Dr. Kockelman's Fabuluous Co-Pilots
- Past & Present, at Work & Play

Ali Khanpour, PhD Student
ali.khanpour@utexas.edu

Ali Khanpour received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Babol Noshirvani University of Technology (NUT) and his M.S. in Transportation Engineering from Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU). Ali joined Dr. Kockelman's research group in Fall 2024. His research focuses on interdisciplinary methods combining transportation engineering (road, rail, advanced air mobility) with human factors (cognitive neuroscience, psychology) and artificial intelligence. He currently works on traffic safety, Smart City and Smart Nation Law Enforcement: Equipment for Ensuring Public Safety in Transport and Beyond, mapping crashes vs speeds in Texas, and emerging transportation technologies. Ali is passionate about sports, notably wrestling, and art (painting), and he plays the saxophone. He competed on the Iranian national FS wrestling team for several years in the Cadet, Junior, and Senior age divisions, winning 16 national, international, and college medals.

Robert Lehr, PhD Student
robert.z.lehr@utexas.edu

Robert is a PhD student in Sustainable Systems Engineering at UT Austin, affiliated with the transportation engineering department. He joined Dr. Kockelman's team in Fall 2024, and he is working with Argonne National Labs on Long Distance Autonomous Vehicles research. In addition to studying the influence of autonomous vehicles on travel behavior, he is focused on learning strategies to optimize urban investments in basic necessities and essential services to enhance community financial stability and reduce stress, all within the framework of sustainable development. His subsequent research goals include examining the urban heat island effect, infrastructure resilience, and the role of shade in transportation systems to mitigate environmental stressors.

Nayoon Heo, MS Student
nyheo210@gmail.com

Nayoon Heo is a MS student in Civil Engineering at UT Austin. She received her BS in Civil Engineering from KAIST, Republic of Korea. Prior to coming to UT, she led a team to plan the national pilot smart city project in Korea.

Keya Li, PhD Student
keya_li@utexas.edu

Keya Li received her B.E. in Water and Hydropower Engineering with a minor in Law from Hohai University in June 2021 and her M.S. in Transportation Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2022. She has an E.I.T. and began her doctoral studies at UT Austin in August 2023. She is currently working on computer vision and enforcement agency maps for safe driving.

Kentaro Mori, PhD Student
mori@utexas.edu

Kentaro Mori received his B.S. in Civil Engineering and minor in Mathematics from Lafayette College in May 2019 and M.Eng. in Civil Engineering from Nagoya University in March 2022. He began his doctoral studies at UT Austin in June 2023. His research interest is in forecasting the impact of emerging mobility technologies and devising optimal application strategies and policies for these technologies to improve efficiency, equity, and sustainability of transportation systems. He is currently working on a project examining the effects of network level of detail on the outcomes of shared autonomous vehicle simulations.

Priyanka Paithankar, PhD Student
priyanka.paithankar@utexas.edu

Priyanka Paithankar has received her BE in Civil Engineering from MIT, Pune and MTech degree in transportation engineering from IIT Bombay in 2017 and 2019, respectively. After receiving her master's degree, she worked as a traffic engineer in a transportation consultancy firm called Dar Al Handasah. She began her doctoral studies at UT Austin in August 2021. Her research area includes Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and is currently researching long distance trips in the USA with AVs.

Lin Su, PhD Student
sulin@utexas.edu

Lin Su received her B.E. in Civil Engineering from the Shandong University of Science and Technology in June 2020 and her M.S. from the University of Florida in May 2022. She joined Dr. Kockelman's research group while working on obtaining her Ph.D. in August 2022. Her research area is shared autonomous electric vehicles (SAEVs) and she is currently working on the co-location of public & private charging stations for Cruise's new SAEVs in the Austin area. Her research interests also include shared micromobilities, transportation equity, and the applications of machine learning.

Aditi Bhaskar, BS Student
aditi.bhaskar@utexas.edu

Aditi Bhaskar is an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at UT Austin. She is expected to graduate in May 2025. Aditi is from Plano, Texas and joined Dr. Kockelman's team as an administrative assistant in February 2023. In her free time, she likes to read, run, and draw.

Helena Chandy, BS Student
helenachandy@utexas.edu

Helena is an undergraduate Chemistry and Plan II Honors student at UT Austin. She is expected to graduate in May 2027. Helena is from Houston, Texas and joined Dr. Kockelman’s team as an administrative assistant in March 2025. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, playing the cello, and watching Jeopardy.