People

Dr. Matthew Dean

Assistant Professor

CV (Updated 5/2025)

Dr. Dean is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on sustainable transportation systems, planning and operations of electric and fully-automated vehicle fleets, integrated transportation and energy system modeling, and the link between physical activity and transportation-land use planning. He has expertise in large-scale agent-based travel demand modeling, optimization, econometrics, and content analysis. His research identifies the suite of technologies and policies that can address complex urban problems, like climate change, rising energy and mobility demands with constrained infrastructure, and physical inactivity, to create sustainable and healthy communities.

He received his Ph.D. and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his BS in Civil Engineering with a minor in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. Matt is a member of the ASCE T&DI Mobility on Demand and as a Service (MODaaS) and the Sustainable Transportation committees. During his graduate studies, he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

Amin Akbari

Graduate Student Researcher

Amin is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He earned his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Irvine in December 2024. He holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.

Amin’s research is primarily focused on transportation network analysis, optimization, and the integration of machine learning into transportation systems. He has worked on a project exploring Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations and is working on a project exploring workplace charging managed and bi-directional charging programs.

Chenyu Yuan

Graduate Student Researcher

Chenyu is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He holds an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.E. from Hohai University, Nanjing, China. Chenyu’s research focuses on transportation systems analysis, EV charging behaviors, and large language models (LLMs).

He is currently involved in a project examining the effects of smart charging technologies on electric vehicle (EV) charging behaviors, utilizing an activity-based framework. This research aims to understand how charging station design, user preferences, and real-time grid conditions influence charging choices, with the goal of optimizing EV adoption and enhancing grid integration. By leveraging innovative analytical techniques, the project seeks to promote sustainable energy practices and improve the efficiency of EV charging networks.

Gimin Roh

Graduate Student Researcher

Gimin is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He holds a B.Sc. in Urban Engineering from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests center on sustainable transportation systems, with a focus on emerging technologies such as electrified transportation and shared mobility, and their impacts on energy consumption, travel demand, infrastructure, human behavior, and the environment.

He is currently involved in a project examining e-bike safety using survey-based methods. He also has experience with projects on EV charging infrastructure and elderly pedestrian safety, with particular emphasis on data-driven analysis using AI, simulation, and optimization.

Gillian Chen

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Gillian is a junior double-majoring in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Quantitative Economics. She is collaborating with Amin on a behaviorally informed optimization framework for workplace EV charging.