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Mobility 10x Summit: Accelerating Transportation Innovation Across California was the capstone event of the Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI)—a four-year research effort launched in 2021 by the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies (UC ITS), featuring a number of UC Berkeley faculty and researchers.



Read more about the event and see pictures

Congratulations MS Transportation Engineering/MCP student Jon Atkins on being awarded the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center Masters Student of the Year.

“I have watched Jon demonstrate a rare combination of technical brilliance, teaching dedication, and extraordinary resilience,” says DCRP Assistant Professor Maryam Hosseini, Capstone advisor and GSI and GSR supervisor.

Read more

2025 graduate of Eno’s Leaders Development Conference, UC Berkeley PhD candidate Linda Lim shares how the program and people have left an impact on her research, studies, and networking circle. She was particularly impressed with the program’s thoughtful design and the knowledge and expertise of her cohort peers and speakers on the program agenda.

Read more about her experience

Congratulations to Smart Cities Research Center Director Dr. Jane Macfarlane and her startup, Mobiliti Labs, who have licensed innovative infrastructure simulation software from Berkeley Lab and University of California Berkeley!

Read more about the software

Get to know TechTransfer's Online Training Coordinator Hope Kramek in this edition of the ITS Staff Spotlight Series!

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News Bits

• Berkeley Students Advance to Phase 2 of CITRIS Aviation Prize Competition
• ITS Berkeley TRB 2026 Roundup
• Driving Demand: Solutions To Increase The Market for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles
• How the Terner Center for Housing Innovation shaped California’s decade of housing reform

Media and podcast appearances

• California needs to step up on clean trucks to counter federal rollbacks
• Critics say bill creates ‘veil of secrecy’ over California’s high-speed rail records
• California’s instant EV rebates would require automakers to match state funds
• Multibillion-dollar transit project to tunnel through the Santa Monica Mountains is approved by L.A. Metro

Please note we are working on a new system to bring greater breadth and depth to our publication page. While we have nearly completed the process, there may be some missing pieces that we are working to include. See the new ITS Publications Page

• Navigating the Gig Economy: Transportation Labor Challenges Facing California’s App-based Ridehailing and Courier Drivers: Susan Shaheen; Wolfe, Brooke; Cohen, Adam
• Trends in Adults Body Mass Index Related to Changes in Socioeconomic Status of 201 Large Latin American Cities: Perner, Mónica Serena; Moore, Kari; Trotta, Andres; Chen, Hal; Lazo, Mariana; Sarmiento, Olga L.; Daniel Rodriguez; Alazraqui, Marcio; Diez Roux, Ana V.
• Linear Analysis of Thermo-diffusive Instability from Edge Flames to Fully-premixed Laminar Flames with a Wide Range of Damköhler Number and Lewis Number Greater than Unity: Daniel Rodriguez; Bhatt, David
• Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Multi-Agent Trajectory Prediction via Transformer-Based Models: Lyu, Qing; Fu, Zhe; Alexandre Bayen
• Stability Analysis of Recirculation Bubble Flow in a Viscoelastic Fluid: Carriera, Beatriz L.; Gennaro, Elmer M.; Daniel Rodriguez; Souza, Leonardo F.
• Supervised and Unsupervised Neural Network Solver for First Order Hyperbolic Nonlinear PDEs: Baba, Zakaria; Alexandre Bayen; Canesse, Alexi; Monache, Maria Laura Delle; Drieux, Martin; Fu, Zhe; Lichtle, Nathan; Liu, Zihe; Matin, Hossein Nick Zinat; Piccoli, Benedetto
• Leveraging Commuting Patterns and Workplace Charging to Advance Equitable EV Charger Access: Wang, Ruiting; Kwon, Ha-Kyung; Jordan, Katherine H.; Scott Moura; Boloor, Madhur; Machala, Michael L.
• Electrifying Long-haul Freight Trucks Reduces Societal Costs in the United States: Porzio, Jason; McNeil, Wilson; Tong, Fan; Scott Moura; Auffhammer, Maximilian; Scown, Corinne D.
• How Ride-Hailing Services Influenced Vehicle Use and Ownership Across the Boston Metropolitan Region: Montilla, Michael A. N.; Hui, Matthew; Daniel Chatman
• Using Disaggregate Vehicle Data to Investigate How Ride-Hailing Services Influence Personal Vehicle Use Across a Metropolitan Region:Montilla, Michael A. N.; Hui, Matthew; Daniel Chatman

• Welcome to new SafeTREC staff Project and Policy Analyst Lilette Gorostieta, Project and Policy Analyst Jessica Prasad, and Postdoctoral Researcher Atul Subedi!

• Congratulations to SafeTREC Director of Communications Lisa Peterson upon her retirement! Lisa has been with SafeTREC for the last 8 years and she will be missed. Wish her well in her next chapter. Her last day is Friday Feb.27, 2026.

Friday, February 27

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

Rethinking Mobility: Human-Centered AI for Safe, Confident and Fun Driving

Avinash Balachandran, VP of Human Interactive Driving at the Toyota Research Institute, will present Rethinking Mobility: Human-Centered AI for Safe, Confident and Fun Driving at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, February 27, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for Cookie Hour at 2:30 p.m. in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall). 

Friday, March 6

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

Generative AI and Statistical Methods to Simulate Fine-Grained Mobility Patterns from Aggregated Data

Serina Chang, UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Assistant Professor, will present Generative AI and Statistical Methods to Simulate Fine-Grained Mobility Patterns from Aggregated Data at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, March 6, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for Cookie Hour at 2:30 p.m. in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall). 

Friday, March 13

Jarvis Auditorium, Grimes Engineering Center

3 p.m.

Advanced Air Mobility and eVTOL: Navigating Vertical Mobility Innovation and the Public Good

Join ITS Berkeley for Advanced Air Mobility and eVTOL: Navigating Vertical Mobility Innovation and the Public Good Transportation, co-sponsored by UC Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, on March 13, 2026 at 3 p.m. in Jarvis Auditorium, Grimes Engineering Center.

The panel will draw experts from the public sector, private sector, and academia:

Moderator: Alexandre Bayen, Director CITRIS, Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Panel:

1) Mark Hanson, UC Berkeley Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor 

2) Dr. Vishwanath Bulusu - Senior Aerospace Scientist, Crown Innovations, Inc., UCB Alumnus 

3) Dr. Yicong Yang, Aviation System Planner, Office of Airport Development, CALTRANS Division of Aeronautics,

4) Steve Wollenberg, Chief Commercial Officer, MightyFly and UCB Alumnus

5) Claire Boland, Environmental Planning and Sustainability Lead, Joby Aviation

Co-sponsored by UC Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Friday, April 3

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

Drive-Thru USA - Spatial Analysis, Car-Centricity, and Sprawl Design in America

Marcel Moran, San Jose State University Planning, Policy, and Environmental Studies Assistant Professor, will present Drive-Thru USA - Spatial Analysis, Car-Centricity, and Sprawl Design in America at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, April 3, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for Cookie Hour at 2:30 p.m. in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall). 

Friday, April 10

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

Driving Change: Volunteer Management and Engagement in Food Recovery Operations

Celeste Chavis, Morgan State University Transportation and Urban Infrastructure Chair and Professor, will present Driving Change: Volunteer Management and Engagement in Food Recovery Operations at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, April 10, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for Cookie Hour at 2:30 p.m. in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall).

Friday, April 24

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

Advancing Intelligent Transportation Systems with AI

Jumbi Edulbehram, Global Business Development, Smart Cities and Spaces at NVIDIA, will present Advancing Intelligent Transportation Systems with AI at the Institute of Transportation Studies Transportation Seminar on Friday, April 24, 2026,

at 3:00 p.m. in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for Cookie Hour at 2:30 p.m. in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall).

Friday, May 1

410 McLaughlin Hall

3 p.m.

ITS Affiliated Student PhD Talks

Join the Institute of Transportation Studies to celebrate the research of graduating doctoral candidates at a special PhD Transportation Seminar on Friday May 1, 2026 at 3 pm in 410 McLaughlin Hall. Join us for the cookie hour at 2:30 pm in the ITS Library (412 McLaughlin Hall) before the talks and the Student of the Year presentation!