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Shah Named GATE Fellow

Nitesh Shah.CEE doctoral student Nitesh Shah is the 2020 recipient of fellowships from the Graduate Advancement Training and Education (GATE) program hosted by The Science Alliance for his transportation research on micromobility. A total of 20 recipients were awarded fellowships from a pool of 41 applicants.

GATE awardees receive a 12-month appointment including a $30,000 stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance.

Shah completed his master’s degree in transportation planning at UT last spring and joined the PhD program this fall. His research is focused on evaluating the impacts of emerging micromobility—such as e-scooters—on the existing transportation system.

Specifically, the GATE fellowship supports research taking a data-driven approach to model energy and emission impacts during the operation of the micromobility system.

The research project is a collaborative effort between the Micromobility Lab at UT, led by Professor Chris Cherry, and the Transportation Analytics lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), led by Zhenhong Lin, who is also a Joint Faculty Associate Professor in UT’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. This work will aim to integrate shared micromobility into the MA3T-MC model developed by ORNL.

“I am grateful to the Science Alliance for supporting my research on micromobility,” said Shah. “Reducing carbon emissions from the transportation sector, which is one of the major contributors of pollution, will be essential to address climate change in the coming decade. My research will measure energy and emission impacts during the operation of the e-scooter system, which is one of the viable alternatives to reduce the high carbon footprint of single-occupant cars in cities.”