In the intricate landscape of traffic and transportation studies, Operations Research (OR) and optimization methods emerge as invaluable tools, pivotal in addressing multifaceted challenges and improving system efficiency. These mathematical techniques contribute significantly to minimizing congestion, enhancing overall mobility, and optimizing resource allocation within transportation networks. One crucial application lies in traffic management, where OR models are deployed to optimize signal timings, traffic flow, and transit scheduling. By fine-tuning these parameters, researchers aim to reduce travel times, alleviate congestion, and enhance the overall functionality of transportation systems.

Furthermore, OR and optimization have widespread applications in network design and network pricing, two critical aspects of transportation planning. Researchers utilize these methods to design optimal transportation networks, considering factors such as capacity, connectivity, accessibility, and generalized travel cost. Optimization might be used in network design and, network pricing as the main problem and traffic flow assignment as the subproblem.

Whereas my entire academic journey has examples of the application of OR and Optimization methods, this is a secondary field of my interest, and my capabilities are in the application of these methods rather than development.

The subject of my master's thesis was network design. In my thesis, I developed a bi-level optimization model to solve the traffic assignment problem at the lower level and the network design problem at the higher level. My first scientific paper was the output of my master's thesis.

(Papers: ICCE-2012, Int. J. Optim. Civil Eng.-2013, )

I also used OR and Optimization methods in my endeavors on data fusion research (IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst.-2024), trajectory optimization, and traffic flow operations (ORBEL-2022, IEEE MI-ITS-2023).

Moreover, I mentored a master's thesis titled Multi-objective Optimization for Traffic Signal Control.