CME student wins IL-ITE Graduate Student Scholarship
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Ramin Shabanpour, a Ph.D. candidate in CME, won the IL-ITE Graduate Student Scholarship from the Institute of Transportation Engineers Illinois Section. Shabanpour, who serves as UIC’s ITE chapter vice president, received the award during the ITE Illinois Section Annual Banquet on Jan. 19 at The Berghoff in Chicago.
“I feel extremely honored for receiving this award, which is an important impetus for me to continue my research with more efforts,” said Shabanpour. “I also feel proud that this is the second year in a row that UIC Transportation students are winning this scholarship. We started our ITE-UIC chapter last year, and, since then, our students have brought home many regional and statewide awards in transportation. I feel proud to be part of this striving team. I also appreciate Professor and CME Department Head Kouros Mohammadian’s dedication in supervising me in my doctoral research.”
Shabanpour is working under the direction of Mohammadian. His research is focused on the analysis of adoption behavior of smart mobility technologies with an emphasis on emerging autonomous vehicles, and their potential implications for people’s travel behavior. He is a prolific student, which is evident by the number of awards and scholarships he has earned. Throughout the past two years, he received several awards and scholarships including the full-tuition scholarship for attending the discrete choice analysis summer course at MIT, Institute for Environmental Science and Policy’s Doctoral Fellowship, Illinois ASCE Transportation & Development Institute Scholarship, Christopher and Susan Burke Civil Engineering Scholarship, David Boyce Graduate Scholarship, George Krambles Transportation Award, Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association scholarship, and the UIC Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Award.
The IL-ITE scholarship is presented annually to honor and encourage transportation students whose academic achievements and research display a high level of excellence and distinction. The scholarship is provided to one undergraduate and one graduate student in the amount of $2,000 each. The candidates are evaluated on the basis of academic performance, education plans, career goals, activities, and record of leadership.
Last year, UIC students made their debut by beating out students from universities throughout Illinois to capture three scholarships. Nabin Kafle took home the Graduate Scholarship Award, Nima Golshani received the Best Student Paper Award and Yousef Dana nabbed the Undergraduate Scholarship Award.
“I think our chapter is doing great, and hope next year we again take all the scholarships,” said Shabanpour.
UIC students, and faculty advisor Professor Bo Zou, relaunched the ITE-UIC chapter to make a long-term contribution to the transportation profession. Its main goal is to inform undergraduate students about transportation engineering profession and to encourage them to take an active role in promoting the ideals of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and serving to the community. The students organize several seminars and workshops, and invite industry representatives to share their work experiences and potential job opportunities.