Professor Baher Abdulhai has 31 years of experience in transportation systems engineering and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). He has been a professor at the University of Toronto since 1998. He is the Director of the Toronto ITS Centre, the new i-City Centre for Automated and Transformative Transportation Systems (iCity-CATTS), and the co-founder of the ONE-ITS research society. Abdulhai received several awards including IEEE Outstanding Service Award, Teaching Excellence award, and research awards from Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, and Ontario Innovation Trust. He served on the Board of Directors of the Government of Ontario (GO) Transit Authority from 2004 to 2006. He served as a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in ITS from 2005 to 2010. The ITS Centre won the Ontario Showcase Merit Award of Excellence and the National GTEC Bronze Medal Award in 2005. His research team won international awards including the International Transportation Forum innovation award in 2010 (Hossam Abdelgawad), IEEE ITS 2013 (Samah El-Tantawy) and INFORMS 2013 (Samah El-Tantawy). In 2014, he won the University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award. In 2015 he has been inducted as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). In 2018, he won the prestigious CSCE Sandford Fleming (Career Achievement) Award for his contribution to transportation in Canada.

Website: https://uttri.utoronto.ca/people/baher-abdulhai/

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/baher-abdulhai-b2460215

Jeff Casello is a Professor jointly-appointed in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo. He is also the lead researcher in The Waterloo Public Transportation Initiative (WPTI), which is a UWaterloo research group that provides expertise in urban transportation planning and engineering in order to address the challenges relevant to Canadian and global cities.

Professor Casello’s primary research interest is in the development and application of quantitative models of transportation (particularly transit and non-motorized modes) system performance. He is also interested in researching the impacts of transportation investments on land use patterns and has published extensively on these topics.

Professor Casello specializes in the planning, design and operation of public transportation systems. He is the lead author (with Vukan R. Vuchic) of Transit Planning for the Institute of Transportation Engineer’s (ITE) 3rd edition of the “Transportation Planning Handbook”. In addition, he is an acknowledged contributor to two seminal texts in the field: “Urban Transit Systems and Technology” and “Urban Transit Planning, Operations and Economics”, both by Professor Vuchic.

Professionally, Professor Casello has worked as a consultant, instructor and researcher with many transit agencies in the US, Canada and abroad. These include Singapore (LTA), Washington DC (WMATA), Houston (METRO), Philadelphia (SEPTA), the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (GRT), the City of Kingston, and Mexico City (D.F.). He has also worked in the public sector for the New York State Department of Transportation.

Website: https://uwaterloo.ca/civil-environmental-engineering/profile/jcasello

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jeff-casello-a75491132

Dr. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada’s “university of the imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists. While retaining OCAD University's traditional strengths in art and design, Diamond has guided the university in becoming a leader in digital media, design research and curriculum through the Digital Futures Initiative, new research in Inclusive Design, health and design, as well as in sustainable technologies and design. She also played a leading role in OCAD University's establishment of the unique Aboriginal Visual Culture Program. These initiatives have built strong partnerships for OCAD University with science, business and communities, in Ontario and abroad. Currently, she serves on the Ontario Ministry of Culture’s Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, ORION (Ontario’s high-speed network), SHARCNET, IO (Interactive Ontario), Canadian Women in Communications; i-Canada; is Chair of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronto Advisory Committee. Diamond serves the larger university community through her membership on the Standing Advisory Committee on University Research (SACUR) of the Association of Universities and Colleges and as Chair of the Standing Committee on Relationships with Other Postsecondary Institutions for the Council of Ontario Universities. Diamond is a member of the Council of the Canadian Academies’ expert panel on the State of Science & Technology in Canada.

Website: https://www2.ocadu.ca/bio/dr-sara-diamond

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/sadiamond

Mohamed El-Darieby is a Professor of Software Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina. Sask, CANADA. He received B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Egypt and Ph.D. in Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He has more than 25 years of experience in software development. His research interests are in the areas of software and networking systems with applications to Smart Infrastructure and City Dynamics with over 22 competitive industrial, national and industrial funding grants from agencies such as NSERC (DG, DDG and Engage), Transport Canada, CANARIE, CFI, GEOIDE, Sask. Highways, NRC, WestGrid, PTRC, and WED. Dr. EL-Darieby has more than 60 publications in technical conferences and journals. Dr. El-Darieby is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS)

Website: https://www.uregina.ca/engineering/faculty-staff/faculty/el-darieby-mohamed.html

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-el-darieby-0a29a9a/

Josh brings over 15 years’ experience of delivering successful projects for governments, communities, and private enterprise in public consultation, community facilitation, education and engagement. In 2019, Josh acted as Project Lead for the City of Toronto’s KidScore Pilot, the City of Vaughan’s Traffic Management Strategy Communications and Engagement program, and the Halton District School Board’s Stakeholder Engagement Plan for its next Multi-Year Plan. He also acted as Strategic Advisor for the City of Toronto Children's Services' Strategic Plan, facilitating community workshops and discussions in diverse Toronto neighbourhoods. He is currently leading a national study on the impact of Covid-19 social and physical distancing on Canadian children and youth, and acting as a stakeholder and community relations advisor on a number of development and infrastructure projects.

Professionally, Professor Casello has worked as a consultant, instructor and researcher with many transit agencies in the US, Canada and abroad. These include Singapore (LTA), Washington DC (WMATA), Houston (METRO), Philadelphia (SEPTA), the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (GRT), the City of Kingston, and Mexico City (D.F.). He has also worked in the public sector for the New York State Department of Transportation.

Website: https://maximumcity.ca/our-team#:~:text=JOSH%20FULLAN

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/josh-fullan-61876421

Dr. Fox is a Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineering, and a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Computer Science where his current research applies Artificial Intelligence to Smart Cities. He is the Associate Director (Research) in the School of Cities. He received his BSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1975 and his PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1983, where he was an Associate Professor (tenured) of Computer Science and Robotics. He was a founding member of Carnegie-Mellon’s Robotics Institute. From 1981 through 1987 he founded and led the Robotics Institute’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory, and from 1987 through 1991 he co-founded and led the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Decision Systems. In 1993 Dr. Fox co-founded Novator Systems Ltd., a pioneer in out-sourced eRetail services and software. In 1984 he co-founded Carnegie Group Inc., one of the first companies to apply Artificial Intelligence to solving engineering, manufacturing, and telecommunications problems. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Engineering Institute of Canada.

Website: http://www.eil.utoronto.ca/profiles/foxpro.html

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/mark-fox-a11b46

Dr. Hess’s teaching and research focus is on pedestrian environments and design, planning for activity transportation modes, and streets as public space. Dr. Hess has engaged in research on how built environments influence pedestrian activity for more than 15 years, with his early work pioneering measures of pedestrian network connectivity now in common use. His current research work is focused on changing models of streets design including complete streets, pedestrianization strategies, pavement to parks programs, and the potential impact of autonomous vehicles. He is interested in the adoption adaptation, and implementation of street design programs in multi-national contexts – such as Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Russia – where he and his students currently have research projects.

Dr. Hess is particularly interested in the policy rationales and equity implications of these changes in street design models.

Website: http://faculty.geog.utoronto.ca/Hess/hess_home.html

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/paul-hess-743a578

Professor Eric Miller focuses his research investigations within the area of transportation modelling and sustainable urban design.

Professor Eric Miller is a pioneer in the development and application of agent-based microsimulation model systems in large urban contexts. As director of the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute (UTTRI), his research is centered in the implementation of activity-based travel models for use in operational practice. This includes the development of integrated transportation-land use models that permit the analysis of the two-way interaction between transportation systems and urban form. His work serves to improve urban transportation best practices and policy decision-making and, thereby improves the quality of life in urban settings.

Professor Miller Research Director of the Data Management Group (DMG), which for over 30 years has provided data to government agencies, private sector partners working for government, and university researchers in support of a wide variety of travel behaviour analyses and modelling activities. He is also Founding Research Director of the Travel Modelling Group (TMG), a research consortium that seeks to provide a forum and mechanism for inter-agency collaboration designed to improved travel modelling practice for all. Current GTHA transportation agency partners in TMG include Metrolinx, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the Cities of Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan and the Regions of Durham, York, Peel and Halton. Professor Miller is the recipient of the 2009 ITE Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Educator Award, inaugural winner of the University of British Columbia Margolese National Design for Living Award (2012) and the 2018 IATBR Lifetime Achievement Award.

Website: https://uttri.utoronto.ca/people/eric-j-miller/

Linkedin: N/A

Matthew Roorda is a Professor of Civil & Mineral Engineering and has been faculty at the University of Toronto since 2005. Dr. Roorda obtained his P.Eng. in 1999. He completed his BEng at McMaster University, and his MASc and PhD degrees at the University of Toronto. Dr. Roorda has extensive experience in the development of new models of urban systems (freight and passenger), the use of those models for forecasting and analysis, and in supporting data collection initiatives. Dr. Roorda’s research interests include urban freight transportation, freight planning and operations, freight and passenger travel survey methods, city logistics, agent-based simulation, parking and curbside management, emissions analysis, activity-based travel demand modelling, and firm behaviour. Dr. Roorda is an experienced teacher at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Dr. Roorda is a Canada Research Chair in Freight Transportation and Logistics. Dr. Roorda is also co-chair of the University of Toronto Infrastructure Engineering Program, and he is the Chair of the Smart Freight Centre, a three-university research centre focused on freight research and implementation projects across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Website: https://uttri.utoronto.ca/people/matthew-roorda/

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/matthew-roorda-04503222

Amer Shalaby received a B.A.Sc. degree (1988) in Civil Engineering from Ain Shams University in Egypt, and MASc (1991) and PhD (1996) degrees from the University of Toronto, specializing in Transportation Engineering. He was a postdoctoral fellow (1996-1997) at the University of Toronto, NSERC Industrial Research Fellow (1997-1998) at IBI Group and assistant professor (1998-2000) at Ryerson University. Dr. Shalaby is specialized in transit planning and operations, intelligent transportation systems, and transportation planning for large-scale events and mega cities. His research program has been sponsored by many organizations from both the public and private sectors. In addition to research, Dr. Shalaby has delivered consulting services to various transportation organizations in Canada and internationally, and he has offered annual short courses on public transit planning and modelling to the professional community since 2008. Dr. Shalaby has been an active member of several transit technical committees of the TRB, he serves as associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering and he sits on the editorial board of several international journals. Dr. Shalaby has also served on advisory panels of multiple transportation projects in Canada and internationally. Between 2008 and 2010, Professor Shalaby held an honorary appointment of a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University. He has received several recognitions for his research contributions and professional expertise, including the TRB William Millar Award (2015), ThinkTransit Award of Excellence in Innovation (2019) and Sandford Fleming Award (2019).

Website: https://uttri.utoronto.ca/people/amer-shalaby/

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/amer-shalaby-3288b45