Collaborators

Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, Ph.D., P.E.

• Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1998
• M.S., Minia University, Egypt, 1990
• B.S., Assuit University, Egypt, 1984

Abdel-Rahim is the director of TranLIVE and NIATT and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Idaho. He has authored and co-authored over 70 publications in academic journals, book chapters, conference proceedings, and research reports. Abdel-Rahim’s expertise includes traffic control and operations, Intelligent Transportation Systems, microscopic simulation modeling, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, network modeling, transportation network security and survivability, real-time control application, vehicle emission and fuel consumption modeling, highway and traffic safety, and engineering education.

Mecit Cetin, Ph.D.

Mecit Cetin earned his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Transportation Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, in 1999 and 2002, respectively. Cetin has joined the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Old Dominion University (ODU) as an assistant professor in August 2008. Prior to that, he had worked as an assistant professor for four years in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia, SC. Cetin has published 18 peer reviewed journal papers. Cetin has been conducting research in various areas including modeling and simulation of traffic operations, congestion pricing, freight transportation, advanced traveler information systems, traffic signal control, probe vehicle technologies, and system state estimation in transportation networks.

Currently, Cetin is developing new methods to estimate the system state in transportation networks (e.g., travel times, flow rate, and queue lengths) from the real-time data collected by various types of sensors such as inductive loops and probe vehicles equipped with wireless communications and tracking technologies. System state estimation is a critical component in optimizing the efficiency of transportation operations, traffic signal optimization, emergency evacuation and response, and effective management of transportation networks. Cetin is also conducting research that pertains to modeling the movement of freight over the highway networks. He is developing new vehicle re-identification algorithms to estimate flow patterns of truck traffic to obtain a better understanding of origin-destination flows, empty truck movements, and reliability of travel times.

Mike Robinson, Ph.D.

Mike Robinson leads VMASC’s research in transportation and evacuation modeling. Robinson is currently leading a study of suggested transportation construction projects for the Hampton Roads region, forecasting the different alternative’s effectiveness at reducing the congestion issues currently experienced as well as those anticipated in the year 2034. He also leads a study of the proposed toll road connecting Hampton Roads with the Richmond-Petersburg area along the existing US 460 corridor. This particular focus of this study is the proposed road’s impact on freight movement. Previous research includes the Commonwealth of Virginia-funded project to model the evacuation of the Hampton Roads region, studies for the Virginia Department of Transportation, and as the transportation modeling and simulation leader for a US Department of Labor Economic Development Assistance grant to spur the economy of southeastern Virginia.

Robinson is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who also holds a Master's degree in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He completed his Ph.D. in Modeling and Simulation at ODU. Other research interests include decision modeling and emergency planning and decision-making.

Ossama Salem, Ph.D.

Yabroudi Chair Professor of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures at Syracuse University

Ossama (Sam) Salem is currently the Yabroudi Chair Professor of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Syracuse University and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed articles. He spent most of his career working with many state DOTs and University Transportation Research Centers developing decision support systems and performance measurement tools for evaluating alternative technologies, strategies, and modeling techniques for transportation. His research focuses on developing modeling tools for life-cycle assessment, risk management, and life-cycle cost analysis from a triple-bottom-line perspective (i.e., environmental, economical, and social impacts). He has served on the executive committee of the Midwest Regional University Transportation Asset Management Center (2003–2008) and the Board of Directors of the University Transportation Research Center (Region II) (2010–Present). He is a founding member and the director of the International Society for Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Transport Infrastructures (iSMARTi). He also served as the director of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Research and Education Committee between 2000 and 2002. Throughout his career, he has served on many TRB committees, including the Transportation and Sustainability Committee, Asset Management Committee, Construction Management Committee, and the Maintenance Equipment Committee. He is also a member of the NCHRP Panel on Project 20-5. He serves on the editorial boards of ASCE’s Journal of Infrastructure Systems and Journal of Management in Engineering.

Cliff Davidson, Ph.D.

Wilmot Chair Professor of Engineering at Syracuse University

Cliff Davidson is the Wilmot Chair Professor of Engineering and has spent much of his career focused on sources and ultimate fate of atmospheric particles, including particle emissions from motor vehicles as well as stationary sources. He also focuses on sustainable development research and became a leader in developing sustainable engineering educational programs. Currently, he serves as the director of the Center for Sustainable Engineering, which is dedicated to helping engineering professors update their courses and develop new ones to account for emerging issues related to sustainability of natural and built environments.

Lei Yu, Ph.D.

Director of TSU Innovative Transportation Research Institute (ITRI) and Dean of College of Science and Technology

• Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Queen's University, Canada, 1994
• M.A.Sc., Production and Systems Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, 1988
• B.A.Sc., Transportation Engineering, Northern Jiaotong University, China, 1984

Yu has successfully directed more than 50 externally funded research projects sponsored by various federal and local governments, and private entities. Yu is an internationally recognized scholar within transportation and environmental research societies with more than 180 publications and 100 conference presentations. Yu’s research expertise includes emission testing and modeling, dynamic traffic network modeling and simulation, travel demand forecasting and modeling, transportation security evaluation and technologies, ITS related technologies and applications, and traffic controls and operations.

Fengxiang Qiao, Ph.D.

TSU Representative to TranLIVE

• Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Civil Engineering with Emphasis on Traffic and Transportation, November 8, 2000, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.
• Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering, June, 1988, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China.
• Bachelor Degree in Automatic Control Engineering, July, 1985, Nanjing Institute of Technology (renamed as Southeast University since 1988), Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China

Qiao is an associate professor with over 100 publications in academic journals, books and book chapters, conference proceedings, and research reports. He is an editorial board member of the Open Transportation Journal, and has developed novel vehicle emission testing models as well as intelligent traffic data modeling and processing methodologies. Qiao’s expertise also includes driving transportation planning, traffic control and operation, travel behavior studies, traffic sign design and placement, pedestrians and bicyclists travel studies, air quality and transportation, and soft-computing and artificial intelligence applications in transportation studies.

Yi Qi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Department of Transportation Studies

• Ph.D., Transportation Planning and Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Polytechnic University of New York, December 2002.
• M.S., Probability and Statistics, Department of Statistics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China, July 1999
• B.S., Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China, July 1996

Yi Qi is a known expert in mobile source emission modeling and air quality assessment, traffic safety and crash analysis, roadway geometric design, traffic signal deign and operational analysis, transportation system performance measure, traffic simulation, and GIS based system design and analysis.

Hesham Rakha, Ph.D.

Director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Hesham. Rakha is a professor at the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. He has authored/co-authored over 210 refereed publications of which 99 are fully refereed journal publications in the areas of traffic flow theory, traffic modeling and simulation, dynamic traffic assignment, traffic control, transportation energy and environmental modeling, and transportation safety modeling. Rakha and his colleagues developed the VT-Micro, VT-Mesa and VT-CPFM fuel consumption and emission models. Rakha also directs the development of the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulation software. The INTEGRATION software is the only microscopic traffic simulation software that explicitly models vehicle dynamics, uses the VT-Micro fuel consumption and emission model, and can route vehicles to minimize their fuel consumption level.