News

2026

October 2026:
- Akilah Jones successfully defended her M.S. thesis, "Interagency Coordination: An Integrated Evaluation of Interagency Coordination and Transit Accessibility in Rural Areas." Congratulations, Akilah!
- Isaac and Ali's work on rural microtransit and resilience was selected for presentation at the 2026 NCSITE Annual Meeting (Friday Center, Chapel Hill, November 19, 2026): "Evaluating Rural Microtransit Feasibility and Accessibility: A Planning Framework and Toolkit for North Carolina" and "Geospatial Framework for Mapping Critical Facilities and Access Routes in Southeastern North Carolina." Congratulations, Isaac and Ali!
September 2026:
- The TML team is part of four research papers and one stakeholder team presentation selected for the TRB 106th Annual Meeting (January 2027). Highlights include Isaac's "Microtransit Accessibility Evaluation: A Rural Case Study for Economically Distressed Counties in North Carolina" and his tools-showcase presentation "A Spatial-Temporal Accessibility Dashboard for Rural Transit," and Komal's "Deep Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Reservation Management at Truck Parking Facilities under Hours-of-Service Constraints." Congratulations, Isaac and Komal!
- Our joint work with the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) team was published in the Journal of Transport Geography: Ioannou, I.-P., Nagarajan, S., Pandey, V., Gulati, K., & Kaisar, E. I. (2026). "Evaluating regional healthcare disparities using a gravity–radiation framework: A multi-resolution accessibility analysis." Read more at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2026.104864.
- Komal presented her poster "Competitive Facility Location for Truck Parking Using Choice-Based Reservation and Amenity Configurations in North Carolina" at the INFORMS regional meeting, the 2026 NC Triangle Research Regional Exchange: NC Analytics and AI Day, in Raleigh on September 25.
August 2026:
- Meray is the new Chair of the CR2C2 Student Leadership Council. Congratulations, Meray!
- We kicked off the NCDOT project "Beyond the Sum of Its Parts: A Modeling Approach to Joint Effects and Network Interactions for Strategic Project Prioritization" in collaboration with Dr. Michael Levin at the University of Minnesota.
- Bryan Rodriguez is working with the TML lab on his M.S. project, and Jeremy Hinton joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Bryan and Jeremy!
July 2026:
- Mohammad Ashraf Ali successfully defended his M.S. thesis, "A Multidisciplinary Framework for Evaluating and Improving Customer-Centric Transportation Service Delivery." Congratulations, Ashraf!
June 2026:
- Our paper "Resilience and Recovery of Points of Interest Following Hurricane Helene: A Temporal Analysis" by Ali Gorji Sefidmazgi, Komal Gulati, and Venktesh Pandey was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981261455026.
- Our collaborative paper on the operational analysis of dynamic part-time shoulder use (D-PTSU) on Ohio's I-275, led by the South Carolina State University team, was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Read more on ScienceDirect.
- David Quansah successfully defended his M.S. thesis, "Sequential Experimental Design Framework for Multi-Day Incentive-Based Travel Choice Experiments." Congratulations, David!
- Komal attended the POLARIS User Group annual meeting (Argonne National Laboratory | University of Illinois Chicago) and represented our lab through learning and joint work.
- We presented our work at the 2026 ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development (ICTD):
  - "Dynamic Traveler Responses to Sequential Incentives: Toward Adaptive Transportation System Management" (first author: David Quansah)
  - "Modeling Customer Experience and Service Efficiency in Transportation Agencies: A Multidisciplinary Approach" (first author: Mohammad Ashraf Ali)
  - "Quantifying Temporal Resilience Using POI Traffic Data: A Western North Carolina Hurricane Helene Case Study" (first author: Ali Gorji Sefidmazgi)
  - "Coordinating Microtransit and Mobile Clinics for Improved Rural Healthcare Access: A Joint Optimization Framework" (first author: Komal Gulati)
  Congratulations to David, Ashraf, Ali, and Komal!
May 2026:
- Meray and David won the 2025-26 Ford College Network Test Track Award for Social Mobility, hosted by the Henry Ford Learning Institute, for "Rockingham Connect," a rural transit app prototype for Rockingham County. Their work was highlighted by NC A&T and WFMY News 2. Congratulations, Meray and David!
- Our paper with Xiyuan Ren, Joseph Chow, and Linfei Yuan, "Microtransit revenue management informed by citywide travel demand and joint subscription–mode choice modeling," was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice (Vol. 210, 105046). Read more at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2026.105046.
- Andre, Kayla, and Daniyah represented NC A&T at the SDITE Traffic Bowl in Biloxi, MS.
- We gave two presentations at the NCAMPO Annual Conference in Asheville (May 6-8): "Multi-Criteria Readiness Evaluation for Autonomous Vehicles at Network and Corridor Levels" and "Data-Driven Truck Parking Solutions Using Facility Location and Reservation Systems: A North Carolina Case Study."
April 2026:
- Meray, David, Komal, and Akilah were the first-place winners of the CR2C2 2026 Southeast Data Competition for an Efficient Transportation System Design. Congratulations to the team!
- Komal earned the graduate certificate in Autonomy from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Congratulations, Komal!
- We held the kickoff for the NCDOT TRIP flooding project with the NC State University team led by Dr. Barbara Doll.
- Isaac and Meray presented posters at the NC A&T Undergraduate and Graduate Research and Creativity Symposium on April 23: "Data to Deployment: A Toolkit for Evaluating Microtransit Services in Rural Communities" (Isaac) and "Evaluating Community Readiness for Autonomous Microtransit in Rural North Carolina" (Meray). Our graduate students also presented their work at the College of Engineering's 15th Annual Dr. Bala Ram Graduate Research Poster Competition. Congratulations, all!
March 2026:
- Our team co-authored a review of physical and digital infrastructure standards and guidelines for automated vehicle readiness, which was accepted in the SAE International Journal of Connected and Automated Vehicles.
February 2026:
- Komal received the Bridgette Beato Leadership Legacy Award from WTS, presented in Raleigh on February 25, and Meray received a Leadership Legacy Award from WTS. Congratulations, Komal and Meray! 🎉
- A new NCDOT-funded project on flood modeling began: "Development of the Transportation Resilience Identification Planning Tool (TRIP) for the Southeastern Coastal Plain Region using Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling," led by NC State University. Our team focuses on accessibility under flooding disruptions.
- Our paper "Express lane route choice under real-time information: A joint revealed and stated-preference study" was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record. Congrats, Rifa!
- Dr. Pandey led and contributed to the five-day training week for the 2025-2026 Southeast Data Competition for an Efficient Transportation Design (February 2-6), with about 300 participants across five sessions:
  - Data foundations and visualization (Dr. Pandey; 61 participants)
  - Geospatial thinking and geospatial visualizations (Dr. Pandey and Dr. Sudhagar Nagarajan; 73 participants)
  - AI and data science (Dr. Gregory Erhardt; 63 participants)
  - Transportation planning concepts (44 participants)
  - Transportation safety concepts (60 participants)
January 2026:
- Isaac Agyemang joined our lab as an MS in Civil Engineering student. Welcome, Isaac!
- Our team had a strong representation at the TRB 2026 Annual Meeting, presenting posters and lectern presentations on various topics. Congratulations to Ali, Ashraf, David, and Komal for presenting their research.
- We will be presenting some of our ongoing research on truck parking solutions and readiness for autonomous vehicles in rural NC at the NCAMPO conference in Asheville. Two abstracts accepted! Congratulations to Komal and Basit.
- Meray secured a summer internship with HNTB. Congratulations, Meray!
- Dr. Pandey led the kickoff for the 2026 Southeast Data Competition for Efficient Transportation System Design.
- The TML team secured the CR2C2 REEG grant starting January 2026, titled "Data to Deployment: A Toolkit for Evaluating Microtransit Service in Rural Communities."

▶ 2025 (click to expand)

December 2025:
- Our paper titled "Adaptive electric vehicle routing and charging with deep reinforcement learning" by Farhang Ghahfarokhi, M., Park, H., Pandey, V., & Yoon, G. was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2025.101795.
- GitHub products were released. See the "Research" tab for more information.
- We closed and published the technical report for the NCDOT project. Please reach out if interested in the final products. Thanks to Ali and Rifa for their contributions to this project: Pandey, V., Hasnine, M. S., Tasnia, R., Hridoy, D. N., & Gorji-Sefidmazgi, A. (2025). Improving long-range planning models for feasibility analysis of mileage-based user fees as an alternative revenue stream (Report No. FHWA/NC/2024-07).
November 2025:
- David participated and was a finalist among 10 participants at the 3MT competition at NC A&T State University. Congratulations, David!
- Several NC A&T students received conference's awards at the NCSITE Annual Meeting. Civil Engineering senior Daniyah Crawford, who also serves as the ITE Student Chapter President, received the 2025 Cyrus Painter Memorial Scholarship. Senior Andre Flores-Fletes earned the 2025 Brent McKinney Honorary Scholarship. The NC A&T Student Chapter of ITE—advised by Dr. Pandey—was awarded the 2025 Paul F. Cribbins Award for Outstanding Student Chapter, marking a repeat win for the chapter. Other university-wide awardees included Komal Gulati, recipient of the 2025 Emily Blount Honorary Scholarship. Congratulations to all!
- We closed and published the technical report for NCDOT. Please reach out if you'd be interested in the final product. Thanks to Kayla and Muzan for their contributions to this project: Pandey, V., Comert, G., & Stevens, K. (2025). State of the art on auxiliary lanes between freeway interchanges: Part-time shoulder use review.
October 2025:
- Our paper titled "Real-time traffic insights with physics-informed neural networks: Integrating the Aw-Rascle model and LLMs" was published. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3618282.
- The research team at TML has 7 accepted papers for the TRB Annual Meeting 2026. We will also be represented at the posters/presentations at NCSITE 2025 Annual Meeting and ASCE ICTD 2026 conference. Congratulations to all authors whose papers were accepted.
September 2025:
- Dr. Pandey delivered a seminar on "Optimizing Rural Freight Systems: Case Studies from North Carolina, Florida, and Kentucky" with CR2C2 outreach. See more at CR2C2 website.
- Our paper titled "A Bi-criterion Steiner Traveling Salesperson Problem with Time Windows for Last-Mile Electric Vehicle Logistics" was published. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2025.107286.
August 2025:
- Rifa Tasnia graduated with her MS in Civil Engineering (Thesis) in Summer, 2025. Her thesis was titled "Express Lane Route Choice under Real-time Information: A Joint Revealed and Stated-Preference Study." Congratulations, Rifa!
- Welcome Akilah, who is joining as a graduate student, and Meray who is joining as an undergraduate researcher in the Transportation Modeling Lab.
- Two of our papers were accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record: "Investigating Automated Shuttle Readiness for Rural Areas: A North Carolina Case Study", led by Oladimeji Basit Alaka, and "A Comparative Analysis of Macro and Micro-Level Measures of Healthcare Access in Urban and Rural Areas", led by Komal Gulati. Read more here https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981251378138 and https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981251380266.
- Dr. Venktesh Pandey was appointed as the member of the Transportation Research Board's Standing Committee on Mobility Management (AEP 14).
July 2025:
- Our lab kickstarted a technical assistance project supported by NCDOT, synthesizing the "State of the Art on Auxiliary Lanes Between Freeway Interchanges."
- In collaboration with partners at CR2C2, ADTS Rockingham, Clemson University, and NC State University, our lab was awarded a Phase-1 Evaluation grant to investigate the potential of autonomous microtransit in Rockingham County through the Mobility, Access, and Transportation Insecurity (MATI): Creating Links to Opportunity Program, administered by the University of Minnesota and funded by the Federal Transit Administration.
June 2025:
- Komal Gulati was selected to receive the 2025 Emily Blount Honorary Scholarship offered by the North Carolina Section of Institute of Transportation Engineers. She also represented our lab at the 2025 Eno Center for Transportation Future Leaders Development Conference in Washington, DC. Congratulations, Komal.
- Our lab presented three research posters and three lectern presentations at the 2025 ASCE International Conference on Transportation Development. Kudos to all the students whose work was presented. See the LinkedIn Post.
- Muzan and Kayla will participate as undergraduate researchers over Summer 2025. Welcome, Muzan and Kayla!
May 2025:
- Our review paper titled "A Review of Mileage-Based User Fees for Sustainable Transportation Funding: Challenges, Opportunities, and Research Gaps" was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record. Read more at https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981251352761.
- Congratulations to the following graduates from the TML lab: Mikal and Mustafa for earning their BS in Civil Engineering; Htet for completing his MS in Civil Engineering with a project option; and Basit and Ridwan for earning their MS in Civil Engineering with a thesis option.
Apr 2025: Our paper titled "Towards vehicle miles traveled reduction: Impact of mileage-based user fee on travel mode choices" was accepted for publication in Case Studies on Transport Policy. Read more on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2025.101454.
Mar 2025: Komal Gulati was selected as the 2025 Eno Leaders Development Conference (LDC) Fellow. More information on ENO's website. Additionally, Neil secured an internship with the NCDOT's office in Asheville, North Carolina.
Feb 2025 :
- Our team presented three podium presentations and seven posters at the 2025 NCDOT Research and Innovation Symposium. See symposium agenda here for all presented talks.
- Oladimeji Alaka was awarded a $2500 scholarship through the North Carolina Department of Transportation for his poster presentation. See LinkedIn post.
Jan 2025:
- The TML team had a strong presence at the 2025 TRB Annual Meeting. See LinkedIn post.
- Ali Gorji has joined the TML team as a PhD Student in Computational Data Science and Engineering. Welcome, Ali!
- Neil Deshpande and Kayla Stevens joined the TML team as undergraduate researchers. Welcome, Neil and Kayla.
- Our paper titled "Combined Revealed- and Stated-Preference Survey to Understand the Impact of Multi-Source Real-Time Information on Travel Mode Choice" was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record. Read more on https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981241311573.

▶ 2024 (click to expand)

November 2024
- Oladimeji Alaka, in collaboration with CR2C2's Project 1-1 team, launched the rural autonomous vehicle readiness tool online. See the dashboard and source code.
- Rifa Tasnia was the recipient of the 2024 Roy D. Williams Memorial Scholarship offered by the North Carolina Section of Institute of Transportation Engineers. Congratulations, Rifa.
- NCA&T Student Chapter of Institute of Transportation Engineers, advised by Dr. Pandey, was awarded the 2024 Paul F. Cribbins Award for Outstanding Student Chapter at the 2024 NCSITE Annual Meeting.
- The Stage 3 of the Data Competition concluded successfully. Check out the CR2C2 LinkedIn Post. Congratulations to the TML team members who secured top positions: Oladimeji Alaka, Komal Gulati, Ridwan Tiamiyu, and Andre-Flores Fletes for winning first place, and David Quansah for earning third place.
October 2024
- TML team has nine accepted papers for presentation at the 2025 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. Kudos to all the students.
- Doreen Jehu-Appiah defended her Master's Thesis titled "Optimizing Demand-Responsive Transit: A Predictive Framework for Dwell Time and Integration of Value of Waiting Time" and is ready for graduating in Fall 2024. Congratulations!
September 2024
- Dr. Pandey leads the launch of CR2C2 center's Data Competition. More information available at: CR2C2 Data Competition 2024
July 2024
- TML team awarded NCDOT grant to design a data-driven compensation model for License Plate Agencies in North Carolina. Details can be found in the NCDOT Projects Database.
May 2024
- Ridwan Tiamiyu and Doreen Jehu-Appiah designed a Multimodal Trip Planner interface. Project available on GitHub.
▶April 2024
- Komal Gulati presents at the C2SMARTER Student Learning Hub on "Analyzing Scope and Limitations of Using GeoAI Toolbox in ArcGIS Pro/Online". More information available at the C2SMARTER Student Learning Hub.