(bright classical music)

- [Michelle] Hello, and
thank you for tuning in

to "Connections & Directions".

Our University of Michigan

civil and environmental
engineering podcast.

My name is Michele Santillan,

and I am the CEE Marketing
Communications Specialist

and host of this series.

During our podcasts, we
are featuring members

of our CEE community and how
their work reflects our mission

of engineers and service to society.

We will be highlighting
our strategic directions

and our commitment to
diversity equity and inclusion.

CEE's five strategic directions

are human habitat experience,
shaping resource flows,

adaptation, automation, and
smart infrastructure finance.

Professor Atiyya Shaw will
begin at UMCEE in January 2023

and comes to us from the
university of California, Berkeley

where she was a post-doctoral fellow

in urban systems, working
with Dr. Daniel Rodriguez.

Professor Shaw's research
prioritizes people

as the most important element
of transportation systems

with her research expertise centering

on survey design and analysis,
travel behavior modeling,

and human factors engineering.

I would like to welcome Dr. Shaw,

and thank you very much
for being with us today.

- [Dr. Shaw] Hi, Michelle.

Thank you for having me.

I'm very excited to be here.

I'm really looking forward

to getting to know the rest of the staff,

faculty, and students in
person in just a few months,

but for now, I'm very
happy to have this chance

to introduce myself virtually,

and I'm looking forward
to our conversation.

- [Michelle] Thank you, as I said,

it's great that you
could be with us today,

and we're excited about you

joining us in person come January.

First, I would like you to our listeners

some details about your
research area and goals

and how they align with
CEE's strategic directions.

- [Dr. Shaw] Sure, so in a nutshell,

my research is centered
around data and methods

that prioritize user-centered
outcomes in transportation.

So I'll just unpack that a little bit now.

When I talk about user-centered
outcomes in transportation,

what I'm really talking about
are goals that directly affect

individuals' quality of life

so that can be things
like equity, livability,

well-being, resilience, sustainability.

So these are really
things that are affecting,

you know, the way we interact
with the infrastructure,

the outcomes of how we interact
with that infrastructure,

and one of my goals through my
research and as an academic,

is to refocus our attention
in civil engineering,

in transportation engineering

on these user-centered outcomes
as a metric in our planning,

our designing, and our
forecasting processes,

and so the way that I'm gonna choose

to sort of work to highlight

and refocus our attention on
these user-centered outcomes

is using two primary sets of tools,

and the first is to look
at the types of data

that we're focusing on.

Look at the traditional
sources of data streams

that we've been depending
on in civil engineering

and thinking about how we can address

some of the issues there.

So for example, in
transportation engineering,

we rely heavily on survey data.

Surveys are becoming harder and harder

to obtain representative data from.

It's becoming more difficult, you know,

to reach all segments of
the population, for example.

So one of the things I wanna do

is to think about innovative
methods and approaches

for addressing some of those challenges

for bringing in new data
sources so we know that we have

more and more data
streams coming online now

than we've ever had before.

Which of those data streams

are going to be useful in our
work and how can we use that

and integrated with some of
our existing data streams

to paint a more full and better picture

of the individuals and the
communities that we're serving

with our infrastructure systems?

So that's a little bit on the data side.

On the method side, what
I'm very interested in doing

is to bring some of those
very advanced methods

and underutilized approaches

from psychometrics and
econometrics to civil engineering.

You know, as civil engineers,
everything that we do,

every system that we build is for people,

but traditionally, in our curriculum,

we haven't really had the opportunity

to learn how to best measure
and study those people,

and so that's one of the
things that I wanna do

with that sort of second
tool set that I'm bringing

to help refocus our attention

on those user-centered app outcomes.

So that paints a little bit of a,

you know, more detailed
picture of my research program

and some of the goals
that I hope to achieve.

With respect to the strategic directions,

you know, I think that my
entire research program

is centered on thinking about people

as the most important element

as you introduced at the beginning,

and so it fits very organically with that

mission of social impact through CEE

that is part of Michigan strategic plan.

Really, it embodies all of
the strategic directions,

but particularly, that first one,

the human habitat experience,

thinking about how we can
design infrastructure systems

that are very human-centric.

So, you know, I think

that's part of what I'm hoping
to do in the department.

I think that's part of
the fundamental goal

of what it means to be a civil engineer,

and I'm really excited to see departments,

like CEE at Michigan,

interested on refocusing
and reframing the discussion

around individuals, around
people, around social impact.

- [Michelle] I think that
that will go a long way

toward, as you said, contributing
toward making our society

more human-centric, more
cognizant of how people interact

with their environment and each other.

- [Dr. Shaw] Yes, yes, exactly.

So that's the goal is to design systems

that are serving people,

that are catering for people's needs,

and that are also designed
for the way that we function

as individuals, right?

How can we design the infrastructure

to ensure that the way I interact with it

is going to be the safest outcomes

for all of the users who
are interacting with me,

for myself, and so on?

- [Michelle] And you mentioned
designing infrastructure.

What specifically are you focusing on?

Are you looking at things such
as walkways, greenways, parks

or are you looking more
at transportation systems,

such as bus lines or trains

or an amalgamation of all of those?

- [Dr. Shaw] Yes, great question.

So in the past, I've really focused

mostly on transportation
systems, so an amalgamation

of what you mentioned just now.

So whether we're talking
about new services

that are coming online,
new ride sharing services,

whether we're talking
about public transit,

whether we're talking about
the way people are interacting

with new technologies in their vehicles,

but, you know, and through my work,

I hope to definitely expand my focus,

expand my application areas
to all infrastructure systems

because I think that there's
a lot of transferability.

You know, as I mentioned,
all of our systems

that we work with as civil
engineers are very user-centered.

Everything that we do is for individuals.

So I think that there's
a lot of opportunity

to transfer some of those skill sets,

tool sets to other systems,
and I'm looking forward

to collaborating with other faculty

on some of these initiatives.

- [Michelle] For the next question,

I wanted to find out how
you became interested

in your area of study.

Was there a course that you took

or a personal experience that you had

that led you to explore
this topic in depth?

- [Dr. Shaw] Sure, so this is always

one of my favorite
questions because it can be

as long as you'd like it to be.

So I'll do my best to sum it up.

You know, when I started
my undergraduate studies,

I had a dream to eventually do

my PhD in sustainable development,

and so the way that I wanted
to go about doing that

was to start off with a
double major in economics

and civil and environmental engineering.

So those were two of my
favorite courses in high school,

and so as I was taking my
civil engineering courses,

I very organically just kind of fell

more and more in love with transportation.

For me, I really liked the
way that transportation

directly interfaced with people.

So I think that it's the
infrastructure system

that just has that most direct connection.

I find it really exciting
and exhilarating that,

you know, I could talk
about transportation

with almost anyone from
anywhere in the world,

you know, any path, any walk of life,

and they would be able to
have this really like robust,

emotional conversation with me
about what needs to be fixed

about their morning commute

or, you know, that traffic
signal near their home

that just isn't timed
right or isn't working,

and so everyone just had
so much emotion and feeling

about the transportation
infrastructure they were using

because it literally
directly impacted their life.

They were interacting
with it on a very real,

very immediate basis,

and so that, that was very exciting to me,

you know, and that is
really why I ended up

going into transportation,
and now, you know,

I think that this is my goal

of working in sustainable
development and improving cities

can very much be achieved

through transportation engineering,

and so I'm excited to be here, yeah.

- [Michelle] That's great, that's great,

and as you said, it's going
through a transportation system

or process on a commute,
whether you're driving in a car

or taking a bus or walking,
we all experience that.

So it's something that
everyone can relate to

at different levels.

- [Dr. Shaw] Right, exactly,

and it impacts our life, right?

I mean, depending on our morning commute,

if we got second traffic
it could completely impact

our mood for the rest of the day

or the interactions that we
have or the ability to focus.

So I think it's very powerful

to think about infrastructure like that.

You know, think about it as
having a very real impact

on the people that we're
(indistinct) these systems for.

- [Michelle] And what classes

do you anticipate teaching initially?

And do you have ideas for adding
new courses down the road?

- [Dr. Shaw] Sure, so
initially, I'll be teaching

the introduction to
transportation engineering course,

which is the undergraduate
level transportation elective,

and then I will also be teaching

the travel behavior analysis
and forecasting course,

which is a graduate course,
and actually, I'm very excited

and passionate about both of these courses

because I think that they're very core

to the transportation curriculum

at the undergraduate and graduate levels,

and so that's really exciting for me

because these are classes
that I really enjoy taking,

and I look forward to, you know,

sharing some of my enthusiasm

with students through those courses.

Down the road, there are a few electives

that I've been thinking about developing.

You know, two possible
options right now would be,

first of all, survey
design and analysis course.

So as I've mentioned earlier in this talk,

a lot of what we do as civil engineers

is centered around people,
well, all of what we do,

but oftentimes, we don't have
the tools or the skill sets

to really think about how
to best collect that data.

So it hasn't really traditionally

been a part of our curriculum,

and so with the survey design course,

that's something that I think

can be very useful for people, you know,

across all of the civil
engineering disciplines.

Do you, oh, go ahead.

- [Michelle] Oh, I'm
sorry, I was going to say,

would you also think of bringing
in things like statistics

and additional analysis to
that or borrowing, if you will,

or collaborating with
colleagues from other areas?

- [Dr. Shaw] Definitely, so it's actually

just where I was going.

Yeah, I think that, you
know, that class itself

can have a module on psychometric methods.

So, again, talking about
the types of things that,

you know, can be important
for analyzing that data,

not only collecting the data properly,

but thinking about how we
are measuring the metrics,

the performance metrics
that we're interested in.

Thinking about how we're
analyzing that data,

You know, there are people in psychology

who've spent decades studying

the right way to ask these questions

and the right way to analyze that data,

but we really haven't had

the access to those types of methods

and concepts as civil engineers.

So that's definitely something that

either can be a part of that class.

Quite honestly, it can
be a class by itself,

a psychometrics methods
course for civil engineers.

So you're right, absolutely.

Statistics actually taking
that data that we're getting

and analyzing it correctly

is a big part of this as well, yeah.

- [Michelle] And I know
that you touched on this

in your opening regarding
incorporating diversity,

equity, and inclusion in your research

by trying to include as
many people as possible

in the types of surveys that you're doing.

Are there additional
means of incorporating DEI

that you see being able
to do in your research

as well as your teaching?

- [Dr. Shaw] Yeah, you know,
I think DEI is something

that I'm genuinely very passionate about,

and part of that is really just, you know

because of my own lived experiences.

I'm a first generation immigrant.

You know, as a Muslim American,
all of these experiences

have really just impacted
my commitment, my passion

for DEI in a very real
way, and so I think that

the two ways that I have really
enjoyed incorporating DEI

in my work, you know,
the first is to really

develop K through 12 type programs

that can really introduce STEM type topics

to students from different walks of life

to underrepresented students.

I have a passion for
working with children,

and so this is something that
I've worked on in the past.

During graduate school,
as a graduate student,

I've developed elementary
modules on transportation.

You know, I've developed an engineering,

high school engineering
research internship program,

and so I get a lot of energy
from working with children,

and this is something I truly...

You know, for me, it's not
just a metric or a buzzword.

It's something that I
genuinely enjoy doing,

and the other aspect of DEI
in my research is, you know,

I have started actually
trying to incorporate

engineering education
as a supplementary arm

of my research program.

That's something that I hope
to be able to work more on

during my time at UM.

So I think that, you know,
thinking about how doing research

into how to properly
develop those programs

to yield the best sort of outcomes

is something that I'm very interested in.

So, you know, how do we
best design these courses?

How do we best reach
students and children?

And so that's something that I hope

that I'll have a chance to work on

through my research as well.

From a teaching perspective,

one of the things that's
just very core to me,

you know, as an instructor
is to ensure that

everyone who is taking my
courses can benefit and learn

from the material in that course,

and I think that one of the
ways that I strive to do that

is to spend the first week or two

sort of ensuring that
everyone has the foundation

and the core skills that
they need to be successful,

and so to me, that's one of
the really critical things

that instructors should
focus on in trying to ensure

that their course is
accessible to all students,

and so that's something that I've done

and that I hope to continue
to do through my teaching.

- [Michelle] Is there a general message

that you would like to
convey to our UMCEE audience

or anything you'd like to add?

- [Dr. Shaw] Well, you know, I guess,

I'll just close by saying
I'm really, really excited

to be joining UMCEE.

I can't imagine a better program to join,

and, you know, I look
forward to getting to know

and work with all of the
students, the staff, the faculty,

and, you know, one more
thing that I'd like to add.

You know, I'd really like to
be a resource for students.

I feel like I'm not
quite so very far removed

from the process, and so I would
love to have my experiences

be able to benefit the
entire student body in UMCEE.

So I have an open door policy.

I wanna be a resource.

If, you know, any undergraduate
or graduate students

have any questions, professional
questions, about, you know,

majors or finding a job
or anything like that,

please, you're welcome to reach out,

and I'm very happy to chat and connect,

and yeah, so with that, I
guess I'll just add, go blue.

(both laugh)

- [Michelle] Thank you so much, Dr. Shaw.

We enjoyed having you today,

and we look forward to
seeing you in January 2023.

(bright classical music)

Thank you for listening to
our podcast conversation.

For more information
about CEE at Michigan,

please visit our website cee.umich.edu.

You can also reach our
YouTube channel and Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, and
LinkedIn pages from our website.