Author: Sina Abolhoseini

The 2025 Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Annual Conference was held at the Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg on May 28-30, 2025.  The conference was a great opportunity for Matt Adaman, Sina Abolhoseini, Musharraf Khan and Jack Hykaway to meet academics, researchers, and practitioners from around the world in various fields of civil engineering. Attendees learned about recent achievements and innovative solutions that help address civil engineering challenges of the present and the future.

Ph.D. Candidates Homa Motavallian Naeini and Janak Kharel had an amazing experience at the CARSP/ICTCT 2025 Conference which took place May 20-23, 2025 in Québec City.
Homa had the chance to present her research on risky driver behavior at high-speed signalized intersections under different road-weather conditions—a topic that has been the focus of her recent work as well was part of the organizing committee.   

Youssef Masoud attended CUTRIC’s virtual Smart Rail Innovation Conference on March 19, representing UMTIG. This event was Canada’s largest rail innovation summit, convening North America’s leading rail sector decision-makers and thought leaders to discuss the future of rail innovation in Canada, including today’s greatest challenges and opportunities, and how best to overcome them as a sector.

The selection committee of the ISWIM Young Researcher Award announced that Navoda Rillagodage was selected for the 2024 award. ISWIM fully sponsored the travel and registration expenses for Navoda, who presented her work at the WIM Subcommittee meeting during the Transport Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting January 5-9, 2025, in Washington DC, USA.

The work she has done since her internship and research assistantship experience days shows her depth of understanding and interest in WIM. Dr. Rillagodage’s work has implementable results that law enforcement and engineers can use to understand the behavior of drivers and to design better pavements. Her current role as the manager for the Manitoba Highway Traffic Information System shows her desire and commitment to the WIM field.

Dr. Regehr was recognized by the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee Blue Ribbon Award (awarded to the Highway Traffic Monitoring Committee, recognizing efforts initiated by Jonathan Regehr during his term as Chair, for the committee’s sustained effort to enhance committee diversity by attracting, promoting, and rewarding young professionals and people from under-represented groups and providing them with support and leadership roles).

Homa Motavallian Naeini was elected Councillor of the leadership team of the Civil Engineering Graduate Students’ Association (CEGSA) 2024-2025 at the University of Manitoba! The team is dedicated to fostering a strong community, supporting research collaboration, and driving the professional growth of graduate students.

In November, Dr. Regehr travelled to South Africa where he engaged with researchers at two universities: (1) University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and (2) Stellenbosch University (near Cape Town). During his visits he interacted directly with several professors at both universities, gave two truck-related research seminars, and met with post-doctoral and graduate students working in sustainable road freight transportation, logistics, and traffic engineering. These universities are both affiliated with the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight in South Africa.

On November 15, 2024, Dr. Mehran was hosted at the University of Calgary where he gave a seminar on “Navigating Transportation Challenges in the Canadian Prairies and Northern Regions: Insights from Research”.  During his visit he meet with Dr. Chan Wirasinghe, and Dr. Merkebe Demissie, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering.

Dr. Regehr travelled to Québec City from October 7 to 11 to connect with Dr. Julien Lépine, Université Laval, who is the Chair for the upcoming HVTT Symposium. Dr. Regehr provided a research seminar for the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics, and Transportation (CIRRELT), which showcased UMTIG’s truck-related research portfolio, including our ongoing research on zero-emission trucks.

On September 5 and 6, Dr. Jonathan Regehr and PDFs Drs. Jyoti Mandhani and Phani Patnala attended the Northern Transportation Symposium in Thompson, Manitoba, along with Dr. Carl Ho from Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition to the Symposium, they toured Area 55 Advanced Cold Research Facility and the Thompson airport, visited University College of the North, took a boat trip see a hydro-electric facility, and met with numerous people from local and Indigenous communities. Among other themes, they learned about freight transport challenges in northern and Indigenous communities and the interests of those communities to participate in transformative technologies like electric trucks.

On August 9, 2024, Maryam Ghaffari Dolama successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled “Quantifying Mobility Impacts of Railway Grade Crossing Blockages on Vehicular Traffic and Emergency Responders”. A special thanks to Dr. Orly Linovski and Dr. Babak Mehran for serving on the Examining Committee along with external examiner Dr. Eric Hildebrand, Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Brunswick.