Hesham Rakha

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Hesham Rakha
Hesham-Aberdeen.jpg
Rakha pictured in 2025
Born
United Kingdom
Other names
  • Hesham Ahmed Rakha
  • Hesham A Rakha
Alma materCairo University
Queen's University
Known forMulti-modal vehicle motion and large-scale transportation system optimization, agent-based modeling, and assessment
AwardsFellow, CAE
Member, VASEM
Fellow, IEEE
Fellow, ASCE
2021 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Outstanding Research Award
Scientific career
InstitutionsQueen's University
Virginia Tech
ThesisA Simulation Approach for Modeling Real-Time Traffic Signal Controls (1993)
Doctoral advisorMichel Van Aerde
Websiterakha.cee.vt.edu

Hesham Rakha is the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering[1] in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering[2] and a courtesy professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering[3] at Virginia Tech. He directs the Center for Sustainable Mobility[4] at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute[5]. He conducts research in the area of multi-modal large-scale transportation system and vehicle optimization, agent-based modeling, and assessment. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering[6][7] and was elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine[8][9] and the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence[10]. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers[11] and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)[12]. He is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Outstanding Research Award for contributions to large-scale transportation system optimization, modeling and assessment[13][14].

Education and career

Rakha studied engineering at Cairo University and graduated with honors in 1987[2]. He then moved to Canada in 1988 to complete his M.Sc. and PhD degrees under the supervision of the late Michel Van Aerde at Queen's University in 1990 and 1993, respectively[2]. His M.Sc. thesis was entitled An Evaluation of the Benefits of User and System Optimized Route Guidance Strategies[15]. His PhD thesis was entitled A Simulation Approach for Modeling Real-Time Traffic Signal Controls[15].

Rakha worked as as an engineer for Science Applications International Corporation and a postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University from 1993 to 1996 and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queen's University from 1996 to 1997. In 1997, he joined the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute[5] (formerly known as the Center for Transportation Research) as a Research Scientist. He then became an Assistant Professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1999 and moved up the ranks and is currently the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering[1] at Virginia Tech and directs the Center for Sustainable Mobility[4] at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute[5].

Sample research contributions of Rakha and his team include:

  • Developed algorithms to estimate and predict the spatiotemporal evolution of a transportation system[16][17] and identify the best time to embark on trips[18][19].
  • Developed speed harmonization (also known as variable speed limit) algorithms to control the flow and speed of vehicles on freeways to eliminate and/or reduce traffic jams[20].
  • Developed algorithms to allow motorists to navigate through traffic lights safely and efficiently[21].
  • Conducted research on automated vehicles to study and quantify their impact on the performance of the transportation system[22][23].
  • Evaluated the impact or rollbacks on emission standards on automobile companies, electric vehicles, and the environment[24][25].
  • Conducted research on computing safe and efficient yellow times at traffic signals[26].
  • Conducted research on improving algorithms for the optimization of traffic signal timings[27].
  • Conducted research on the impact of truck automation on fuel and energy consumption[28].
  • Evaluated when buying an electric vehicle is good for your wallet[29] and developed a tool to compute and compare the cost of gasoline and electric vehicles[30].
  • Developed tools to compare and quantify the energy and environmental impacts of alternative powertrains on the train freight system in the US[31][32].
  • Conducted extensive research on the modeling and optimization of the motion of electric vehicles and quantifying the network-wide impacts associated with vehicle electrification[33].
  • Quantified network-wide non-exhaust tire and brake emissions from electric vehicles and compared them to gasoline vehicles[34].

Awards and honors

  • 2025 Member, Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM)[8].
  • 2025 Distinguished Artificial Intelligence Scholar Award, National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI)[35].
  • 2025 Member, National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI)[10].
  • 2020~2025 Included in the Stanford list of the world's top 2% of scientists[36].
  • 2024 Fellow, International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance[37].
  • 2023 Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE)[6].
  • 2023 World's Top Industry Scientist, International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA)[37].
  • 2023 Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (FAAIA)[38].
  • 2023 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech[39].
  • 2023 Most Cited Article Award, International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology for paper Du, J.; Rakha, H.A.; Filali, F.; Eldardiry, H. "COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Traffic System Delay, Fuel Consumption and Emissions". International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology[2].
  • 2023 Best Paper Award, 9th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems,Prague, Czech Republic, 26-28 April for paper Alazemi, F.; Fadhloun, K.; Rakha, H.A.; Mittal, A. "Towards Building a Naturalistic Cycling Dataset Capturing Bicycle/Car Interactions," 9th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems[2].
  • 2022 Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE)[40].
  • 2021 IEEE ITS Outstanding Research Award, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society[13].
  • 2020 First Place, IEEE ITSC 2020 UAS4T Competition[41].
  • 2020 Fellow, IEEE for contributions to optimization, modeling and assessment of transportation systems[12].
  • 2020 User Information Systems (AND20) 2019 Best Paper Award, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 12-16 for paper Osman, O.; Rakha H.A. "Characterization of Drivers’ Engagement in Secondary Tasks: Application of Deep Learning for Data-Driven In-Vehicle Systems"[2].
  • 2018 Best Paper Award, 4th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems, Madeira, Portugal, March 15-18 for paper Elouni, M.; Rakha, H.A. “Weather-Tuned Network Perimeter Control - A Network Fundamental Diagram Feedback Controller Approach"[2].
  • 2018 Most Cited Article Award, International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology for paper Rakha, H.; Ahn, K.; Moran, K. (2012) "INTEGRATION Framework for Modeling Eco-routing Strategies: Logic and Preliminary Results", International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, Vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 259-274[2].
  • 2016 Best Paper Award, 2nd International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems, Rome, Italy, April 23-24 for paper Elhenawy, M.; Rakha, H.; Chen, H. "A Unified Real-time Automatic Congestion Identification Model Considering Weather and Roadway Visibility Conditions" [2].
  • 2013 Best Scientific Paper Award, 20th ITS World Congress, Tokyo, Japan, October 14-18 for paper Chen, H.; Rakha, H.; McGhee, C. “Dynamic Travel Time Prediction using Pattern Recognition"[2].
  • 2012 Best Scientific Paper Award, 19th ITS World Congress, Vienna, Austria, October 22-26 for paper Zohdy, I.; Rakha, H. “Optimizing Driverless Vehicles at Intersections”[2].
  • 2011 Best Paper Award in the TRB Truck and Bus Safety Committee, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, January 24-27 for paper Donoughe, K.; Rakha, H.; Swanson, W.; Park, S.; Bryson, J. "Development of Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed for Evaluating Truck Safety Systems"[2].
  • 2007 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech[39].
  • 2007 Research Excellence Award, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech[15].
  • 2004~2006 Research Fellow Award, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech[15].
  • 2002 Outstanding New Professor Award, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech[15].
  • 1991~1993 Queen's Graduate Fellowship, Queen's University[15].
  • 1990 Mclaughlin Award, Queen's University[15].
  • 1989 Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Queen's University[15].
  • 1988 Dean's Award, Queen's University[15].
  • 1982~1987 Civil Engineering Award, Cairo University[15].

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hesham A. Rakha named Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 "Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Web Applications System, Virginia Tech". www.webapps.cee.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  3. ↑ "ECE Faculty". ece.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Center for Sustainable Mobility | Virginia Tech Transportation Institute". www.vtti.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Home | Virginia Tech Transportation Institute". www.vtti.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-01.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Admin. "Directory of Fellows". Canadian Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  7. ↑ Levin, Jacob. "Hesham Rakha named Canadian Academy of Engineering fellow". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Members". VASEM. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  9. ↑ Haugh, Lindsey. "Five faculty members elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Hesham A. Rakha". thenaai.org. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  11. ↑ "Rakha elevated to fellow status". www.asce.org. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Duhamel, Tom. "IEEE ITSS Fellows". IEEE ITSS. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Levin, Jacob. "Hesham Rakha awarded the 2021 IEEE Intelligent Transportation System Outstanding Research Award". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  14. ↑ Duhamel, Tom. "IEEE ITS Outstanding Research Award". IEEE ITSS. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 "Home". rakha.cee.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
  16. ↑ writer, Lewis Millholland, news reporter, Richard Chumney, news staff (2014-09-17). "VTTI writes algorithm to predict traffic flow". Collegiate Times. Retrieved 2025-11-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ Review-Journal, Steve Sebelius Las Vegas (2017-03-08). "Nevada transportation department wishes for bliss on Las Vegas freeways". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  18. ↑ "Best time to travel this Thanksgiving weekend, revealed by experts". Newsweek. 2024-11-28. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  19. ↑ Byars, Lindsey. "Holiday travel: Traffic expert offers advice for avoiding congestion". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  20. ↑ McGinty, Jo Craven (2014-11-07). "Traffic Engineers Say Slowing Down Will Get You Through a Jam Faster". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  21. ↑ "Transportation Institute launches effort to make navigating traffic lights safer, smarter and cheaper". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  22. ↑ Noguchi, Yuki (2017-02-10). "Self-Driving Cars Could Ease Our Commutes, But That'll Take A While". NPR. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  23. ↑ "Self-Driving Cars and Their Impact on Your Commute". www.techzone360.com. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  24. ↑ "Virginia Tech Expert Says Rolling Back Emission Standards for Automobile Companies Will Impact Future Production of Electric Cars, Harm the Environment | Newswise". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  25. ↑ "Virginia Tech expert: Rolling back emission standards for automobile companies will impact future production of electric cars, harm the environment". news.vt.edu.
  26. ↑ Marshall, Aarian. "Red Light Cameras May Be Issuing Some Tickets Based on Bogus Math". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  27. ↑ "Why is it so hard for Baltimore to synchronize its traffic lights? Here's what we found". Baltimore Sun. 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  28. ↑ Gilroy, Roger (2019-12-18). "TuSimple Reports Its Autonomous Trucks Reduce Fuel Consumption - TT". Transport Topics. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  29. ↑ Spain, Mark (2022-04-12). "When buying an electric vehicle is good for your wallet". WSET. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  30. ↑ Levin, Jacob. "Buying a car just got more efficient, thanks to Virginia Tech Transportation Institute's Hesham Rakha". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  31. ↑ Williams, Travis. "New software simulates the impact of alternative fuels for freight trains". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  32. ↑ "VA Tech Software Simulates Nationwide Impact of Alternative Fuels for Freight Trains". 2024-01-19. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  33. ↑ Mundy, Thomas (2024-02-23). "Virginia Tech engineering professor speaks on the future of electric vehicles". WSLS. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  34. ↑ Khalid, Shaharyar (2024-03-05). "Do electric cars cause more pollution than gas-powered ones? Study sparks debate". www.geo.tv. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  35. ↑ "The list of winners for the NAAI Distinguished AI Scholar Award 2025 has been officially announced". www.thenaai.org. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  36. ↑ "SAE Update - February 2024". www.nxtbook.com. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 "Hesham A. Rakha - International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance ( AIIA )". www.aiia-ai.org. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  38. ↑ laitimes (2023-06-21). "Hesham A. Rakha, a Canadian Academy of Engineering and Virginia Tech professor, joined AAIA". laitimes. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 "Excellence in Research". eng.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  40. ↑ Levin, Jacob. "Hesham Rakha named fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers". news.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
  41. ↑ "UAS4T Competition results and codes – pNEUMA | open-traffic". Retrieved 2025-11-25.

External links

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