TRIP Alumni Spotlight: Sara-Grace Lien

The Institute of Transportation Studies, Irvine is proud to spotlight former TRIP participant, Sara L., for her new position at NTT DATA. At NTT DATA, Sara will work as an Associate Data Engineer, joining a graduate team delivering technical consulting across multiple industries. Sara’s background in mathematics and her computational skillset has prepared her for real-world problem solving, both within and beyond transportation and infrastructure challenges.

“I’m excited to work toward getting a doctorate in engineering that allows me to apply my math and data science experience.”

As an undergraduate researcher, Sara focused on prompt engineering for traffic signal warrant analysis, aiming to enhance efficiency and accuracy in traffic engineering workflows. In the process, Sara created a Python framework to test and evaluate large language models (LLMs) using traffic data. From her efforts, Sara discovered performance gaps in LLMs when applied to engineering-specific tasks and developed targeted recommendations for improvement. In January 2025, Sara presented these recommendations amongst many other findings at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 104th Annual Meeting.
Sara’s new role at NTT DATA will expose her to a diverse array of innovation across many sectors including transportation, finance, and technology.

“NTT DATA explores a lot of different industries, and I’m excited to explore how my skills are transferrable across industries. At an international company, I will be able to learn about what the process is like across cultures and learn about their unique perspective.”

Sara’s career journey is an inspiration to current TRIP/ PRIME participants who are looking to improve the future through interdisciplinary learning and curiosity. She encourages others to open themselves up to opportunities, even when the path may seem uncertain.

“Don’t let failure or unexpected circumstances get to you! Sometimes there’s something better on the other side.”.

Each summer, the ITS-Irvine Transportation Research Immersion Program (TRIP) and the Pre-college Research Immersion Program pairs undergraduate and high school student researchers with faculty to contribute meaningfully to ongoing transportation research projects. To learn more about these programs, contact ITS-Irvine Assistant Director for Programs and engagement Dr. Victoria Valentine Deguzman at vvdeguzm@uci.edu.