Babak Mehran

Babak Mehran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba (Price Faculty of Engineering). He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Nagoya University (2009). His research focuses on transportation network resilience, big data analytics, and AI-driven solutions for traffic management. He leads the Urban Mobility and Transportation Informatics Group (UMTIG), collaborating with government and industry on applied transportation research.

Key research areas include autonomous vehicle integration, cold-region traffic vulnerability, and optimization of public transit systems. Dr. Mehran has advised graduate students on topics like traffic safety, sensor placement, and semi-flexible transit design. His work bridges theoretical models (e.g., reinforcement learning algorithms) with real-world applications such as winter road maintenance strategies and transit demand analysis.

Recent publications emphasize AI-driven traffic prediction, climate adaptation for infrastructure resilience, and safety metrics for truck operations in harsh environments. He collaborates internationally on transportation policy and has contributed to methodologies for evaluating congestion relief strategies using travel time reliability analysis.

• Lab: Urban Mobility and Transportation Informatics Group (UMTIG)
• Key Partners: Government agencies, transportation industries, academic collaborators
• Current Focus: Autonomous shared mobility, cold-climate traffic systems, data fusion for traffic monitoring