Civil engineering student Nafees Fuad Rafi has been awarded with the prestigious McGrath Transportation Scholarship for his doctoral research project. The esteemed scholarship has not been awarded to another University of Central Florida student since 1998.
As a participant in the 2025 Institute Transportation Engineers (ITE) Annual Meeting, Rafi represented the UCF ITE Student chapter alongside other members of the chapter. The 2025 ITE conference annually awards the William R. McGrath Transportation Scholarship to transportation engineering students.
Rafi, who studies transportation systems engineering, expressed gratitude for the opportunity that a scholarship such as this one could create.
“It was so humbling and motivating for me to be recognized among such talented peers in the transportation field,” Rafi says. “This recognition will definitely fuel my passion for advancing my research, of course with the greater goal of creating safer, smarter, and resilient mobility systems for all road users.”
Rafi’s research focuses on developing data-driven AI models for predicting traffic patterns during emergency events like hurricane evacuations. With these predictions, agencies can manage roadways more effectively, reduce congestion, and most importantly, ensure people can evacuate safely and efficiently.
The models that Rafi has been working on as part of his doctoral research can be used by real-world emergency management agencies. This information can help them plan and activate Emergency Shoulder Use (ESU) or contraflow operations, deploy traffic control personnel at critical locations, or issue targeted evacuation guidance to specific areas. Rafi says public safety is of the utmost importance and with the help of this scholarship he is able to contribute to facilitate the forecast evacuation traffic in real time.
Rafi’s next steps include completing his studies at UCF with its exceptional research opportunities in transportation systems. Eventually, he plans to continue advancing his research in transportation systems alongside applying artificial intelligence and data-driven methods to improve mobility, safety, and resilience.
“I aim to work in a role that bridges academia and practice – either in research institutions, public agencies, or industry – so I can continue developing innovative solutions that have real-world impact,” Rafi says.
- Written by Hannia Gonzalez