The SPTC is a U.S. Department of Transportation Region 6 Regional University Transportation Center. The Center was established in 2013 based on an award from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) to conduct a multidisciplinary program of transportation research, education, and technology transfer. The Southern Plains Transportation Center (SPTC) is a consortium of eight universities from USDOT Region 6: The University of Oklahoma (OU is consortium lead), Oklahoma State University (OSU), Langston University (LU), University of Arkansas (UARK), The University of New Mexico (UNM), Louisiana Tech University (LTU), The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Texas Tech University (TTU). Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (Mumbai, India) and Shandong University (Jinan, China) are two international collaborators. LU, UTEP and UNM are Minority Institutions of Higher Education. Both OSU and OU rank consistently as the nation’s top Native American Indian bachelor degree producers in engineering. With a “sharing to gain” culture and an annual budget of $2.6 Million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and dollar-for-dollar match by non-federal sources, the SPTC provides a unique opportunity to develop comprehensive, cost-effective and implementable solutions to critical infrastructure issues facing the transportation systems of the region and the nation, and to prepare transportation professionals for leadership roles in the industry.