Professor Alireza Khani of the UMN’s Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering (CEGE) has been appointed Richard P. Braun/CTS Chair in Transportation Engineering, effective July 1, 2026. He’ll hold the position through June 30, 2031.
CTS collaborated with what was then the Department of Civil Engineering (now CEGE) to establish the chair in 2006. CTS initiated the position using royalties from Autoscope®, an invention in traffic detection technology developed by Professor Panos Michalopoulos and patented by the University. Braun was the founding director of CTS and a former commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
The purpose of this endowed faculty chair is to foster innovation in transportation engineering at CEGE. Below, Khani shares highlights of his recent research and teaching work, as well as his plans for the next five years.
How do you think this appointment will support your research and related work?
The CTS Braun Chair will serve as a catalyst for discovery and impact by helping recruit graduate students to research new transportation technologies and solutions, such as transit last-mile service, transit electrification, and sustainable last-mile delivery. Beyond research, the appointment will help me build the national partnerships necessary to expand our collaboration with other research institutes and to help realize the impact of our work through Minnesota transportation agencies. It also allows me to support the professional growth of students through industry seminars and other outreach activities.
What are your current plans for the next five years in this role, and what do you hope to achieve?
I plan to recruit new PhD students to advance research on emerging mobility and urban logistics and their integration with transit systems. I am leading the advancement of our technical elective course, Infrastructure Systems Engineering, to cover various areas of civil engineering. This will help students learn systems thinking, sustainability concepts, and optimization tools to address today’s transportation problems. I also plan to establish special industry seminars and invite technical leaders from industry and government to bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice.
How do you balance teaching with your research work? And how do your different responsibilities influence each other?
I maintain a high “utility-to-theory” ratio, where the mathematical models developed in my research lab translate directly into classroom case studies and agency practice. For example, my work on transit assignment modeling and fleet electrification has not only been useful for planning organizations but also as the basis for case studies on the numerical algorithms I teach in technical elective and graduate courses. This ensures that my teaching is grounded in the rigorous algorithmic approaches required for modern transportation engineering.
— Macy Harder, CTS program editor
