Alireza Khani named to the Richard P. Braun CTS Chair in Transportation Engineering
Professor Alireza Khani has been named to the Richard P. Braun CTS Chair in Transportation Engineering. The position will be his through June 30, 2031.
The Richard P. Braun CTS Chair in Transportation Engineering is supported by an endowment, whose purpose is to help Minnesota maintain leadership in the transportation engineering industry. The endowment supports development of new educational programs, teaching activities, and expanded research in transportation engineering. It assists the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering to support the work of outstanding transportation engineering faculty who are making exceptional contributions in their fields.
Alireza Khani's contributions are in the area of public transit systems, with a focus on modeling the impacts of emerging technologies and optimizing systems for more efficient, sustainable, and equitable services. He uses network modeling and optimization algorithms to improve public transit systems with autonomous mobility-on-demand services and electric fleets. He directs the UMN Transit Lab where his research team develops mathematical, computational, and data analytic tools to evaluate and optimize transit systems.
Khani was recently honored as part of the team that developed MnDOT’s Mobility as a Service platform. The platform is used by more than 20,000 Minnesotans each month to plan, book and pay for public transit trips in Greater Minnesota. This recognition highlights the partnership between CTS and the University of Minnesota and the real-world impact of trip-planning technology in rural communities.