Fatemeh Nazari
Dr. Fatemeh Nazari is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Department of Civil Engineering. She is a faculty affiliate of the NSF CREST Center for Multidisciplinary Research Excellence in Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Systems (MECIS) at UTRGV where her role is Co-PI, lead of a research track on sensing-based infrastructure management, and collaborator on two other research tracks on automation and artificial intelligence. Her research interest is in "human-centered" smart transportation systems crossing disciplines such as economics (e.g., theory of choice behavior), psychology (e.g., theory of planned behavior and technology acceptance model), computer science (e.g, artificial intelligence and big data analytics), and mathematical science (e.g., optimization). In particular, she focuses on (i) travel behavior/demand analysis for smart transportation systems (automated, electrified, and shared mobility); (ii) designing smart infrastructure through human-technology interaction; and (iii) smart infrastructure health monitoring and maintenance. Dr. Nazari received her Ph.D. degree in Civil (Transportation) Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also a member of the National Academies Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on 'Travel Behavior and Values' AEP30 since 2020. |
Oscar De Leon Vazquez
Oscar received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UTRGV in 2020. He is currently a M.S. student at the UTRGV Mechanical Engineering Department and a member of the H-SMART lab. His M.S. thesis research focuses on "Designing affective autonomous vehicles through human-technology interaction: Modeling autonomous driving in a digital twin platform" supported by NSF CREST center at UTRGV. |
Leonel Ramirez
Leonel is pursuing his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering with a minor in Computer Engineering at UTRGV (expected graduation: Spring 2024). He is currently a member of the H-SMART lab and conducts research on "Designing affective autonomous vehicles in smart mobility systems through human-technology interaction: Modeling human affects" supported by NSF CREST center at UTRGV. |
Leonardo Flores
Leonardo is pursuing his B.S. degree in Computer Science at UTRGV (expected graduation: Spring 2023). He is a member of the H-SMART lab and conducts research on "Designing affective autonomous vehicles through human-technology interaction: Designing autonomous environment in a digital twin platform" supported by NSF CREST center at UTRGV. |
Yellitza Soto
Yellitza graduated from UTRGV with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering. She was a member of the H-SMART lab during her M.S. studies and conducted research on "Investigating adoption behavior of owned and shared autonomous vehicles: An updated technology acceptance model." Yellitza received the USDOT Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation. She is currently working at Hanson Professional Services as a Civil Designer. |
Jesus Martinez
Jesus graduated with a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from UTRGV. He was a member of the H-SMART lab and was involved in research on "Designing affective autonomous vehicles through human-technology interaction: Designing autonomous environment in a digital twin platform" supported by NSF CREST center at UTRGV. |
Andrea Campos Sanchez
Andrea received her B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from UTRGV. She was a member of the H-SMART lab between Spring 2020 and Fall 2021 and conducted research on "Travel behavior analysis in automated transportation systems: Acceptance behavior of automated vehicles." She is currently a M.S. student in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. |
Kenneth Fielder
Kenneth received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from UTRGV and is currently a M.S. student at UTRGV Electrical Engineering Department. He was a member of the H-SMART lab in Fall 2021 and conducted research on "Smart transportation systems: Focusing on humans' interaction with advanced mobility technologies" supported by NSF CREST center at UTRGV. |