Engineering Students Win Ford Award with Rural Transit App Prototype

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (May 18, 2026) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University College of Engineering students have won the Ford College Network TEST TRACK award for Social Mobility in the 2025-26 competition by developing an app prototype to address a transportation issue in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

David Quansah, a civil engineering master’s student, and Meray Abdelmalak, a senior civil engineering student in the accelerated bachelor’s to master’s program, participated in the Ford College Network Test Track program, a two-semester student competition hosted to address pressing community challenges while partnering with a local community host organization.

The N.C. A&T team, supervised by assistant professor Venktesh Pandey, Ph.D., partnered with Rockingham County to produce “Rockingham Connect,” an app prototype created to solve the rural transit gap that leaves workers stranded.

“Multiple transit systems in Rockingham County exist, but they don’t connect,” Quansah said in the team’s final pitch presentation. “Local transit, regional connectors and employers all operate independently, creating gaps for the people who rely on them most.”

Quansah and Abdelmalak designed Rockingham Connect to coordinate transit providers in real time through a rider app and a backend dashboard. It aligns schedules and ensures successful connections between services. The app allows for users to book trips and pay one fare, in addition to offering an accessible speech-to-text option and an incentive program for frequent riders.

Prior to the Test Track competition, Quansah and Abdelmalek  worked with fellow students Komal Gulati and Akilah Jones to present elements of their app and win the regional 2026 Southeast Data Competition for an Efficient Transportation System Design hosted by the A&T-led Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities (CR2C2).

Other participating schools in the Test Track competition were two teams from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, two teams from University of Michigan-Dearborn, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Florida International University.

The Ford College Network TEST TRACK is sponsored by Ford Philanthropy and hosted by the Henry Ford Institute for Learning. The Social Mobility award includes a prize of $25,000 the A&T team will use to work with Rockingham County leaders and implement Rockingham Connect.