building department. The Volpe Center is a fast-paced, analytics-focused section of the DOT that works on projects across the board. Most of my work was based in the DOT headquarters in DC, and I finished my internship with a final week at the Volpe Building in Cambridge, MA.

I was staffed on four projects: Freight commercial loading zone regression analysis, AI in US transit systems research, local urban planning grant review, and National Park Service crash data analysis. I had the opportunity to not just explore my interests across transportation, but also deepen my technical skills as well. I worked across multiple teams and had the chance to work on projects that directly affected future decision-making for projects within the DOT.

The DOT, as part of the Volpe intern cohort, provided me with the opportunity to learn about and from different divisions across the agency, and the chance to have conversations with department leadership. As a team we even worked with DC DOT and presented our findings to them as recommendations for further planning. Overall I had a wonderful experience where I was able to learn a lot in a fast-paced, impactful city!