Prof. Naveen Eluru
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General Information
Dr. Naveen Eluru is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida. His research program studies the complex interactions of individuals, households, emerging technologies, urban form, environment, and transportation system. He employs quantitative analysis approaches drawing on his expertise in econometric modeling, optimization, and micro-simulation techniques. The quantitative platforms developed allow us to understand the contribution of transportation systems on our communities’ mobility, energy consumption, resilience, and environment holistically. Dr. Eluru’s research has received funding from National Science Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, National Science Foundation, Florida Department of Transportation, US Department of Transportation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Canadian Institute of Health Research, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies, Disney and Ouranos Inc. The total research funding received as grants and contracts credited to Dr. Eluru (and total funding involved) amounts to $4 million ($13 million). He has published more than 150 journal articles in premier journals such as Accident Analysis and Prevention, Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Energy and Buildings, Environmental Research, Environmental Modelling and Software, Transportation Research Part A, B, C, D, E and F, Transportation, and Transportation Research Record. Dr. Eluru’s work has been widely cited. His current citation and h-index based on different sources are as follows: (a) Scopus 6437 and 42, (b) Web of science 6149 and 43, and (c) Google Scholar 10,500 and 51. His research encompasses the development and application of discrete choice and econometric models for core transportation domains (including transportation planning and transportation safety) and inter-disciplinary domains (including public health, energy, resilience and climate change domains). A summary of his research contributions across these domains are provided below: Transportation planningDr. Eluru is an expert in travel demand modelling and has been conducting transportation planning and network research for advancing the state of the art in predicting urban activity travel patterns. His research allows us to mine the behavioral patterns embedded in data. His work has examined passenger and freight transportation, public transit systems, airline flows, and emerging transportation modes. He has worked extensively with discrete choice models accounting for self-selection, simultaneous equation modelling, generalized ordered logit models, fractional split models, multiple discrete-continuous frameworks, copula-based models, composite likelihood approaches and multi-dimensional choice processes as part of his research. He has focused on developing advanced econometric models for understanding individual and household level travel behavior. He has also been successful in incorporating these advances within transportation practice efforts through the development of activity-based modelling software for urban metropolitan regions. He has been extensively involved in the deployment of these micro-simulation tools in the cities of Dallas Fort-Worth, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Orlando. He has also worked on integration of activity-based models with dynamic traffic assignment modules. Dr. Eluru has extensive experience researching emerging modes such as transport networking companies, bike sharing and e-scooter systems. His research has examined emerging modes in various cities including Montreal, Chicago, New York, and Barcelona. He developed individual and system level frameworks for emerging modes to identify factors affecting usage and routing decisions. His expertise in data analytics and choice processes plays a major role in understanding how smart city technology is deployed and adopted. Transportation safetyDr. Eluru has made significant contributions to econometric and statistical models for transportation safety analysis. His work has encompassed crash frequency and crash severity analysis on topics including vehicle occupant injury severity, non-motorist injury severity, seat belt use, discrete outcome frameworks for severity analysis, latent segmentation and multivariate models for severity and frequency analysis. His research contributions have also started to be incorporated into transportation safety practice as part of his contributions to National Academies research programs that will eventually contribute to Highway Safety Manual – a tool used by state DOTs and practitioners for evaluating safety across the country. Inter-disciplinary areasIn terms of inter-disciplinary work, he works closely with researchers in environmental engineering, energy, public health and epidemiology to study the impacts of transportation on these varied domains. Public health and epidemiologyDr. Eluru has worked closely with air quality and public health researchers to examine the impact of transportation air pollution on communities. The public health impacts also highlight inequities of the transportation system and offer insights for policy makers. Using his data analytics expertise, Dr. Eluru’s team also modeled COVID-19 transmission and hospitalization rates. EnergyEnergy consumption and delivery patterns are undergoing a significant transformation facilitated by advances in transportation technology automobile EVs and freight EVs. Drawing on high-resolution agent-based models for transportation, Dr. Eluru’s team is developing energy demand and energy mix prediction frameworks under a host of scenarios. These frameworks will provide the foundation for developing transportation sector energy demand components with electrification. Disaster resilience and climate changeWith climate change accelerated disasters, there is growing emphasis on analyzing the impact of disasters. Dr. Eluru is working with researchers in environmental and social sciences to develop complex interactions across household location, transportation networks, and the impact of extreme weather (such as flooding and hurricane threats) to enhance short-term (evacuation) and long-term resiliency (reduce the risk of extreme weather impacts through design). Dr. Eluru also works with climate change researchers to offer accurate approaches for transportation emission estimation – a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Funding SourcesHe has received funding from a host of agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration), National Cooperative Highway Research Program), Florida Department of Transportation), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), and Fonds de recherche du Quebec – Nature et technologies (FQRNT). Professional ServiceProf. Eluru is currently a member of 
Research Interests
Transportation PlanningActivity-based models, micro-simulation frameworks, policy evaluation of transportation congestion pricing measures Integrated Socio-Demographic and Land-Use ModelingPopulation updating microsimulation systems, self-selection in residential location choice, long-term residential mobility and explicit incorporation of built environment Sustainable Urban DesignStudying influence of urban form on bicycle use, and understanding bicycle route choice behavior, bicycle sharing system usage, public transportation ridership, examining physical activity participation determinants and non-traditional work participation behavior Activity Time-UseStudying activity participation, time-use and activity-travel pattern attributes Transportation SafetyTraffic crash analysis of driver injury severity, pedestrian and bicyclist injury severity, and highway-railway collision safety Integrating Travel Demand and Supply ModelsIntegrating Activity-Based frameworks and Dynamic Traffic Assignment modules for travel forecasting and evacuation planning Advanced Econometric ModelingDiscrete choice models accounting for self-selection, generalized ordered logit models, stated preference studies, multiple discrete-continuous frameworks, copula models, and composite likelihood approaches
Professional Experience
University of Central FloridaProfessor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, 2020 – present Program Coordinator, MS in Travel Technology and Analytics, 2020 – present (For program details click here) Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, 2014 – 2020 McGill UniversityAssistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, 2010 – 2014 The University of Texas at AustinGraduate Research Assistant,Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, 2004-2010 Graduate Student Consultant, Division of Statistics and Scientific Computing (SSC), 2008
Education
The University of Texas at AustinDoctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (Transportation) – Sep 2010 Thesis – Developing Advanced Econometric Frameworks for modeling Multidimensional Choices: An Application to Integrated Modeling of Activity, Transportation and Land-Use Choice Behavior
Prof. Eluru’s dissertation titled Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Transportation) – Dec 2005 Thesis – A Joint Econometric Analysis of Seat Belt Use and Crash-Related Injury Severity Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), MadrasBachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering – May 2004 Thesis – Study of Sensitivity of a Trip Table Synthesis Model to a Parameter
Research Database Profiles
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