Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian, PhD

Bio:

Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian is a professor of transportation systems and head of the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from University of Toronto in 2002 and has been at UIC since 2003. His research covers various areas of transportation systems including travel behavior analysis, travel surveys, computational analysis of transportation systems, freight and logistics modeling, and agent-based microsimulation models. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 scholarly publications in scientific journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and reports. He is a co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Letters and has served as committee chair of the Traveler Behavior and Values committee (AEP30) of the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board. He has advised 24 PhD students.

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Ehsan Rahimi, Ph.D. (2021 – present)

Bio:

Ehsan Rahimi completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Civil Engineering in transportation at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Currently, he is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at UIC’s Department of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering, working on various federally and state-funded projects, focusing on new mobility and equity.

He has an interdisciplinary background in econometrics, transportation, smart infrastructure systems, and management. He has researched a variety of areas, including (a) econometric modeling of engineering systems with a particular emphasis to enhance the sustainability and resiliency of the civil infrastructure and facilitate decision and policymaking; (b) transportation safety analysis and modeling; and (c) innovative models to explore the role of new mobility and micro-mobility options in transportation networks, including electric and autonomous vehicles.

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Amir Bahador Parsa (2017 – present)

Bio:

Amir Bahador Parsa is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to joining UIC, he was awarded a MS degree in Transportation Engineering from the Amirkabir University of Technology. He has a wide range of interests including highway safety, application of machine learning and deep learning techniques on traffic big data, traffic modeling and simulation, statistical and data-driven analysis in transportation studies, and transportation behavior. Currently, he is focusing on several projects such as accident prediction, detection, and prevention on highways in real time, optimizing the operation of the Kennedy expressways in Chicago, and dynamic prediction of travel time for the Northeast Illinois expressways.

Ahmad Nafakh (2018 – present)

Bio: 

Ahmad is a Civil Engineer II at the Illinois department of Transportation by day and a 3^rd year PhD student at the University of Illinois at Chicago by night. His academic experience includes evaluation of operational safety of traffic signals regarding flashing yellow arrow aimed at assessing the safety of traffic operation and improved mobility resulting from the implementation of a flashing yellow arrow for permissive left turn-turn movements at signalized intersections. variable land-use analysis in the context of pedestrian environments utilizing GIS and statistical analytical methods that aim at defining measures capturing urban design elements that are related to walkability in the overall context of the transportation network, behavioral route-choice modeling and analysis  with the focus on understanding how and why route-choice decisions are made on the transportation network, and investigating the influence of transportation resources on the economically disadvantaged in general and Housing Choice Voucher recipients of the Moving to Opportunity experiment in specific. His professional experience includes programming, design, operation and construction of transportation projects. Such experience involves entities such as the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (Tollway), IDOT, and many other local municipalities private sector companies.

Mohammadjavad Javadinasr (2019 – present)

Bio:

Mohammadjavad is a Ph.D. candidate and a research assistant at the department of Civil and Material Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He has received his MSc in transportation planning from Sharif University of Technology in 2019. His research interests encompass discrete choice analysis, applications of data-driven analysis in transportation studies, route choice behavior analysis, Micro-mobility (e.g., shared E-scooters) and optimization of transit systems.

1. Amir Samimi, PhD
   Research: Behavioral Freight Modeling
   Duration: March 2010 – August 2010
   Current position: Associate Professor, Sharif University of Technology
2. Taha Hossein Rashidi, PhD
   Research: Data Transferability/Residential Location Choice Behavior
   Duration: May 2011 – July 2011
   Current position: Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia
3. Joshua Auld, PhD
   Research: Demand Modeling for High Speed Rail / IL Statewide Model
   Duration: July 2011 – June 2015
   Current position: Research Scientist, Argonne National Lab
4. Behnam Amini, PhD
   Research: Agent-Based Simulation
   Duration: August 2013 – August 2014
   Current position: Assistant Professor, IKIU, Iran
5. Behzad Karimi Varzardoliya, PhD
   Research: Long Distance Travel Demand
   Duration: Jan 2015 – May 2015
   Current position: WSP
6. Ramin Shabanpour, PhD
   Research: Activity-based Modeling, Autonomous Vehicle
   Duration: May 2018 – August 2020
   Current position: University of North Florida

1. Sadayuki Yagi, PhD
   Thesis title: An Activity-Based Microsimulation Model of Travel Demand for Transportation Policy and Impact Analysis, Completed: September 2006.
   Current position: Transportation Consultan, Tokyo, Japan.
2. Yong-Ping Zhang, PhD
   Thesis title: Household Travel Data Simulation: Applications of Spatial Transferability of Survey Data, Completed: October 2007.
   Current position: Assistant Professor, California State University, Pomona, CA.
3. Peng (Richard) Fan, PhD (co-advised with Peter Nelson, CS Department)
   Thesis title: Design and Analysis of Clustering Frameworks in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. Completed: November 2007
   Current position: Facebook
4. Amir Samimi, PhD
   Thesis title: A Behavioral Mode Choice Microsimulation Model for Freight Transportation in the U.S. Completed: March 2010
   Current position: Associate Professor, Sharif University of Technology
5. Chad Williams, PhD (co-advised with Peter Nelson, CS Department)
   Thesis title: A Data Mining Approach to Rapidly Learning Traveler Activity Patterns for Mobile Applications. Completed: March 2010
   Current position: Assistant Professor, Central Connecticut State University
6. Taha Hossein Rashidi, PhD
   Thesis Title: Households Long-Term Decision Making Process: vehicle Transactions, Employment, and Residential Location Choices. Completed: August 2010
   Current position: Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
7. Joshua Auld, PhD
   Thesis Title: Agent-based Dynamic Activity Planning and Travel Scheduling Model: Data Collection and Model Development. Completed: July 2011
   Current position: Principal Computational Transportation Engineer, Argonne National Lab & Research Assistant Professor, UIC
8. James Haran, PhD (co-advised with Peter Nelson, CS Department)
   Thesis Title: Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Microsimulation System for Modeling Transportation, Wireless, and Traveler Behavior. Completed: October 2011
   Current position: Vice President, Trustwave
9. Zahra Pourabdollahi, PhD
   Thesis Title: An Agent-Based Freight Transportation Modeling Framework, Completed: Nov. 2014
   Current position: Transportation Consultant, RS&H, Tampa, FL
10. Behzad Karimi Varzardoliya, PhD
    Thesis Title: Generation Gaps in Activity and Travel Behavior, Completed: Jan. 2015
    Current position: Transportation Consultan, WSP USA, Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area
11. Mehran Fasihozaman Langerudi, PhD
    Thesis Title:  Incorporating In-Home Activities into an Agent-Based Dynamic Activity Planning and Travel Simulation Model, Completed: September 2015.
    Current Position: Research Scientist at 84.51˚, Chicago, IL
12. Sanghyeon Ko, PhD
    Thesis Title: Analysis of Containerized Freight Shipments into the U.S. -Port Choice and Inland Optimization, Completed: December 2015.
    Current Position: Transportation Engineer, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Washington, D.C.
13. Seyed Mehdi Mahmoudifard, PhD
    Thesis title: Travel Behavior Analysis of Agricultural Commodities in a Freight Activity Microsimulation Framework,Completed: December 2016
    Current Position: Data Scientist and Transportation Planner, CDM Smith, Lisle, IL
14. Ramin Shabanpour, PhD
    Thesis title: Adoption Behavior of Privately Owned Autonomous Vehicles, Completed: May 2018
    Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of North Florida
15. Nima Golshani, PhD
    Thesis title: Evacuation Behavior during No-Notice Emergency Events, Completed: May 2018
    Current Position: Research Scientist, Georgia Institute of Technology
16. Fatemeh (Nooshin) Nazari, PhD
    Thesis Title: Modeling travel behavior with the advent of electric and autonomous vehicle technologies, Completed: May 2019
    Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley
17. Monique Anne Stinson, PhD
    Thesis Title: Strategic Decisions in Agent-Based Freight Transportation Models: Methods and Data, Completed: August 2020
    Current Position: Computational Transportation Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory
18. Homa Taghipour, PhD
    Thesis Title: Traffic Condition Assessment: Integrated Dynamic Travel Time Prediction and Accident Detection Models, Completed: August 2020
    Current Position: TBD
19. Ali Shamshiripour, PhD
    Thesis Title: Citizen-Centric Smart Cities: Planning for Travel Behavior in a Technology-dominated Future, Completed: December 2020
    Current Position: TBD
20. Ehsan Rahimi, PhD
    Thesis Title: Transportation Resilience: Behavioral Impact Analysis of Disruptions and Pandemic on Public Transit, Completed: December 2020
    Current Position: Post-doctoral Research Fellow, the University of Illinois at Chicago

1. Hassan Dastgir
   Project topic:  Non-Stop Mass Transit System: Feasibility and Preliminary Design. Completed: Spring 2005.
   Current position: Transportation Engineer, US Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C.
2. Karen Schweiss
   Thesis title: A Microsimulation Model of The Alinea On-Ramp Control Algorithm using VISSIM. Completed: October 2005.
   Current position: Adjunct Faculty, College of Lake County, IL
3. Saurav Chakrabarti
   Thesis title: Coordinated Strategies for Corridor Operations Management. Completed: February 2006.
   Current position: Senior ITS Specialist, Siemens, Pasadena, CA
4. Todd Bapton
   Thesis title: Calibration of Advanced Transportation Management System. Completed: March 2007.
   Current position: Transportation Engineer, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago, IL
5. Tom Brecheisen
   Research topic: Ramp Metering Revisited. Completed: May 2008
   Current position: Professional Environmental Engineer, Kowalenko Consulting Group, Chicago, IL
6. Mahmoud Javanmardi
   Thesis title: Application of Data Transferability in Examining Travel Behavior due to Changes in Life-Style. Completed: September 2009,
   Current Position: Department of Energy, Washington DC
7. Martina Zuchetti Frignani
   Thesis Title: A Two-Week Prompted Recall Internet-Based Survey of Activity-Travel Patterns: Observations on the Elderly. Completed: January 2010,
   Current Position: Current Position: Sr Civil Engineer at San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), CA
8. Roozbeh Shirani
   Thesis Title: Bus on Shoulder in Illinois. Completed: April 2011,
   Current Position: Transportation Engineer, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
9. Zohreh Ghasemi
   Research topic: Population Synthesize. Graduated: December 2011,
   Current Position: Transportation Engineer, URS
10. Karl Strum
    Research topic: Behavioral Influences in Route Choice: Impacts of Driver’s Preference and Demographics on Route Choice. Graduated: December 2013,
    Current Position: Transportation Engineer, DAMA Consulting, Chicago, IL
11. Fadhel Abbas (University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq)
    Thesis Title: Calibrating Highway Speed-Density Functions. Graduated: July 2015,
    Current Position: Transportation Engineer, Iraq
12. Seyedeh Maryam Niakian
    Thesis Title: How Supply Chain Attributes Influence Freight Trip Generation Estimation. Graduate: May 2017
    Current Position: Senior Logistics Analyst, Chervon North America
13. Daniel Johnson
    Thesis Title: A Synthesis of US Glare Screen Warrants and Design Requirements with Model Warrants and Design Guide. Graduated October 2017,
    Current Position: Federal Highways
14. Ahmad Nafakh
    Thesis Title: Spatial Assessment of Walkability Index – A case Study in Chicago. Graduated August 2018
    Current Position: Transportation Engineer, IDOT
15. Saud Al Fadhili
    Thesis Title: Analysis of People’s Preference on the Adoption and Use of New Mobility Technologies. Graduated January 2020
    Current Position: TBD