Stephen Wong

Area of Study / Keywords

Transportation Engineering Transportation Planning Evacuations Resilience Sustainability Choice-Making Shared Mobility Disaster Planning

About

Biography

Dr. Stephen Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta, joining in October 2021. Stephen’s research focuses on the intersection of evacuations, decision-making, and shared mobility and works to create more resilient, environmentally friendly, and equitable transportation systems. His dissertation research developed empirically driven and equitable evacuation and resilience strategies for governmental agencies to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Stephen leads the Resilient and Sustainable Mobility and Evacuation (RESUME) Group and is affiliated with the Centre for Smart Transportation.

Stephen has also conducted research on smart charging programs for electric vehicles, automated vehicle policymaking in the United States, mobility on demand (MOD) ridehailing and microtransit pilots, and scenario planning-based recovery of public transit and shared mobility from COVID-19. He was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow, an Eno Center for Transportation Fellow, and a Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellow. Stephen received his Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from UC Berkeley in December 2020. He received his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley (2016) and a B.S. in Civil Engineering with a second major in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University (2015).

Stephen is currently involved with the Transportation Research Board in several capacities. He is the Co-Chair of the Young Member Council - Sustainability and Resilience, Research Coordinator for the Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity (AMR20), and member of the Committee on Strategic Management (AJE10). Stephen is also a part of the Emergency Management and Evacuation Subgroup and the Human Behavior in Fires Subgroup at the International Association for Fire Safety Science.

Education

Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2020)

• Emphasis in Transportation Engineering; Minors in City and Regional Planning & Econometrics

M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2016)

• Emphasis in Transportation Engineering

B.S. Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2015)

• Second Major in Sociology

Work and Research Experience

University of California, Berkeley

• California Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (CA RIMI) + Transportation Sustainability Researcher Center (TSRC) – Research and Development Engineer (January 2021 – June 2021)
• Institute of Transportation Studies – Graduate Student Researcher (June 2020 – Dec. 2020)
• California Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative – Graduate Student Researcher (Fall 2019 – 2020)
• Contra Costa County – Independent Consultant (Summer 2019 – Spring 2020)
• Institute of Transportation Studies – Graduate Student Researcher (Fall 2018 – Summer 2019)
• Transportation Sustainability Research Center – Graduate Student Researcher (Summer 2018)
• Transportation Sustainability Graduate Class – Graduate Student Instructor (Spring 2018 and 2019)
•  Institute of Transportation Studies – Research Assistant (Fall 2015)

Delft University of Technology

• National Science Foundation – Guest Researcher (Fall 2018)

Industry and Public Agencies

• Arup – Integrated Planning Intern (Summer/Fall 2017)
• New York City Transit at the Department of Subways – College Aide (Summer 2016)

Johns Hopkins University 

• Sensor Technology and Infrastructure Risk Mitigation Lab – Research Assistant (2014 – 2015)
• Poverty and Housing Research Group – Research Assistant & Co-Facilitator of Fieldwork (2013 – 2015) 

Leadership and Community Service

• Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Co-Chair of the Young Member Council - Sustainability and Resilience (2021 – present)
• Scenario Planning Conference – Planning Committee Member (2021 – present)
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Member of the Transportation Systems Resilience Section (2021 – present)
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Research Coordinator for the Standing Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity (AMR20) (2021 – present)
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Committee Member for the Standing Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity (AMR20) (2021 – present)
• International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) – Human Behaviour in Fires Subgroup Member (2021 – present)
• International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) – Emergency Management and Evacuation Subgroup Member (2019 – present)
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Committee Member for the Standing Committee on Emergency Evacuations (ABR30) (2018 – 2020)
• UC Berkeley Transportation Graduate Students Organizing Committee – President (2016 – 2017)
• The Ulman Foundation – 4K for Cancer Participant Summer (2015)
• Johns Hopkins University – Blue Key Society Member and Executive Board Member (2011 – 2015)                 
• Johns Hopkins University – Admissions Representative (2012 – 2015)
• Group Mission Trips – Crew Manager Summer (2012, 2013)

Awards and Honors

University of Alberta

• Eric Pas Dissertation Prize (International Association for Travel Behaviour Research) for Dissertation at UC Berkeley (2021)

University of California, Berkeley

• International Association for Fire Safety Science Best General Poster (IAFSS Symposium 2021) (2021)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Graduate Research Fellowship (2019-2020 Academic Year)(2019)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Graduate Research Fellowship Best Oral Presentation (98th Annual TRB Meeting)(2019) 
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Graduate Research Fellowship (2018-2019 Academic Year)(2018)
• Eno Center for Transportation Future Leader Fellowship (2018) 
• Rodney Slater Award (Eno Center for Transportation) (2018)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide Fellowship (Delft University of Technology) (2018)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2015)

Johns Hopkins University

• Robert H. Scanlan Award (Academic excellence in Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University) (2015)
• James S. Coleman Award (Academic excellence in Sociology, Johns Hopkins University) (2015)
• American Society of Civil Engineers Maryland Section Scholarship (2014)  
• American Society of Highway Engineers Chesapeake Section Scholarship (2014)
• Class of 1929 Scholarship (Johns Hopkins University) (2013)
• Class of 1929 Scholarship (Johns Hopkins University) (2012)
• Member of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society
• Member of Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Honor Society

Research

Research Summary

Dr. Wong's research focuses on resilient and sustainable transportation to achieve equity, environmental, and preparedness goals for disasters and everyday conditions. Stephen tackles this research through multidisciplinary and mixed-method approaches, via the fields of transportation, behavioral analysis, shared mobility, urban planning, emergency management, sociology, and public policy. Through this work, Stephen builds practice-ready recommendations for governmental agencies to reduce their carbon footprint, increase operational efficiency, improve safety in disasters, and promote a more fair, equitable, and just society.

Resilience: Evacuations, evacuee behavior, discrete choice modeling, sharing economy for disasters, system operations, ridehailing, ridesharing, transportation network companies (TNCs), carpooling, homesharing, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, emerging mobility in evacuations, equity and justice, smart infrastructure, big data, power grid, disaster and evacuation policy

Sustainability: Shared mobility, mobility on demand (MOD), mobility as a service (MasS), ridehailing, transportation network companies (TNCs), carpooling, public transit, microtransit, curb management, active transportation, equity and justice, electric vehicles, smart charging programs, automated vehicles

Methodology: Discrete choice analysis, statistical and econometric analysis, policy development, surveys, focus groups, qualitative interviewing, spatial and data analysis

Full List of Publications

For a list of publications, please visit Dr. Wong's Google Scholar page. For any additional information, please visit Dr. Wong's website.

Teaching

Dr. Wong will be teaching CIV E 411 (Transportation Engineering II) in Fall 2022.

Dr. Wong will be teaching CIV E 719 (Sustainable and Resilient Transportation) in Spring 2023.

Information about possible openings in the RESUME can be found on my website.

Current undergraduate students interested in conducting research via URI, Dean's Research Award, and/or NSERC Undergraduate Program should email me.

CIV E 411 - Transportation Engineering II

The course provides an in-depth understanding of transportation planning and traffic operations concepts and methods. These include: travel demand analysis; data collection methods and data analysis; urban transportation planning and modeling techniques; traffic flow fundamentals and characteristics; and operations of surface roadway networks and controls (intersections). Emerging topics in transportation engineering for future careers will be discussed. Prerequisite: CIV E 315, STAT 235.

CIV E 613 - Transportation Systems and Demand Analysis

Microeconomic principles of production and consumer behaviour. Econometric modeling of demand: parameter estimation techniques, disaggregate choice theory, sampling and data preparation, evaluation. Networks, economic evaluations. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

CIV E 719 - Advanced Topics in Transportation and Engineering

Prerequisites: permission of Department or Instructor. In this course various advanced topics on transportation engineering and planning will be taught. Some possible advanced topics are: advanced probability theory, traffic safety, travel survey method, ITS technology, advanced network analysis, travel behaviour analysis, integrated land use and transportation modelling, public transportation planning and designing, freight transportation, transportation logistics and operation research. New topics may be added later by the Instructors.

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