Welcome!

Our group is part of The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Irvine (ITS-Irvine) and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). UCI is ranked 10th among the nation’s best public universities on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-24 list of “Best Colleges.” This is the 9th consecutive year in which UCI has placed in the top 10

Our research interests are in sustainable integrated urban systems with a focus on transportation and energy. Our research tends to focus on designing, planning, and operational decisions of integrated civil engineering systems that have low environmental impacts and consider human behavior and decision-making. We have focused on smart charging electric vehicles, electric charging infrastructure needs, and on-demand shared mobility services. The team employs optimization, simulation, statistical modeling, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis.

Key Research Areas

EV Charging Signage

Electrified Transportation

We study innovative charging infrastructure solutions, access and equity concerns, and smart charging of electric vehicles to provide power grid benefits.

Shared Mobility

We study the (fleet) operations of shared mobility, including automated vehicles and micromobility at the regional level using an integrated optimization-simulation framework.

Other Topics

We also study travel demand under normal and shock events, technology adoption, and active transportation-physical activity benefits.

News

KJZZ Interview on Peer-to-Peer Charging Apps
Dr. Dean spoke with Mark Brodie, co-host of KJZZ's The Show, to talk about Buzze, a Phoenix-based start-up that connects EV owners with residential Level 2 chargers with EV drivers in need of a place to plug in. This app is a new form of peer-to-peer …
Introduction to Dr. Dean
Interested in learning more about our lab's research? Check out this UCI Samueli School of Engineering intro video to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRogEVglK0
Dr. Dean Awarded RIMI Grant!
Our research group received funding from the State of California’s one-time allocation in the 2021 State Budget for the Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI) to conduct research on the role of turnkey EV charging infrastructure in our state. Role of Charging as a Service in …

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