Innovation Team Sponsor’s Corner

Innovation and change go hand in hand, something that was made clear by the bittersweet news that our District 11 Innovation Team Chairperson Dr. Lima Saft has accepted a new position as the District 8 Innovation Manager.

We would like to celebrate Dr. Lima’s promotion within our organization and also recognize her leadership and countless contributions to the District 11 Innovation effort.

Dr. Lima has been with Caltrans for over 29 years. She earned her Ph.D. in Transportation Science from UC Irvine in 2011 and earned her Master’s and bachelor’s degrees from San Diego State University in 1997 and 1992 respectively.

As the chair of the District 11 Innovation team, she was the focal point for the District 11 annual Innovation Fair, Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) pilot technology, Transit-Only-Lane, Bus-onshoulder strategy, wrong way prevention Intelligent Transportation System projects, and countless other innovations. She has brought awards and accolades to the Department for her research and innovation efforts. She is a licensed Civil Engineer, and a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She is keen on improving processes, and products through teamwork, dedication, and commitment to excellence. Dr. Saft is an advocate for continuous learning and is an adjunct professor of Transportation Engineering at San Diego State University where she teaches upper-division undergraduate and graduates courses for transportation careers. Dr. Lima was named as one of the 2021 Women of Influence in Engineering by the San Diego Business Journal, 2019.

Dr. Lima received “Outstanding Engineer of the Year” from the San Diego County Engineering Council and was named the 2017 WTS San Diego Chapter Woman of the Year. She continues to be an exceptional mentor, engineer, and capable leader in her role as the current President of the San Diego Chapter of WTS, a professional organization with the mission to Attract, Sustain, Connect and Advance women’s careers to strengthen the transportation industry.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lima on her new role and let’s continue to build upon the effort that she helped to establish here in District 11.

We are happy to announce that Seana Urquhart has graciously accepted to be interim chair of the D11 Innovation Committee. She brings a wealth of experience with her and we are looking forward to continuing our Momentive moving forward.

MICRO INNOVATION SPOTLIGHT

A micro-innovation simple that someone can do right away that doesn’t require acquiring hardware, software or special training. It can be a shortcut, a process change or any quick and easy to implement while also having a meaningful impact or work, cost productivity or quality. We welcome any microinnovation that you might have found or created. Please submit it to the Innovation Quarterly Microinnovation editor, Dave Olander (dave.olander@dot.ca.gov).

Organizing E-Mail into To-Do Tasks

This edition’s Micro-innovation is about organizing e-mail into to-do tasks. If you get a request to do something in an e-mail, but can’t get to it right away, flag it as a ‘To-Do’ item, so that you can get it added to a task list, and include a reminder if desired.

1. On a computer, click the flag that appears next to the message when it is selected. Note: You can also right-click to customize start/end dates, add reminders or customize other features. There is a ribbon group for customizing ‘To Do’ items as well. Note: You can also flag e-mails on you iPhone or Android Outlook App, with limited customization options.

2. After an item has been added to your ‘To Do’ list, it will appear as a task in your task list. Note: You can add it to your calendar’s page as a stacked task list in the ‘To Do Bar” and also have them appear in a ‘Daily Task List’, shown under each day. The video links below shows how to do this: Flag items for follow up (linkedin.com) https://youtu.be/36L0PJlnwsw