The National Center for Sustainable Transportation at UC Davis awards undergraduate research fellowships to students interested in continuing their studies over the summer by conducting research in one of the following areas: environmentally responsible infrastructure and operations, multi-modal travel and sustainable land use, zero-emission vehicle and fuel technologies, and institutional change. We are very excited to have these students working with us!
Learn about how you can apply for our fellowship program!
2021 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows

Rosanely Alvarez-Coria
Major: Managerial Economics
Mentors: Dr. Elisa Barbour, Amy Lee, Dr. Susan Handy
Rosanely’s research involved a series of case studies on land use and transportation projects around California; specifically, looking at their effects on travel behavior and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). She also worked with Amy Lee on coding transportation projects and comparing regional transportation plans to the projects that will ultimately be funded. Additionally, Rosanely worked with Dr. Elisa Barbour on a study considering the impacts of COVID-19 on transportation and implications for state policy efforts to reduce driving and promote efficient transportation for the California Air Resources Board.
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Marc Arenas
Majors: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning & Political Science
Mentors: Dr. Jesus Barajas
Marc assisted with a multidisciplinary project that examined four consequences of freeway construction on minority neighborhoods: direct disruption, increasing segregation, diminished access to job or education opportunities, and health impacts due to increasing mobile sources of pollution. In the future, his research efforts will help to identify the racial demographics of the people and communities that were displaced, the impacts on the localized housing market, and the environmental characteristics of the affected neighborhoods by examining the contemporary levels of transportation-related pollutants using geospatial analysis.
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Yusuf Azam
Major: Design
Mentor: Dr. Beth Ferguson
Yusuf contributed to research on the Solar Charging Station (SCS) installation for Cruess Hall at the Adapting City Lab. His responsibilities for the SCS included Rhino rendering, design implementation and installation. The SCS combines solar technology, transportation infrastructure, and civic place-making, to provide the public an opportunity to recharge their mobile electronics, e-bikes or e-scooters.

Sean Bilter
Major: Environmental Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Giovanni Circella and Grant Matson
Sean contributed to research involving the effects of COVID-19 on transportation patterns and mobility. He participated in the implementation and analysis of a survey that tracked lifestyle and transportation adjustments before, during, and after the pandemic. His work helps researchers better understand the transportation needs of workers in a post COVID-19 society.
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Morgan Karcs
Major: International Relations
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Morgan participated in research on wildlife-vehicle collisions at the UC Davis Road Ecology Center. She processed data from California Highway Patrol reports which were used to update a map of wildlife-vehicle collisions for the online Wildlife Crossing Calculator. She then used this online tool to locate wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots where infrastructure such as fencing and crossing structures would be cost-effective and make the road safer for both humans and wildlife. Finally, she wrote reports proposing mitigation measures for each project area, which will be sent to policymakers.
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Alma Meckler-Pacheco
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentor: Dr. Scott Hardman
Alma contributed to research conducted at the UC Davis Electric Vehicle Research Center. She conducted research on where electric vehicle buyers get their information and how they become engaged in the transition to electric vehicles. Specifically, Alma was investigating word of mouth, internet sources, and other resources used in the decision to buy an electric vehicle.
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Holly Murphy
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Amy Lee
Holly worked with Amy Lee to illustrate the network of coalitions that oppose and support density and transit oriented housing legislation. They assisted with interview and survey design, creating a contact database of those weighing in on relevant legislation, and analyzing written sources to better understand different perspectives on zoning changes in California.
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Anthony Nguyen
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Giovanni Circella and Alimurtaza Kothawala
Anthony's research focused on applications of congestion pricing within and outside of the United States in order to develop strategies and suggestions for building successful pilot programs. The process included gathering relevant literature in preparation for interviews with stakeholders and experts to gain an understanding of their views, vision, and assessment of congestion pricing implementation in Los Angeles.
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Felipe Ramirez
Major: Sustainable Environmental Design
Mentor: Dr. Jesus Barajas
Felipe's research focused on the impacts of freeway siting on minority communities. He focused particularly on US Census data analysis and the consequences of freeway siting, including increasing segregation, diminished access to job or education opportunities, health impacts, and the disinvestment and loss of housing, local businesses and local institutions.
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Emil Rodriguez
Major: Civil & Environmental Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Elisa Barbour
Emil researched the planning process of California’s 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations in developing strategies for greenhouse gas emission reductions through land-use planning. He prepared a report for the California Strategic Growth Council analyzing the relationship between regional transportation plans and state and local plans on transportation, housing, and community development with the goal of informing methods to improve coordination and performance.

Claire Short
Major: Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Claire participated in research on wildlife-vehicle collisions at the UC Davis Road Ecology Center. She processed data from California Highway Patrol reports which were used to update a map of wildlife-vehicle collisions for the online Wildlife Crossing Calculator. She then used this online tool to locate wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots where infrastructure such as fencing and crossing structures would be cost-effective and make the road safer for both humans and wildlife. Finally, she wrote reports proposing mitigation measures for each project area, which will be sent to policymakers.
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Paola Vargas
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentor: Dr. Gwen Arnold
Paola worked with Professor Arnold, whose research strives to understand how economically marginalized, resource-dependent communities respond and create action after experiencing fracking-related impacts. Her research focused on data analysis collected through surveys that examined communities' perceptions of fracking.
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Jonathan Wang
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Adam Davis
Jonathan contributed to research involving electric vehicle (EV) charging behavior. He analyzed anonymized GPS traces from California drivers collected as part of an electric vehicle miles traveled survey. He identified the frequency of long-duration stays at home and other locations throughout the day to gain a better understanding of when and where EV drivers charge their vehicles.
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Jordan Werkmeister
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Gwen Arnold
Jordan conducted research on the effects of hydraulic fracturing on resource dependent communities. Specifically, she investigated how communities respond to the boom-bust cycles created by the fracking industry and how the boom-bust cycle is conceptualized by governance participants. Additionally, Jordan investigated the impacts of fracking on transportation infrastructure within rural communities.
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Lucy White
Major: Sustainable Environmental Design
Mentor: Dr. Beth Ferguson
Lucy worked on improving micro mobility in Oakland, California through mobility hubs with the Adapting City Lab. Her projects include focusing on last and first mile connections between public transit and improving bike safety in urban design at the 11th & Broadway Transit center in San Diego, California.
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2020 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows
Faiza Alvi
Major: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Mentors: PH&EV Center
Faiza conducted research on existing and planned hydrogen infrastructure in California. Specifically, she looked at the different types of hydrogen refueling possible and how fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) can be supported as they grow in popularity.
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Emily Carlson
Major: Design
Mentors: Dr. Angela Sanguinetti and Dr. Beth Ferguson
Emily worked on two projects, both exploring visual design’s role in influencing and educating the public on the benefits of sustainable transportation with automobiles. The first project was a survey that researched how to encourage the public to ride in shared autonomous vehicles. The second project was a website that compares electric vehicles to gas vehicles that tries to convince the user that electric vehicles are ultimately the better choice for the environment and the user.
View EV Explorer Presentation | View RoboTaxi Presentation | Download EV Explorer Report | Download RoboTaxi Report
Tak Chun Marcus Chan
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Giovanni Circella
Marcus participated in the COVID-19 mobility study by analyzing how behaviors and attitudes have changed over time. He also analyzed how people adjusted to the COVID-19 impact in their lives. Specifically, he examined the responses obtained from online surveys and provided key data findings on transportation during this period of time which relate to various factors such as sociodemographic changes, significant locations affected, the scale of outbreak and the appropriate measures the government was implementing.
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Aristide Fertig
Major: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Lew Fulton & Dr. Behdad Kiani
Aristide gathered data on the economic feasibility of the use of hydrogen as a dominant energy source in California. He investigated different methods of hydrogen production using electrolysis, and the amount of hydrogen already being produced in California. He also researched future prospects of hydrogen demand in California by looking at the state’s future in ammonia production and the energy consumption of steel plants.
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Kailey Flynn
Major: Environmental Policy, Analysis, and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Susie Pike
Kailey used previously-collected survey data to investigate how train users access the Davis Amtrak station and what affects their experience there. She specifically examined how certain variables, like age, gender, and reason for travel, might impact users' transportation choices. She analyzed these areas using regression or other models. She hopes that her work will contribute to our understanding of access modes and access barriers as well as inform the Davis Amtrak Station Access Program.
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Emma Goldsmith
Major: Environmental Policy and Analysis
Mentor: Dr. Elisa Barbour
Emma explored local policymaking patterns for transit-oriented development, transit, and active transportation in California's four largest regions: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento, as well as other case study cities. Emma conducted a literature review of city documents and news coverage on transit-oriented development, transit, and active transportation projects. Additionally, she conducted interviews with key stakeholders and city staff.
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David Haddad
Major: Computer Science and Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Angela Sanguinetti & Dr. Beth Ferguson
David’s research involved maintaining a tool called “Electric Vehicle (EV) Explorer", a tool that helps consumers decide whether an electric vehicle is right for them. Specifically, David was involved in researching inputs such as updated vehicle purchase and leasing costs, maintenance costs, and incentive amounts.
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Janet Jin
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Elisa Barbour
Janet investigated how cities in California are adopting plans and policies to support transit-oriented development (TOD), transit, and active transport. Specifically, Janet drafted case studies on selected California cities that assess their motivations, obstacles, and priorities for promoting development near transit.
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Eben Kohn
Major: Managerial Economics
Mentor: Dr. Debapriya Chakraborty
Eben contributed to research conducted at the UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle (PH&EV) Research Center. He contributed to an investigation of models that predict household vehicle choice and travel behavior. Eben and his team investigated how these models can be improved to account for electric vehicles as well.
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Min Kyaw
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Min analyzed the impact of COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders on the occurrences of wildlife-traffic collisions. Analyses were conducted through Caltrans' Performance Measurement System (PeMS) traffic data source and the California Highway Patrol's (CHP) vehicular incident reports. Additionally, Min assisted fellowship advisor Fraser Shilling by tagging wildlife images captured on the Wildlife Observer Network's (WON) camera operations for future analyses.
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Leo McGrath
Major: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Nesrin Serigul-Klijn
Leo researched how to reduce unmanned aerial system noise levels with a focus on smaller package delivery systems. As a part of this effort, Leo designed a deployment system for a noise reduction device called a microtab that Professor Sarigul-Klijn researched.
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Mae Moninghoff
Major: Cognitive Science and Computer Science
Mentors: PH&EV Center
Mae assisted in the development of an intelligent fuel-optimization algorithm for hybrid electric vehicles which utilizes GPS data and charger location data to predict when a driver will next be able to charge their vehicle. She worked alongside graduate students in writing the code required to achieve this goal, as well as organizing and supplying relevant data to her team, such as charger location and usage statistics.
Tricia Nguyen
Major: Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Tricia worked with the UC Davis Road Ecology Center to help research the impacts of the California COVID-19 stay-at-home order on the frequency of wildlife-vehicle conflicts and the effect of sea level rise on shoreline birds in habitat near coastal transportation infrastructure. Tricia analyzed Freeway Performance Measurement System (PeMS) and California Highway Incident Processing System (CHIPS) data, as well as developed a method for analyzing videos from time-lapse cameras at shoreline habitats.
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Zachary Ramalingam
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. John Harvey
Zachary conducted research related to the development of a life cycle assessment framework for complete streets project. In particular, he reviewed performance measures for equity by examining case studies and testing the feasibility of the proposed socio-economic indicators.
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Malak Saleh
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Malak worked with a group of undergrad students to analyze the effects the COVID-19 stay at home order has had on the rate of wildlife vehicle conflicts in California. Malak performed a data analysis to determine if there is any correlation between reductions in traffic and reductions in wildlife vehicle collisions. She also worked on a separate project to track the presence of wildlife near highways in the East Bay.
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Grant Sles
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Dillon Fitch
Grant studied the relationship between the active transportation planning process and gentrification in the Sacramento area. Specifically, he evaluated the public engagement efforts made by transportation planners developing active transportation plans in low-income neighborhoods.
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Chantheary Soth
Major: Computer Science
Mentors: Dr. Angela Sanguinetti & Dr. Beth Ferguson
Chantheary worked working on the full-stack development of a custom survey tool that proposes design strategies for shared automated vehicles to encourage ride-share and mitigate risk to passenger privacy and safety. The survey provides insight to passenger behavior by their response to a given shared autonomous vehicle design followed by various scenarios. This custom survey tool provides great flexibility in creating a more realistic and interactive experience for survey participants.
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Gabrielle Trujillo
Major: Biological Sciences
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Gabrielle participated in organizing and analyzing data on animal collisions in relation to traffic values. She utilized systems, including PeMS and CHIPS, to draw conclusions on how the COVID-19 pandemic possibly alters trends in wildlife traffic incidents.
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Anna Wang
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Susan Handy
Anna worked with her mentor, Susan Handy, on her research in finding factors that influence teenager’s attitudes towards driving. Anna composed the literature review to find existing research on the relationship between communication patterns among families and driving behavior, the impact of a graduated license system (GLS) on delayed licensure, and the associations of personality, self-identity, and peer behavior on adolescent attitudes on driving. In addition, Anna researched the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on transportation for the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in a project that identifies barriers to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation. Anna investigated and tracked changes in transportation policy and operations that emerged as a result of the pandemic.
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2019 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows
Sonia Anthoine
Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Susan Handy & Dr. Dillon Fitch
Sonia used travel data from two waves of surveys conducted in the Sacramento Region to better understand travel behavior in California's capital and the surrounding area. Sonia's analysis was part of a larger body of work that will provide valuable information that will help cities create better plans and regulations to promote reductions in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) through the use of bike and scooter share and other active transportation options.
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Noam Baharav
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentors: Dr. Gil Tal & Dr. Debapriya Chakraborty
Noam is first author on a study submitted for review to the Transportation Research Board. Her study was the first to examine gender differences in charging behavior for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles (collectively known as PEVs) and potential motivations or barriers behind these behaviors. Noam conducted extensive literature review, transcription and overview of 40 participant interviews, performed data cleaning, and assisted with statistical analysis. Collaborating with and assisted by her mentors, Noam co-wrote the research paper for review. The study uncovered statistically significant gender differences in PEV charging behavior and explored potential causes for these differences.
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Scott Begneski
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentors: Dr. Gil Tal & Dr. Debapriya Chakraborty
Scott supported a project funded by BMW to understand the integration of used electric vehicles in the campus vehicle fleet. The campus collected data from the vehicles in both the daily and hourly rental fleet, and this data was analyzed to compare how the electric vehicles are used compared to conventional gasoline or diesel vehicles or hybrid vehicles. The goals of this project were to understand the challenges to EV adoption in fleets, and potential cost savings, and the user experience.
Bingchu Chen
Major: Geography and Environmental Studies
Mentors: Dr. Susan Handy & Dr. Dillon Fitch
Bingchu assisted with a literature review and data analysis in a research synthesis project about the benefits of bike/pedestrian programs and projects with a specific look at safety outcomes from road designs. The project focused on studies that quantify benefits from programs and projects with a focus on intervention and natural experiments, which will help inform California's process for reviewing proposals submitted for funding through the Active Transportation Program (ATP). This project also considered the current laws and regulations for designing and planning roads with a focus on safety outcomes and antecedents. It included current methods for setting speed limits and examined the California specific laws on road design, which part of the synthesis helped inform the California Zero Traffic Fatality Task Force (AB 2363).
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Lorna Haworth
Major: Environmental Science and Management - Ecology
Mentor: Dr. Gwen Arnold
Lorna’s research project consisted of a literature review about wildlife crossings across roadways. Data was collected from scholarly journals of specific projects under an array of parameters. Some of these parameters include geographic location, ecosystem, species type, listed status, and the degree to which success is measured. From this cumulation of data, Lorna analyzed and reported trends among wildlife corridors in the United States.
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Danielle Levin
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentors: Dr. Giovanni Circella & Grant Matson
Danielle assisted in the data refining and preliminary analysis process for a survey project that focuses on attitudes surrounding emerging transportation trends. The survey involves a social science approach and reflects how apprehensive or excited different generations are about the future of autonomous vehicles.
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2018 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows
Thomas Bradas
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Gil Tal
Thomas worked with his peers to conduct a research project on the effect of high ambient temperatures on plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging efficiency. Thomas coordinated the project with respect to PEV owners, managed regular temperature measurements, and developed functions for the calculations involved. Thomas also contributed to other projects at the Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle (PH&EV) Research Center, including studies on PEV usage and market availability.
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Jenny Callan
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Deb Niemeier
Jenny’s research project involved providing data for the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid group which represents a low-income, minority neighborhood that borders Mexico and are battling city plans to move a bus hub to an underprivileged high school area. She calculated the difference between emissions generated from diesel and propane buses, in particular CO, NOx, PM10, PM2.5 and VOC emissions, to provide support to the legal group’s claims. Jenny also applied the Title VI Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s school siting guidelines, and National Ambient Air Quality Standards to her findings as an added level of analysis for this project.
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Valerie Chang
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Deb Niemeier
Valerie’s research investigated pavement smoothness, bicycle dynamic measurements, and their relationship to ride quality. Specifically, she examined the relationship between bicycle ride quality and traditional pavement roughness measurement, and bicycle accelerations and steering angle indices. Valerie used 30 bike path sections with a representative range of pavement surface conditions to collect acceleration data, steering angle data, GPS location data, and mean texture depth data.
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Jonathan Doyle
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Paul Erickson
Jonathan developed an experimental setup for measuring the thermodynamic and heat transfer performance of a gas turbine compressor stator at various operating parameters. His work involved the preliminary design and modeling in SolidWorks and ANSYS Fluent, fabrication of the stator, and identification of instrumentation as well as controls. The results of this work formed a basis for subsequent experimentation within the Energy Research Lab’s Fuel Integrated Energy Recuperative Aero-Derivative (FIERA) project.
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Parisa Farman
Major: Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Parisa conducted research on projects for the UC Davis Road Ecology Lab that focused on analyzing roadkill data and investigating the use of wildlife crossing structures. Parisa helped to set up motion sensor cameras in and around wildlife crossing structures, identifying species in the photos that are taken by the cameras, and reading through California Highway Patrol reports regarding traffic accidents with wildlife.
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Jonathan Gordon
Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Gil Tal
Jon worked on a variety of projects at the Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle (PH&EV) Research Center. He assisted in the data collection effort for an ongoing multi-year study called the electric Vehicle Miles Traveled (eVMT) study, analyzing the use patterns of domestic plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Jon also worked with other NCST summer researcher fellows to construct their own methodology, implementation, and analysis for a study to determine the effects of extreme temperature on electric battery charging efficiency with the goal of advising policy makers and PEV owners.
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Mia Guarnieri
Major: Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology
Mentor: Dr. Fraser Shilling
Mia worked on a UC Davis Road Ecology Center project that investigated how light and noise pollution affect the wildlife usage of crossing structures under highways. She helped to set-up and take down camera traps at crossings and in the surrounding area, identify species in the collected photos, and sort through photos in an online database, noting animal species and activity.
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Nathaniel Kong
Major: Managerial Economics and Computer Science
Mentor: Dr. Gil Tal
Nathan worked with his mentor on multiple projects related to electric vehicles. His main project measured the charging efficiency of cars in order to analyze how much energy is lost to temperature, specifically, high temperatures. Nathan also worked on the ongoing eVMT (electric Vehicle Miles Traveled) Project to help study how people use plug-in electric vehicles in their fleet of vehicles.
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Kelila Krantz
Major: International Relations
Mentor: Dr. Susan Pike
Kelila worked with her mentor on researching the sustainable transportation implications of on-demand ride services. She is analyzed interviews with relevant stakeholders, such as state agencies, California metropolitan planning organizations, regional transportation planning agencies, and the ridehailing industry. Kelila also conducted a literature review of past studies, analyzing the potential outcomes of these services related to vehicle miles traveled, congestion, emissions, and public transit use.
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Brandon Toy
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Michael Zhang
Brandon and his team, in collaboration with the California Department of Transportation, researched the effects of adding a Yellow Border to the Pedestrian Signal. The desired effect was to decrease the number of pedestrian violations while increasing the visibility of pedestrians so that vehicles would drive more cautiously around them. He helped to record pedestrian and vehicle data and conduct surveys.
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Brian Walker
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Francis Assadian
Brian worked with his mentor to simulate lithium-ion battery degradation using MATLAB and Simulink. Solar PV arrays and ultra capacitors were added to electric bus simulations to better understand how lithium batteries degrade over time in order to find better ways of achieving longevity of the battery. By achieving more longevity, charge cycles increase and it becomes more useful for public transit, as well as more cost effective over time.
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- 2017 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows
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Kathryn Canepa
Major: Sustainable Environmental Design
Mentor: Dr. Gil TalKathryn worked with her mentor to write a paper for the Transportation Research Board exploring plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) use in disadvantaged communities. Kathryn is helping with GIS analysis to quantify topics like the share of PEV owners in these communities and how many PEV owners have incomes lower than the California median household income. Kathryn is also helping with additional research that looks at current PEV use with the goal of making electric vehicles more accessible to lower income demographics.
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Monica Gonzalez
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning; Political Science-Public Service
Mentor: Dr. Giovanni CircellaMonica worked with her faculty mentor to design a transportation behavior survey for The Sustainable City in Dubai. The study looks at individual’s mobility needs and preferences to characterize a car-sharing program and identify incentives to promote sustainable transportation.
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Thomas Guo
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Alan JennThomas worked with his mentor on researching the environmental and public safety benefits of connected vehicles by reviewing their overall greenhouse gas and traffic reductions, along with their potential for accident prevention.
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Joseph Kaylor
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentors: Dr. Jamey Volker and Amy LeeThis summer, Joe worked with his mentors to produce case studies for cities in California to research the relationship between transportation impact metrics and land use development patterns. Specifically, Senate Bill 743’s recommendation to switch from Level of Service to Vehicle Miles Traveled as the threshold metric for transportation related environmental impacts in environmental review.
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Maia Moran
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Gil TalMaia identified and analyzed the impacts of ‘shocks’ to the electric vehicle market in select states and countries by measuring long-term policy and incentive changes. Statistical models paired with a content analysis of policies and incentives have been deployed to measure significant market changes and the potentially distributed impacts of isolated shocks to electric vehicle adoption. The collected data intends to inform policymakers and automakers about the influence of market changes and long-term coordination to support market development.
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Blythe Nishi
Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Debbie NiemeierBlythe researched how priority development areas in the Bay Area are being implemented and supported by their local counties and Congestion Management Agencies. She looked at the transit investments and regulations aimed at them, as well as how effective these areas are in providing opportunities for locals and easily accessible transit, jobs, shopping and services.
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Callum Watts
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Rebecca HernandezCallum worked with the AridLab team to calculate the photovoltaic potential of parking lots associated with the largest commercial buildings in the United States, and quantify this potential energy in terms of a building-specific electricity generation and electricity consumption balance. This was accomplished by using both the ArcGIS and Aurora platforms to calculate parking lot areas and perform cloud-based solar optimization analysis.
- 2016 NCST Undergraduate Research Fellows
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Esther Robles De Wence and Praewa (Patty) Boonlue
Major: Environmental Science and Management
Mentor: Dr. Rebecca HernandezPatty and Esther worked together to research photovoltaic (PV) solar energy-generating systems. Their goal was to quantify the potential of rooftop-mounted PV systems deployed on 25 of the largest buildings in the United States and compare the amount space on land that rooftop-mounted PV systems save to ground-mounted, utility-scale PV power plants.
Freshta Pirzada
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Giovanni CircellaFreshta worked with a group of graduate students to determine what affects young adults’ choices of mobility. She helped to analyze the responses of over 2,000 young adults to determine how certain factors (e.g., home type, commute distance, travel patterns, city type) influence travel choices. Once patterns and overall preferences are determined, land use and transportation planners can use this information to ensure the mobility needs of young adults are being met.
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Itsel Guzman
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
Mentor: Dr. Lew FultonItsel researched the social and economic viability of dynamic ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft. The study looks at the growth and efficiency of ride share services, and their impacts on carpooling and car ownership in the future.
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Juliet Martin
Major: Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning and Communications
Mentor: Dr. Fraser ShillingJuliet worked with the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis to research the impact of transportation systems on wildlife. This research studies how transportation infrastructure affects the behavior and movement of wildlife. The goal of her project is to effectuate low-impact, sustainable transportation policies beneficial to wildlife wellbeing.
Tului Gantulga
Major: Civil Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Miguel JallerTului researched strategies to improve the efficiency of urban freight deliveries considering delivery times, sequence of stops, costs, and the economic and environmental impact of congestion. He created a program that takes requests at any time of the day and calculates the most efficient way of picking up/dropping off a package based on previously mentioned considerations. The program also gathers traffic data from Google at different times of the day and different days of the week to be able to work offline.