S.M.A. (Opu) Bin Al Islam, Ph.D. Candidate
Opu is a doctoral candidate at NC State University. He received his B.Sc. from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2014, and M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Washington State University (WSU) in 2017. Opu has worked on his doctoral research at Computation Urban Sciences Group in Oak Ridge Nation Laboratory from 2018 to 2019. He is interested in synthesizing computational power with real-time communications to control complex cyber-physical systems. His goal is to accelerate the development of reliable and real-time methodologies that integrate control, optimization, statistical, and learning-based models for cyber-physical systems. He was awarded first place in the engineering and physical science section in the 2017 Research Exposition at WSU for his outstanding research work. He was the runner-up of the 3-minute thesis competition in the 99th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board, 2020. Opu has published four journal papers and has three papers under review so far during his Ph.D. studies.
Mehrdad Tajalli, Ph.D. Candidate
Mehrdad received his B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2011, and the M.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, in 2014. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in transportation systems in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. Mehrdad’s research focuses on network optimization, speed harmonization, and signal timing control in connected urban networks. During his Ph.D. studies, Mehrdad has published seven journal papers and has three papers under review so far. Besides studying, Mehrdad enjoys running and yoga.
Rasool Mohebifard, Ph.D. Candidate
Rasool received his B.Sc. degree (Hons.) in Civil Engineering from Shahid Bahonar University, Iran, in 2012, and the M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering-Transportation from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, in 2014. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at North Carolina State University. He was the recipient of the Bowman Kelly Memorial Scholarship in 2020 and the Graduate Research Assistant Excellence Award in 2019. Rasool’s research interests are perimeter control, traffic operations in smart cities, and transportation network design. Rasool has published five journal papers and has three papers under review so far during his Ph.D. studies.
Mehrzad Mehrabipour, Ph.D. Candidate
Mehrzad is a doctoral student in Transportation Systems at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on the development of distributed and decomposition methodologies with a particular emphasis on traffic assignment problems. She has received her B.Sc. (Hons.) in 2012 and an M.Sc. (Hons.) in 2014 both in Industrial Engineering. She also received an M.Sc. in 2018 in Transportation Engineering from Washington State University. Mehrzad is the recipient of the Graduate Research Assistant Excellence Award, President Leadership Award, and five scholarships from INFORMS Analytics Society, Society of Women Engineers, North Carolina Section of ITE, Washington Section of ITE, and WTS Puget Sound Chapter. She has published two journal papers and has one paper under review so far during her Ph.D. studies.
Ramin Niroumand, Ph.D. Student
Ramin is a doctoral student in the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department at North Carolina State University with a specialization in Transportation Systems. He received his BS.c. in 2014 and MS.c. in 2017 from the University of Tabriz and Sharif University of Technology, respectively in Civil Engineering. His research focuses on joint optimization of connected and automated vehicle trajectory and intersection signal timing plans to increase mobility and safety performances for road users. Ramin has published two journal papers so far during his Ph.D. studies. Outside his research, Ramin enjoys playing Taar (a traditional musical instrument) and gardening.