Students

An application form for prospective PhD students can be downloaded here.

CURRENT STUDENTS

PhD Students

  • Seshadri_PictureSeshadri Naik Moode. Platooning of Connected Autonomous Vehicles: Microscopic Modelling and Management strategies. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Expected end date: 2025. Bio: Seshadri Naik is a MTech graduate in Civil Engineering by the National Institute of Technology Warangal, India, with a master thesis entitled “Passenger Car Units for Urban Roads under Mixed Traffic Conditions”. After a brief participation in teaching and research projects in India, Seshadri focused his research interest in traffic modelling with the presence of autonomous vehicles. He joined BIT-Barcelona Innovative Transportation in January 2022 as a PhD candidate with a scholarship grant by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of Catalonia.
  • Gabriel_Photo2Gabriel Carvalho Rezende. An analytical approach to the optimal city layout. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Expected end date: 2026. Bio: Gabriel is passionate about cities and how their geometric nuances, transportation networks, and planning designs ensure happiness and let interrelationships thrive. Gabriel completed his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering extending a post-graduate course in Project Management for Urban Solutions. He also completed a master’s degree in Transport Infrastructure Planning, both from the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brasil). Currently, Gabriel is in his Ph.D. journey in a project related to City Planning and Urban Mobility framework to ensure an ideal, equal, accessible, and climate-friendly city for citizens. Over his academic journey, he has held the position of Urban Engineer and Civil Engineer in several projects involving consultancy and urban solutions in Brazil. Currently, he is also involved in Iberian projects in Portugal and Spain.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAXiaoyu Zheng. Lane-changing Control Framework for Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Platoons in Dynamic Traffic Environments. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Holder of CSC-UPC Scholarships for full PhD. Expected end date: 2027. Bio: Xiaoyu Zheng obtained a bachelor’s degree in Geographic Information Science from Beijing Forestry University, China, where she developed a foundation in spatial information technology, remote sensing, and computer science, with a particular interest in GIS application in transportation. She then pursued her master’s degree in Traffic Information Engineering and Control at Jilin University, China, where she immersed herself in transportation systems, involving herself in projects and research related to traffic network analysis and autonomous driving perception. Based on her expertise, she joined UPC BarcelonaTech in October 2023 as a PhD candidate, focusing her research on connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMohammad Khashayarfard. Investigating the Safety Impact of Connected Automated Vehicles Considering Human Distraction and Sensor Error. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Expected end date: 2028. Bio: Mohammad Khashayarfard earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, where he built a strong foundation in infrastructure systems and transportation fundamentals. He continued at Sharif University for his master’s degree in Transportation Engineering, focusing his research on the safety assessment of autonomous vehicles using simulation methods. After participating in teaching and research projects in Iran, he joined BIT – Barcelona Innovative Transportation at UPC in June 2024 as a Ph.D. candidate. His current research investigates the safety implications of connected automated vehicles, particularly considering factors such as driver distraction and sensor error, utilizing simulation tools like AIMSUN.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAArdeshir Kohandel Shirazi. Optimizing Service Areas in Vehicle-Sharing Systems to Improve Reliability and Resource Allocation. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Expected end date: 2028. Bio: Ardeshir Kohandel Shirazi obtained his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Azad University, Iran, where he developed a strong interest in the transportation field and deepened his knowledge of transportation principles and fundamentals. His passion for mobility-related topics led him to pursue a master’s degree in Civil Engineering – Transportation (from Azad University), during which he focused his research on shared, innovative, and sustainable transportation solutions and services. In July 2024, Ardeshir joined the Barcelona Innovative Transportation (BIT) research group at UPC-BarcelonaTech as a Ph.D. candidate, supported by a scholarship grant from the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) of Catalonia. Currently, in line with his research interests, he is focused on optimizing the service areas of vehicle-sharing systems, which are among the most significant examples of sustainable mobility, by introducing an innovative, quantitative framework aimed at improving system reliability and resource efficiency.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAXuxilu Zhang. A Modular Framework for Resilient and Equitable Optimization of Shared Micromobility Systems (SMSs) through Behavioral Modeling and Demand Rebalancing. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Holder of CSC-UPC Scholarships for full PhD. Expected end date: 2028. Bio: Xuxilu Zhang holds a BSc and MSc in Statistics from Fujian Normal University and Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, respectively. As a PhD candidate at UPC BarcelonaTech, Xuxilu’s work centers on behavioral modeling, spatiotemporal analytics, and system-level demand rebalancing in shared micromobility systems, leveraging advanced statistical and AI techniques to unravel travel behavior dynamics and enhance the efficiency of urban mobility ecosystems.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYi Zhu. User based management strategies of vehicle sharing systems. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. BarcelonaTech. Holder of CSC-UPC Scholarships for full PhD. Expected end date: 2028. Bio: Yi Zhu holds a Master’s degree in Transportation Planning and Management from Ningbo University and a Bachelor’s degree in Transportation Engineering from Suzhou University of Science and Technology. His research interests lie in shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs), transportation electrification, and sustainable transport policy design. His work focuses on developing and applying agent-based simulation models to analyze behavioral responses and system dynamics among transportation stakeholders, providing quantitative insights that inform data-driven decision-making and the development of sustainable transportation systems.

PAST STUDENTS

PhD Students

  • Enrique Jiménez Meroño. Design, management, and simulation of vehicle-sharing systems. 15th  November 2023. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. UPC-BarcelonaTech. Mark: Excellent with Cum Laude distinction. Awarded with the VI National Award for Research on Urban and Metropolitan Mobility (Atuc Movilidad Sostenible). Honorable mention in the 3rd edition of the Rafael Izquierdo Award for Doctoral Theses, awarded by the Transportation Enginering Forum (FIT). Bio: Before completing his PhD, Enrique got the MEng degree in Civil Engineering by UPC-BarcelonaTech, with a master thesis entitled “Rebalancing strategies for bike-sharing systems: the case of Bicing in Barcelona”. After a brief participation in some research and engineering projects as a technical advisor, in 2018 he obtained a PhD scholarship grant by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. His PhD focused on vehicle-sharing systems, where Enrique developed optimization models for bike-sharing and car-sharing systems, together with an agent based simulator for vehicle-sharing systems. In addition, he has mentored several master students on urban mobility topics. Currently, Enrique is assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering UPC-BarcelonaTech and engineer at the Department of Territory in the Generalitat de Catalunya, providing technical support for the implementation of T-Mobilitat and other mobility digitalization projects.
  • Foto carnet MarcelMarcel Sala.  Modeling present and future freeway management strategies: Variable speed limits, lane-changing and platooning of connected autonomous. 29th October 2019. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. Mark: Excellent with Cum Laude distinction. The thesis obtained the national (Spain) and international XV ABERTIS Prize in the category of Management of Transportation Infrastructures and Services. Bio: Before completing his PhD, Marcel obtained his MEng degree in Civil Engineering from UPC–BarcelonaTECH in 2014, just after the completion of his Master thesis entitled “Freeway Traffic Experiment – Empirical Traffic Data Under Dynamic Speed Limit Strategies”. Short thereafter he joined the Center for Innovation in Transport (CENIT) as a researcher. He is an expert in Matlab programming and currently he is working as a scientific researcher at AIMSUN (traffic simulation company).
  • Margarita Martínez. Highway travel time information systems: from traditional to cooperative driving environments. 19 December 2018. Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. International Mention. Universidade da Coruña. Codirected with Prof. Ignacio Pérez. Mark: Excellent with Cum Laude distinction. The thesis obtained the national (Spain) and international XVI ABERTIS Prize in Management of Transportation Infrastructures. Bio: Before enrolling in the PhD program in Civil Engineering, Margarita was working for 7 years in road design, construction and urbanization. From 2013 she decided to focus her activity on the university, where she currently combines teaching and research. She regularly visits the Fachhochschule Magdeburg-Stendal in Magdeburg (Germany), and in 2020 she visited the TU München hosted by prof. Constantinos Antoniou. Currently Margarita is Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering UPC-BarcelonaTech.

MSc and Visiting Students