PhD in Civil Engineering
Transportation Engineering

Current Research

Engineering Analysis

• Adaptive control, including adaptive cruise control
• Engineering economics and cost/benefit analysis
• Driver task analysis
• Human factors engineering for vehicle design
• Simulation and optimization of transportation systems
• Information systems and communication
• Vehicle dynamics and control

Infrastructure Engineering

• Bridge performance models
• Constructability
• Composite jacketing systems for bridge column retrofits
• Lifeline engineering for critical systems
• Seismic analysis and design of bridge footings
• Seismic assessment and retrofit of existing bridges
• Seismic risk analysis for infrastructure systems

Modal Applications

• Advanced technologies for multimodal transportation systems
• Automated highway systems
• Logistics and distribution
• Management of transit fleets and services
• Agile Ports and Fast Ships
• Metropolitan freight flows

Transportation Modeling

• Applications of artificial intelligence to transportation
• Computational models of urban land use/transport and other complex systems
• Mathematical programming models of network performance and control
• Reliability of transportation systems
• Traffic flow modeling and control
• Traffic flow in damaged networks
• Information technology and urban form

Transportation Planning

• Evaluation of new transportation technologies
• Impacts of information technology on transportation and travel behavior
• International planning and development
• Pricing and market based policies
• Transportation and land use planning
• Transportation economics
• Transportation and polycentric urban form
• Estimating the full cost of earthquakes

Transportation Policy

• Evaluation of transportation policy
• Evaluation of transit programs and policies
• Transportation and disadvantaged populations
• Transportation and the environment
• Mitigation of seismic risks

Transportation research at USC is frequently completed in cooperation with one of several research consortia. Research relating to transportation systems and new technologies is often done in association with the California Partnership for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), a university consortium established by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in 1986 to support research on advanced technologies for transportation, and the Center for Commercial Development of Transportation Technology (CCDoTT), a university/industry consortium formed by USC, the California State University at Long Beach (CSULB), and several industry partners. Research relating to technology and policy is often done in association with the National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research (METRANS), established at USC and CSULB, by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), and Caltrans to support research and technology transfer addressing transportation problems of urban areas. Research relating to transportation infrastructure and loss estimation is often done in association with the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), a university consortium formed in 1991 with the U.S. Geological Survey; the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center, university/industry consortium formed in 1996 and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the NSF's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER).

Transportation research at USC is sponsored by a variety of sources, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the US Department of Defense (DOD), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), The Southern California Studies Center, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other agencies and foundations.

Center for Advanced Transportation Technology

Many of the University of Southern California's transportation faculty are affiliated with the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT). CATT is one of the leading centers for research on advanced transportation technologies and is the focal point for transportation technology research at USC. CATT's mission is to perform high-impact research on urgent transportation issues in cooperation with private firms in the automotive and defense industries along with federal, state and local government. CATT's research is highly interdisciplinary, merging policy and technical analyses, and targeting the problems of cities and urbanized regions in the areas of congestion, pollution, earthquakes, and economic development.

Opportunities exist for graduate students to participate in CATT's ongoing activities, including research on:

• Freight and logistics system design and analysis
• Technology evaluation and cost/benefit analysis
• Traffic control and surveillance
• Transit system planning and network optimization
• Transportation network analysis

National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research

The National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research (METRANS) is a US Department of Transportation/University Transportation Center chartered to perform research on transportation problems that are critical to large metropolitan regions. This mission requires an integrated approach that blends engineering, policy, planning, business administration and public administration expertise. METRANS' field based research is built on strong ties with government and the transportation industry. The Los Angeles region is an urban laboratory in which innovative approaches can be studies in depth.

Problems targeted by METRANS concern:

• Congestion on highway, rail, shipping, and air transport systems,
• Mobility and accessibility of immigrant, disadvantaged, and minority populations,
• Economic development of the infrastructure and processes needed to support trade and transportation in- dustries,
• Reducing adverse impacts of transportation, including pollution, noise, congestion, and risk,
• Maximizing the level of service supplied by highway infrastructure, and
• Use of transportation resources to mitigate seismic risks.

METRANS also serves as the national focal point for exchange of ideas on metropolitan transportation problems through regular forums, both at METRANS symposia and through multimedia offered via the Internet.

International Institute for Innovative Risk Reduction Research on Civil Infrastructure Systems

Many Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty are also affiliated with the USC International Institute for Innovative Risk Reduction Research on Civil Infrastructure Systems. In a natural disaster, civil infrastructure systems such as transportation networks, pipeline systems, and other critical life lines, may perform poorly or perhaps even fail. Center faculty strive to develop methods by which advanced and emerging technologies are used to enhance the physical and functional performance of civil infrastructure systems, thus reducing the risk of system failure. Opportunities exist to integrate these technologies into every phase of the life cycle of civil infrastructure systems, including planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, retrofit, rehabilitation, and demolition.

Opportunities exist for graduate students to participate in the Center's ongoing activities, including research on:

• High-performance materials and structural systems
• Smart materials in building and civil infrastructure systems
• Advanced sensors, sensing systems, and their implementation
• for health monitoring, damage detection, and damage
• control
• Integrated disaster information systems: use of satellites in conjunction with various advanced sensors, wireless data transmission techniques, radio telemetry, advanced signal processing techniques, global positioning sys- tems for online, real diagnosis, and control of hazardous events
• Advanced robotics for retrofit, construction, demolition, search, and rescue
• High performance computing and communication