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SANDY H. STRAUS

B.S., M.S.,  G.C.

 

Sandy Straus is an American engineer, dual-licensed contractor, and an international authority and inventor of numerous automation and transportation designs and devices. Straus has designed the first automated drivers license tests system, transportation license test system (ESRA Dynamic Assessment for Transportation ™ , the ESRA DAT), and the ESRA Dynamic Vision Assessment for Transportation ™ (ESRA DVAT).  All tests and systems are patents pending.

The ESRA DAT relates to all areas of transportation and, in particular, the automated screening of vision, cognition, knowledge, sign recognition, and/ or driving skills of patients who may use touch screen technology, driving simulators, kiosks, or other devices. Straus has also co-invented the patents-pending
Automatic Clock Drawing Test, the first rapid, online, computerized, and validated Clock Drawing Test, and several patents-pending static and dynamic visual acuity screening tests. The Automatic Clock Drawing Test ™ is available in both standard and international time (military time) versions. It is a powerful tool designed to objectively screen for cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimers disease, brain injuries, psychiatric conditions, and patient pathology, among other applications [1, 2, 3]. It is also useful to determine readiness to participate in an on-road driving evaluation.

Numerous new automated testing systems and methods are designed by Straus to improve safety and to save lives, especially within the transportation infrastructure, and to advance medicine in densely populated and remote clinical settings. Straus also has developed new automated truck lanes, the patents-pending ESRA Truck Lanes ™, and mathematical models and software, the Straus Pavement Damage Estimation ™, or ESRA SPDE, to estimate pavement damage due to overweight trucks.  The truck lane designs can aid mobile enforcement agents and minimize pavement damage.

The Straus Pavement Damage Estimations have been successfully tested and adopted in several Department of Transportation agencies across the USA.

Straus is the authoress of the authoritative reports, New, Improved, Comprehensive and Automated Drivers License Test and Vision Screening System [4], and research note [5] and A Call for New Transportation License Test Reforms [6], She has also acted as primary author of a recent government report [7], paper [8], and presentation [9] on overweight vehicles that have resulted in improvements to international and intrastate border security.

In addition to being an internationally recognized expert in automated drivers license test design and vision screening test development, Straus has authored numerous technical reports on risk analysis, perception, and simulation associated with visual acuity, older adult driver assessment [10], dementia driver analysis, teen driver aptitude, road and highway safety, cognition screening, driver license testing, drivers license policy, human factors, and transportation engineering.

Straus is the primary author of six books, pending publication, on the subjects of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Yucca Mountain, the United States Department of Energy waste generator-host sites, mine safety, risk analysis, and international approaches to nuclear waste disposal. Tribes and governments also recognize Straus for her pioneering studies on the risks and impacts of nuclear waste transportation on pueblos and tribes [11, 12, 13].

Straus' papers on automation were recently featured in China at the 2nd International Conference on Transportation Logistics (T-Log 2007), at Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China [14]. 
A presentation on the Automatic Clock Drawing Test was provided in the dementia session of the 9th Annual European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE 2007) in San Sebastian, Spain [15].


Straus is also educated in the storage, transportation, safety, and legal aspects of explosives and explosive devices. She has a dual contractors license in blasting (explosives engineering). Straus is one of a few women in the USA who has earned this certification. She is also the developer and co-owner of patents pending and copyrights on the devices, methods, and materials for preparation, education, and delivery of an explosives engineering / blasting contractor’s license test system.

Straus is founder of ESRA Consulting Corporation. As an expert on numerous transportation and engineering topics, Sandy H. Straus is often featured in the media. Her reports on overweight trucks and impacts on roads and structures are headline news on MSNBC, Yahoo News, The Arizona Republic, and The Arizona Daily Star, among others.

Sandy H. Straus holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Florida International University. The title of her thesis was Viscous Laminar Fluid Flow in a Curved Annular Confocal Pipe of Elliptical Cross-Section. Her Ph.D. studies in Mechanical Engineering focused on fluid mechanics, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics, parallel computing, and complex flow field simulation research and development.


References________________________________________________

[1] Straus, S. 2006. Improving Medical Care and Knowledge Through New and Rapid Automated Cognitive Impairment Screening Tools, Annals of Family Medicine, 4 December 2006. 
http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/eletters/4/5/386

[2] Straus, S. 2007. Use of the Automatic Clock Drawing Test to rapidly screen for cognitive impairment in older adults, drivers, and the physically challenged. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Volume 55, Issue 2: 310-311. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01055.x http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01055.x

[3] Straus, S. 2007. "New online tool detects brain impairment, cuts older driver deaths," in Senior Driving Issues, ABA Senior Lawyers Division, elderLAW e-NEWS, American Bar Association, March 2007. http://www.esracorp.com/elderLAWe-NEWSMarch%202007.htm

[4] Straus, S. 2005. New, Improved, Comprehensive and Automated Drivers License Test and Vision Screening System, Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, FHWA-AZ-04-559.  http://www.esracorp.com/AZ559.pdf

[5] Straus, S. 2005. New, Improved, Comprehensive and Automated Drivers License Test and Vision Screening System, Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, FHWA-AZ-04-559, Research Note. http://www.azdot.gov/TPD/ATRC/publications/research_notes/PDF/559RN.pdf

[6] Straus, S. 2005. A Call for Transportation License Reforms. Presentation to the United States Department of Transportation, Washington, DC, 28 September 2005.
http://www.esracorp.com/p092805.pdf

[7] Straus, S. and J. Semmens. 2006. Estimating the Cost of Overweight Vehicle Travel on Arizona Highways. Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration,
FHWA-AZ-05-528.
http://www.azdot.gov/TPD/ATRC/publications/project_reports/PDF/AZ528.pdf    http://www.esracorp.com/AZ528.pdf

[8] Straus, S. and J. Semmens. 2006. Estimating the Cost of Overweight Vehicle Travel on Arizona Highways, TRB 85th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM, Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, 20060122 20060126. http://pubsindex.trb.org/document/view/default.asp?lbid=775740  

http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=5872

http://www.wilbursmith.com/AT055/documents.html

http://www.nmsu.edu/~traffic/Publications/Trafficmonitor/Pub_Trafficmonitor.htm

[9] Straus, S. and J. Semmens. 2006. Estimating the Cost of Overweight Vehicle Travel on Arizona Highways. Presentation at the Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Science, Washington, DC, January 2006.

[10] Straus, S. 2007. "Senior driver program unfair," San Luis Obispo Tribune, 31 January 2007.

[11] Straus, S. 2003. Survey Results of Environmental Representatives of all New Mexico Native American Pueblos and Reservations on the Risks Associated with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes. State of Nevada, Office of the Governor, Agency for Nuclear Projects, Nuclear Waste Project Office website. (http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/socio.htm) April 28, 2003.

[12] Straus, S. 2007. After September 11, 2001: Risk Perception and Risk Assessment of American Indian Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico on the Impacts of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes, Presentation at the Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Science, Washington, DC, January 2007.

[13] Straus, S. 2007. “After September 11, 2001: Risk Perception and Risk Assessment of American Indian Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico on the Impacts of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes,” Presentation at the 86th Annual TRB Meeting, Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, January 2007. Available on the website of the State of Nevada, Office of the Governor, Agency for Nuclear Projects, Nuclear Waste Project Office website. (http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2007/pdf/esra070123trb.pdf) January 31, 2007.

[14] Straus, S. 2007. "The Future is Now: Improving Road Safety and Security with New and Automated Truck-only Lanes". Presentation at the 2nd International Conference on Transportation Logistics (T-Log 2007), 4- 6 July 2007, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China. (
http://www.tsinghua-logistics.com/download/programme%20of%20T-LOG2007.pdf )

[15] Straus, S. 2007. "Standardization and Computerization of the Clock Drawing Test: The Automatic Clock Drawing Test". Presentation at the 9th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe, AAATE 2007, 3- 5 October 2007, San Sebastian, Spain. (http://www.fatronik.com/aaate2007/files/oral_s3.pdf)

 

Recent Acquisitions ____________________________________________________

 

The University of Adelaide Center for Automotive Safety Research,

Arizona Memory Project

University of California

Florida Department of Transportation

Maine Department of Transportation

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Montana Department of Transportation

Ohio Department of Transportation

University of Texas Library

Better Roads Magazine

 

TRIS Online

 

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