
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 11, 1994                   TAG: 9412120039
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FORMER DIRECTOR'S EXPERTISE WELCOME

Virginia Tech's vice provost for research says Antoine Hobeika's experience still is welcome on the "smart" road project, even though concerns about his management of the Center for Transportation Research forced the provost to ask for his permanent resignation.

State police are conducting an embezzlement investigation into Hobeika's sale of computer software developed at Tech for the federal government to the Hong Kong Port Authority. No charges have been filed.

But the smart road, a project touted as a way for researchers to perform experiments for futuristic cars and traffic safety equipment, could bring $15 million in research money to Tech. If its full six miles are built, it is supposed to shave six minutes off travel time between Blacksburg and Roanoke.

"We would welcome any and all faculty" to assist in the project, said Leonard Peters, one of Hobeika's bosses. "Dr. Hobeika is a tenured faculty member. Certainly [he] would not be excluded from that.

"We don't want to lose his expertise."

But Peters, contacted in Washington, D.C., on Friday, said, "I just felt that there were some management issues, management concerns that I had," that prompted him to make Hobeika's temporary resignation in October permanent. He would not be more specific.

Peters said a search committee is being formed to find "someone who has their finger on the pulse of the direction that transportation research is moving in" to head the center.

University Transportation Fellow Ray Pethtel is serving as interim director. The search should begin within two weeks.

by CNB