Graduate Students

Hongyu is a Ph.D. student focused on energy/emission modeling. His hometown is Yantai, China, a beautiful costal city and he spent his childhood in Urumqi, China, a city with colorful diverse cultures.

Hongyu received his B.Eng. in Traffic and Transportation, and M.S. in Control Science and Engineering (Intelligent Modeling and Simulation of Traffic and Transportation System) from Beijing Jiaotong University. He served in the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar Research Center (CJSRC) from 2014 to 2017. Hongyu likes to spend time with his family and friends, and he enjoys swimming, board games and grand strategy video games.

Chelsea Dyess is a graduate student pursuing a dual Masters in Civil Engineering and a Masters in City and Regional Planning. Her research focuses on pedestrian infrastructure- particularly sidewalk quality, equity in transportation, and sidewalk prioritization. She received her BS in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2015. In her spare time she likes to bicycle, hike, and play kickball.

David is a dual-degree MBA/MS Civil Engineering student at Georgia Institute of Technology. His interests are in transportation planning and infrastructure management. Prior to attending Georgia David, served as a U.S. Naval Officer in the Civil Engineers Corps. He has experience in construction and project management as well as contingency engineering. For undergraduate, he attended the University of South Carolina, graduating with Honors from the South Carolina Honors College and earning a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. Outside the office and classroom he enjoys golf, brewing and going on adventures with his wife, Lizzie.

Daejin is a Ph.D. student in Transportation Systems Engineering at the Georgia Tech while seeking a dual master’s degree in Computational Science and Engineering. Daejin received his B.S. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Seoul, South Korea, in 2011. He earned his master’s degree in City Planning at Seoul National University, South Korea in 2013. Daejin’s graduate research is focused on Emissions and Fuel consumption modeling using MOVES-Matrix, Dispersion Modeling, and Transportation Management Programs. Daejin loves to play sports including soccer, basketball, end baseball.

Yingping is a Ph.D. student with a focus on travel demand modeling. Her research focuses on the effects of various traffic control measurements’ potential effect using activity based modeling. Yingping was born in Luoyang, China, a city which was capital of 9 dynasties in China’s history. She received her B.S. from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, and then Master degree from KAIST, South Korea, after which she worked for Korea Aerospace Research Institute and HongKong Poly-tech University for two years. She likes reading, Sci-Fi movies, badminton and Texas Hold’em Poker.

Xiaodan Xu is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. She received a bachelor degree in Traffic Engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China in 2014. She earned her master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2016. She is working on transportation emission modeling and air quality analysis. Her research works include deploying MOVES-Matrix at the regional level and local level, as well as developing the Fuel and Emissions Calculator for various vehicle fleet. Besides her Ph.D. study, Xiaodan is also pursuing a master’s degree in Statistics from Georgia Tech. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, reading and crafting.

Ann is a Ph.D. student in transportation system. She is double majoring in statistics (M.S. program). Her research projects are related to vehicle emissions, and GIS & transportation. She was born in Liaoning, China, and received her B.S. in GIS at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. She loves playing with data and coding small programs. In her free time, she likes hiking and baking. She is a serious fan of Formula 1 and NBA.

Daniel Walls is pursuing dual master’s degrees in Civil Engineering and City & Regional Planning with a focus on transportation planning. His graduate assistantship research enables cities to systematically map their sidewalk networks, evaluate sidewalk infrastructure for ADA compliance, and then prioritize repairs. As an Eisenhower Fellow, Daniel is also researching the feasibility of using on-demand automated shuttles as a first-and-last-mile solution for MARTA’s passenger rail system.

Daniel earned a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2008. Prior to graduate school, he spent several years working on federal transportation, infrastructure, and energy policy as congressional staffer in Washington, D.C.

Haobing is from Shaodong in Hunan Province, China. He is a PhD student working with Dr. Randall Guensler and Dr. Michael Rodgers. His research interests focus on data mining in transportation, transportation-related energy consumption and air pollution modeling. Haobing’s PhD dissertation research is modeling the impact of road grade on driving behavior, energy consumption, and emissions. Haobing also obtained a master’s degree in Statistics at Georgia Tech in 2017. In May-August, 2015, Haobing worked for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ORISE participant on MOVES model improvement. Before joining Georgia Tech, Haobing earned a B.S. (2010) and a Master (2013) in Transportation Engineering from Tongji University in Shanghai. Haobing likes spending time with family and friends.

Alice Grossman is working on her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech focuing on transportation policy analysis at a regional level by examining how MPOs set performance measures and project priortization under changin federal legislations. Alice recently completed her master’s research, also at Georgia Tech, on sidewalk database development and quality analysis.  She received a B.A. in physics and a B.A. in Astronomy from Vassar college in 2010. Before graduate school, she spent two and half years in Catalonia, Spain working for the Spanish Ministry of Education and interning at architecture firms BOPBAA and RCR Arquitectes.

Felipe is a Ph.D. student with a focus on traffic flow theory His research focuses on the effects of transit operational characteristics on network transportation systems. Felipe was born in Bogota, Colombia, and moved to Fort Lauderdale Florida as a teenager. He studied at the College of the Holy Cross where he received a B.A. in Economics, and at Columbia University where he received a B.S. in Civil Engineering. Felipe loves to play soccer, and spend time with family and friends.

Rama Chilukuri is a 3rd year Ph.D. student. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and M.S in Civil Engineering (Transportation emphasis) from University of Utah. After obtaining his masters degree, he worked as a consulting traffic engineer in Salt Lake City and Houston, before moving to Atlanta to pursue Ph.D. His primary interests include traffic flow theory and simulation. He is currently working on developing optimal ramp metering strategies for his dissertation. In his free time, Rama enjoys spending time with his family and playing tennis.

Aaron Greenwood earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2010 and started working toward a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering right away.  He is currently working on developing a driving simulator laboratory as part of a larger study on work zone safety.  In his spare time, Aaron is involved with Student Government and the Georgia Tech Presidents’ Council Governing Board.

Chenhao Liu is a PhD student in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineerg at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Chenhao earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2008 and a Masters in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2010. His research interests include traffic operations and safety. In his free time, Chenhao enjoys playing basketball, working out, and traveling.

Lakshmi N Peesapati is a 4th year PhD student in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in India. He earned his master’s degree in civil engineering at Georgia Tech while pursuing his PhD. His research interests include transportation safety, transportation operations including traffic and system level simulation, and statistical applications in transportation.

Adnan Sheikh is a third year graduate student in the doctoral program for Transportation Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Adnan received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2006.  After graduating, Adnan spent three years working in I.T. consulting for Accenture in Washington, D.C.  His federal clients included the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management.  Adnan’s graduate research is focused on congestion pricing, specifically the I-85 Express Lanes in the Atlanta metropolitan area. His research examines value of time and price sensitivity, and involves discrete choice modeling of lane type decisions.

Chris is from Canal Winchester, Ohio. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and is a PhD student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include traffic flow theory and driver behavior models. In his spare time, Chris enjoys bicycling and using the MyTracks application on his phone.

Danjue Chen is a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Laval.  Her research focuses on traffic flow theory and simulations, and her dissertation is about traffic oscillations.  She is from Chaozhou, a small city in southeastern of China that is famous for its food. Danjue attended Peking University and earned a B.S. in environmental science.

Dwayne was a PhD student in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dwayne received a B.A. in Physics from College of the Holy Cross and a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include real-time arterial performance evaluation and microscopic traffic simulation.

JungHyun Hong is from South Korea. She earned a B.S in Civil and Environmental Engineering from KAIST, Korea in 2004 and she got a Master in Structural Engineering Department from the same school in 2006. After working at Samsung C&T Corp. for three and half years, she came to the Georgia Institute of Technology to pursue a Master in Transportation. She is interested in pricing control and transit behaviors related to HOT lanes.

Sara Khoeini started her Ph.D. in January 2011 at Georgia Tech. Her Ph.D. research was about developing a modeling framework for socioeconomic analysis of managed lanes. She utilized advanced statistical and spatial analysis to discover the relationship between users travel behavior toward congestion pricing and their socio-spatial attributes; A case study on Atlanta I-85 HOV to HOT conversion.  After graduating in May 2014, she became a reearch scientist at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Katie Smith is from Lawrenceville, GA and earned her B.A. in History from the University of Georgia in 2006. After working in Minneapolis for four years, Katie decided to return to graduate school and is currently pursuing a Masters in Civil Engineering with a focus on transportation systems. Katie was involved with the HOV to HOT project as well as public outreach for other ongoing projects.

Wonho Suh is from Seoul, South Korea.  He completed his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he worked as a transportation research engineer for five years at Yooshin Corporation in South Korea. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Seoul National University (1998 & 2000).  His wife is an Engineering teacher at The Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology.  They have a 2 year old daughter, Minju Madison Suh, and are expecting a baby boy in 2011.

Sundaram Vedala was a graduate student in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He grew up in New Delhi, India and has lived in several cities in India. He worked as a software developer before coming to Georgia Tech to pursue his interests in transportation planning and transit. He likes spending time with family and friends.