News Archives - Page 3 of 8 - The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Irvine

University of California, Irvine (UCI) senior, Uriah Campos, was recently named the Pacific Southwest Region Undergraduate Student of the Year. Campos is majoring in Urban Studies with a GIS Specialization, and a minor in Management.

“I met Mr. Campos when he applied last spring for a position as an Undergraduate Research Assistant as part of the Transportation Undergraduate Research Assistant Program here at the Institute for Transportation Studies, Irvine,” notes UCI Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michael Hyland, who nominated Campos for this award. “I am his faculty advisor for his research project, Equitable Design of Shared E-bikes and E-scooter Systems within American Cities. This summer and fall, as part of his research, Mr. Campos investigated the implementation and design of shared e-bike and e-scooter systems within several US cities. He performed a spatial equity analysis utilizing ArcGIS to create maps and visualizations of spatial data illustrating the relationship between e-bike and e-scooter service quality in comparison to neighborhood demographics.”

Campos completed transportation-related research projects in each of his sophomore, junior, and senior years, and his research has been recognized broadly. He was invited to present his research at the 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Forum on Integrated and Sustainable Transportation System (IEEE FISTS) in Riverside, California in February of this year, at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC in January, to California Secretary of Transportation, Toks Omishakin and UCI in August, 2023, and at the 2023 Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Regional Conference and General Assembly in Palm Desert, California this past May. He was also selected to represent UCI at the California Transportation Foundation (CTF) to participate in the 2023 CTF Education Symposium in Walnut Creek, California this past November, and was awarded and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Travel and Publication Award to facilitate his progress this academic year. Campos is also a high performing student, maintaining Dean’s Honor list status through his junior and senior years.

Campos’ career goal is to design cities for optimal and sustainable transportation systems. “I am so honored to have received the PSR Undergraduate Student of the Year award,” Campos shares. “I am deeply appreciative to be recognized for all the hard work and research that I’ve been able to complete as an undergraduate here at UCI. I am thankful to have worked with everyone who has offered me their help and support, especially my advisors at the UCI Institute of Transportation Studies. I have been able to learn from so many great experiences and opportunities that I am thrilled to take with me as I graduate and enter a career within the field of planning.”

“Uriah is an exceptional student who is a pleasure to have in my research group. He shows great promise as a young researcher, and will represent PSR well,” adds Dr. Hyland.

Campos will present his research and receive his award at the PSR Annual Congress this spring in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 11
Cited: Sarah Catz, research associate and lecturer of urban planning and public policy
Read the full article here.

Faculty and students associated with Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California Irvine (ITS-Irvine) have 23 presentations at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board!

List of ITS-Irvine Presentations

The following courses will be offered by UCI transportation faculty in Winter Quarter 2024. Most courses meet Monday and Wednesday from January 15* through March 15 (plus the following week for exams). For more information, contact the course instructor (see: https://engineering.uci.edu/dept/cee/faculty-staff/faculty).

CEE 122 / 229a. Transportation Systems II: Operations and Control (4) (Jin, MWF 10-10:50am)
Introduction to fundamentals of urban traffic engineering, including data collection, analysis, and design. Traffic engineering studies, traffic flow theory, traffic control devices, traffic signals, capacity and level of service analysis of freeways and urban streets. Laboratory sessions
CEE 125. Transportation and the Environment (4) (Ramirez Ibarra, MW 11-12:20 pm)
Analysis of the impacts of motor vehicle transportation on the environment. Introduction to life cycle analysis applied to transportation. Basic economic tools for transportation externalities. Transportation planning, urban form, health, and the environment. Transportation sustainability.
CEE 220B. Travel Demand Analysis II (4) (Borowski, MW 8:30-9:50 am)
Methods of discrete choice analysis and their applications in the modeling of transportation systems. Emphasis on the development of a sound understanding of theoretical aspects of discrete choice modeling that are useful in many applications in travel demand analysis.
CEE 221B. Transportation Systems Analysis II (4) (Hyland, MW 2-3:20 pm)
Advanced mathematical methods and models to address logistics and urban transportation problems. Topics include network flows, advanced optimization techniques, network models, and heuristic algorithms.
CEE 228A. Urban Transportation Networks I (4) (McNally, MW 3:30-4:50 pm)
Analytical approaches and algorithms to the formulation and solution of the equilibrium assignment problem for transportation networks. Emphasis on user equilibrium (UE) comparison with system optimal, mathematical programming formulation, supply functions, estimation. Estimating origin-destination matrices, network design problems.
CEE 298. Transportation Data Analysis II (4) (Dean, MW 12:30-1:50 pm)
Spatial econometric models, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation models, discrete choice models.

* Many UCI faculty and students attend TRB in Washington during the week of January 7-so it is likely that most courses will start the following week.

First posted on UCI News by Brian Bell

Research by UCI’s Institute of Transportation Studies promises to “make a difference for the state,” according to California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin, who met last week with ITS faculty, students and staff on campus.

The comment followed presentations by institute researchers – ranging from undergrads to postdocs – on their multidisciplinary work.

The topics included suggestions for closing gaps in “transit deserts” in Southern California; studying black carbon and PM 2.5 pollution emitted in freight corridors; air quality sensors in Greater Los Angeles; and research into how more people working from home affects transportation infrastructure and low-income residents who don’t have access to a car.

Omishakin also heard from an ITS grad student on landfills and efforts to strengthen recycling, as well as a presentation about the growing need for battery charging stations and how services can be designed in ways that are equitable and efficient.

One researcher discussed the explosive growth of ecommerce and the placement of warehouses in the Inland Empire region. Others outlined their collaboration with Caltrans (on a project to improve traffic detection sensors around the state) and the REMADE Institute, a Department of Energy-funded program to improve the efficiency of U.S. manufacturing.

UCI Institute of Transportation Studies researcher Joshua Swank, who earned an M.A. in philosophy, political science and economics at UCI, discusses his work with the REMADE Institute, which aims to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and transportation. Steve Zylius / UCI

“The history of our industry has focused on how to build things, whether it be from understanding concrete mix to pavement mixture to issues related to signalization to move vehicles,” Omishakin noted, reflecting on opening remarks by ITS director Stephen Ritchie. “To end up in a setting like this and to see faculty and students are thinking much more broadly about the issues is something that is touching and moving to see, because you all are clearly more focused on the things that are impacting people day-to-day and definitely the future, as well. I think it’s spot on.”

He added, “From what I’m hearing today, there’s no doubt that a lot of the work you’re doing is going to be something that makes a difference for the state, not just be a dust collector somewhere in the research portal; it’s going to be very relevant and usable.”

Professor Jean-Daniel Saphores, has renewed his main membership at TRB AMS40, Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies, for three years.

Faculty and students associated with Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California Irvine will present 20 papers at the 102th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council of the Academies of Engineering and Science, which takes place in January 2023.

List of ITS-Irvine Presentations

Siwei Hu, a 3rd year Transportation System Engineering PhD student co-advised by Prof. Hyland and Prof. Jay, has been chosen to receive the 2022 ACSE Transportation Vision Scholarship. The award was presented at the ASCE-OC History and Heritage Night on November 3rd, 2022.

The article featuring ITS funded survey of Santa Ana residents was originally posted on LA Times

Homeowners in the downtown area, with its tightly packed bungalows and historic charm, also stand to benefit if property values go up.

But some Santa Ana residents fear the streetcar will accelerate changes already underway, forcing longtime Latino-owned businesses out as trendy restaurants and bars sprout up around quinceañera shops.

In the Lacy neighborhood where Rojas lives, many endure overcrowded conditions and pool their paychecks to make ends meet.

Any increase in prices is an existential threat to renters — and, possibly, a threat to Santa Ana’s identity if longtime residents leave the working-class, majority-Latino city and are replaced by a wealthier, whiter population[…]