Meet 2022's Women of C2SMART
Women's History Month celebrates the contributions that women have made not just to history, but in their ongoing work today. In recent years, the STEM fields have made uneven progress in their push to diversify and equalize STEM along gender and racial lines. Engineering, in particular, has wrestled with its gender gap, with women making up only 15% of the workforce. But while there is still far to go, there are many women doing incredible work right now, today. These women help the field to continually evolve, expand, and advance alongside technology, medicine, and other sciences.
This year, we sat down with women at all three stages of the C2SMART team: faculty member Semiha Ergan, alumna Ding Wang, student Bingqing Liu.
Leaders in Transportation Research: Professor Yi Qi
Professor and Department Chair, Texas Southern University
Professor Yi Qi is the Chair of the Transportation Studies Department and a Professor at Texas Southern University. Dr. Qi has directed more than 20 projects sponsored by various federal and local governments and has more than 50 journal publications, and numerous conference proceeding papers and technical report publications. Her research areas include transportation safety analysis, traffic signal operation, intersection geometric design, and GIS-based transportation system performance analysis. Dr. Qi is a nationally recognized scholar and serves as a member of numerous committees of national and international organizations. She is also a member of the C2SMART alumni network: she received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in transportation planning and engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) in 2002. In addition, she has a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in probability and statistics from East China Normal University (ECNU) in China.
Professor Qi recently returned to gave a webinar at C2SMART, Improving Contraflow Left-Turn Lane Design at Signalized Intersections to Decrease Traffic.
Contraflow left-turn lanes (CLL) are designed for increasing left-turn capacity and have been increasingly implemented at signalized intersections. Professor Yi Qi introduces this innovative intersection design, as well as the signal timing and geometric design required for its implementation. She shares a systematic method for determining CLL length and signal timing, and a case study for evaluating the operational benefits of redesigning a real-world CLL intersection using these recommendations, which resulted in decreased average traffic delay, vehicle travel time, and queue length. Professor Qi also discusses an innovative signal timing strategy, Counterclockwise Split Phasing (CSP) signal timing, for implementing CLLs at signalized intersections with split phasing (SIWSPs.) She shares the results of a traffic simulation-based case study which indicate that by using the proposed CSP signal timing plan, CLLs can be implemented at SIWSP to significantly reduce traffic congestion caused by high left-turn demand at this type of intersection.
2022 Women in Transportation Panel
We will be resuming our annually sponsored Women in Transportation Panel Program co-hosted with NYU ITExITS Student chapter. The event will bring together women leaders in the transportation and engineering fields to discuss their work, their field, and the future of transportation engineering, and afterwards convene for some networking and conversation. Register your interest below and join us this year for a lively discussion and networking opportunity!
Previous Highlights
C2SMART is proud to have an exceptional group of women among its students and research staff. In honor of 2021 Women’s History Month, the Center highlighted some of our outstanding female team members and their contributions to transportation research.
