People

MTTI’s strength is its people. Researchers are recognized for their expertise in transportation research and education and are invited to represent MTTI at national and international events.

Robert Handler
"Only in the present do things happen"
—Jorge Luis Borges
  • Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, CEGE and Social Sciences
  • Faculty Advisor, Green Campus Enterprise

Courses

  • ENG 4515/5515 Introduction to Sustainability and Resilience
  • ENG 4525/5525 Systems Analysis for Sustainability and Resilience
  • CM 3980 Sustainable Chemical Engineering
  • Green Campus Enterprise

Research Interests

  • Life-cycle assessment
  • Sustainability and resilience
  • Food, Energy, and Water systems
  • Sustainable materials and manufacturing
  • Ecosystem services
  • Aquaponics and hydroponics
  • Adjunct Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Teaching Interests

  • Computer Methods in Geomechanics
  • Computational Geoscience
  • Remote Sensing for Geotechniques
  • Geostatistics and Data Analysis
  • Engineering Geology and Geoinformatics

Research Interests

  • Liquefaction susceptibility evaluation at local and regional scales using in-situ measurements and remote sensing observations
  • Estimating liquefaction induced damage such as lateral spread displacement
  • Transportation Geotechniques
  • Documenting earthquake induced damages, especially liquefaction using aerial/satellite images that are sensitive to surficial moisture
  • Geotechnical asset monitoring
  • Machine Learning
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Dam Decommissioning
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Hydraulic Structures
  • River Mechanics
  • Sediment Transport
  • Stream Rehabilitation
  • Sustainability
  • Senior Research Scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI)
  • Adjunct Lecturer, Biological Sciences

Areas of Expertise

  • Transportation Applications Including Road and Bridge Condition Assessment
  • Mapping of Changing Ecosystems
  • Agricultural Remote Sensing
  • Geohazard Evaluation
  • Invasive Species Mapping With a Focus on Submerged Aquatic Vegetation
  • Developing Unmanned Aerial System Capabilities
  • 3D Optical, Multispectral, Thermal, and LiDAR Sensing
  • Decision Support System and App Development
  • Integration of Remote Sensing Technologies Into Sponsor Workflows
  • Research Project Management

Research Interests

  • Aquatic and Landscape Ecology
  • Invasive Species Mapping
  • Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring
  • Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Assessment of Transportation Infrastructure Condition Using Remote Sensing
  • Automated Road and Bridge Condition Analysis
  • Multispectral Sensing
  • Development and Deployment of Decision Support Systems
  • Land Cover Change Mapping and Monitoring
  • Senior Research Scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI)

Areas of Expertise

  • Signal and Image Processing
  • Radar Systems
  • Experimental Design
  • Statistical Analysis

Research Interests

  • Signal Exploitation
  • Sensor Characterization and Performance Prediction
  • Machine Inference and Learning
  • Intelligent Transportation and Mobility
  • Associate Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
  • Witte Family Endowed Faculty Fellow in Mining Engineering

Research Interests

  • Generative AI for mine safety
  • Remote sensing for critical mineral exploration
  • InSAR for mining hazards
  • Geophysical inversion using deep learning
  • Stochastic resource modeling and stochastic optimization in mining

Teaching Interests

  • Mine Planning and Design
  • Mineral Resource Estimation
  • Mining System Reliability and Optimization
  • Geostatistics and Data Analysis
Amanda Codere

Amanda Codere

  • Staff, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Director, Center for Technology & Training
  • Staff, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Associate Chair for Research, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Matrix structural analysis
  • Finite element analysis
  • Concrete Materials
  • Pavement design
  • Timber design

Research Interests

  • Low-carbon cementitious materials; SCM; LCA and EPD; durability performance
  • Design and performance of concrete pavement and structures
  • Mechanics-based computation; Data-driven performance evaluation
  • NDE techniques (acoustic, ultrasonic and eddy current systems)
  • Structure resilience subjected to extreme weather conditions
  • Active-material actuator design, wind-structure interaction, vibration reduction
  • Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Structural Analysis
  • Structural Reliability

Research Interests

  • Risk and Reliability of Infrastructure Systems
  • Life Cycle Resilience Enhancement
  • Community Resilience Assessment
  • Machine Learning
  • Network Analysis
  • Wind Engineering
  • Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Research Interests

  • Data-driven Infrastructure Management
  • Project Delivery and Procurement
  • Smart Construction
  • Risk Management
  • Equity and Diversity
  • Text Analytics and Natural Language Processing
  • Artificial Intelligence Modeling
Pam Hannon

Pam Hannon

  • Coordinator, Michigan Tech Transportation Institute
  • Staff, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Courses Taught

  • SU 4140 - Photogrammetry and UAV Mapping
  • SU 5541 - Close-range Photogrammetry
  • SU 5998 - Practical Experience in Integrated Geospatial Technology

Research Interests

  • Photogrammetry
  • Remote Sensing
  • Geodesy
  • GIS
  • Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure
  • Application of geospatial technology to agriculture and environmental science
  • Associate Dean for Research
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Director, Rail Transportation Program, Michigan Tech Transportation Institute

Research Interests

  • Rail and highway transportation / engineering
  • Highway-rail grade crossing and trespasser safety
  • Multimodal transportation; planning, policy, supply chain logistics and economics
  • Sustainability of transportation and life cycle/life cycle cost analysis
  • Railway capacity analysis and modeling
  • Curriculum and engineering education development
  • Industry/university collaboration
  • Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Physics

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes
  • Environmental Process and Design
  • Computational Environmental Engineering and Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Sustainable water and wastewater treatment and management
  • Development of assessing and predicting tools for water treatment technologies
  • Innovative water and wastewater treatment technologies for energy saving and harvesting
  • Systematic and integrated understanding of water and wastewater reuse
  • Application of computational chemistry and molecular modeling
  • Associate Teaching Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Affiliated Associate Teaching Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Research Interests

  • Window Glass Strength Design
  • Wind loads on Structures
  • Finite Element Modeling of Brittle Materials
  • Large Scale Data Processing and Data Mining
  • Chair, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Research Interests

  • Water and Wastewater Treatment
  • Water reclamation systems and Fate of personal products in treatment systems
  • Professor of Psychology, Psychology and Human Factors

Research Interests

  • Computational Modeling
  • Recognitional Decision Making
  • Perceptual and Memory Processes
  • Representations of Cultural Knowledge
  • Senior Research Engineer, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology
  • Director, Michigan Tech Center for AI; Coordinator, MTU NIST PREP Program

Research Interests

  • Advanced manufacturing
  • Industry 4.0
  • Human-robot-machine interaction
  • Physics-based/data-driven modeling
  • Manufacturing process monitoring
  • Industrial automation
  • Director, Center for Science and Environmental Outreach
  • Director, Family Engineering Program
  • Staff, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Surface chemistry and interfacial science 
  • Bridging reactions at the gas/solid and liquid/solid interfaces under model (ultra-high vacuum) and real (near ambient pressure) conditions
  • Growth, properties, and reactions on complex surfaces for energy and environmental applications
  • Designing metal and oxide architectures and nanostructured materials using tailored bottom-up approaches; growth techniques including, atomic layer deposition, physical vapor deposition, self-assembly, solution nucleation
  • Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Affiliated Assistant Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Courses Taught

  • Soil mechanics and foundation design
  • Advanced soil mechanics
  • Applied Machine Learning
  • Mechanics of materials

Research Interests

  • Soil and rock mechanics
  • Ground improvement and foundation design
  • Bio inspired Geotechnics/Foundations
  • Geomaterial behavior and testing
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning in geotechnical engineering
  • Measurement While Drilling (MWD) in geotechnical engineering
  • Slope stability and debris flow hazards
  • Stability of underground structures
  • Mine tailings and abandoned mines geohazards and remediation
  • Intellectual, numerical and analytical modeling
Paul Sanders
"The more you do, the more you do."
—George Sanders (my Dad)
  • Patrick S. Horvath Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
  • Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) Key Professor
  • Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) Foundation Steel Professor

Teaching Interests

  • Lead MSE undergraduate senior design program: integrate mechanistic models, ICME tools, experiments, and statistics
  • Apply design knowledge via real-world, industry-sponsored projects

Research Interests

  • Alloy design in Al, Cu, Fe, Ni, and MPEAs 
  • Apply ICME and statistical tools with machine learning and DOEs in alloy optimization
  • Verify via production through casting, wrought processing (extrusion, rolling, drawing, swaging), and/or (wire) additive manufacturing
  • Applications in sustainability (recycling), transportation (lightweighting), and efficiency (thermal stability)
  • Professor Emeritus, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Research Interests

  • Airport planning and design
  • Transportation planning
  • Traffic engineering,
  • Public transit
  • Automated people movers
  • Hockey history
  • Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Associate Chair for Curriculum, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research Interests

  • Application computationally efficient and robust embedded algorithms for monitoring and protection of civil infrastructure assets such as buildings, bridges, pipelines, wind turbines, roadways, and railroads.
  • Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Affiliated Professor, Applied Computing
  • PSERC Site Director and ICC CPS Center Director

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Circuit/graph theory
  • Steady-state and dynamics of bulk power systems
  • Cyber-informed security engineering

Areas of Research Interest

Discipline: Power systems engineering

  • Power grid cybersecurity
  • Smart home and robotic technologies
  • Attack/defense combinatorics
  • Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Research Interests

  • Pressure sensing
  • Non-destructive testing
  • Noninvasive characterization of construction materials and biological tissues
  • Visual sensing and Deep learning algorithms
  • Ultrasound and microbubble cavitation
  • Research Engineer/Scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI)

Areas of Expertise

  • Dynamical Systems
  • Machine Learning
  • Radar Signal Processing

Research Interests

  • High Dimensional Statistics
  • Statistical Signal Theory
  • Compressed Sensing
  • Associate Professor, Psychology and Human Factors
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Computer Science
  • Director, Center for Human-Centered Computing

Research Interests

  • Decision Making
  • Problem Solving
  • Learning and Video Games for STEM
  • CSCW
  • Structured Analytic Techniques
  • Distinguished Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Water resources planning and management
  • Environmental systems analysis
  • Hydrologic and hydraulic engineering
  • Optimization methods
  • Learning through service

Research Interests

  • Integrated water resources planning
  • Hydrologic modeling and forecasting
  • Flood risk management
  • Climate change mitigation and adaptation planning
  • Food-Energy-Water Nexus
  • Systems optimization under uncertainty
  • Sustainable development engineering
  • Assistant Professor, Construction Management
  • Faculty, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Faculty, College of Business

Teaching Experience

  • Advanced technologies in construction (e.g., BIM)
  • Project management
  • Construction methods
  • Structural analysis

Research Interests

  • Construction informatics
  • Computer vision-based site monitoring
  • Construction robotics
  • Natural language processing in construction
  • Blockchain-enabled contract management
  • Cybersecurity in construction management
  • Distinguished Professor, Transportation Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Road design and analysis
  • Civil engineering materials
  • Sustainable pavement engineering
  • Advanced asphalt materials
  • Pavement mechanics

Research Interests

  • Design, construction, and maintenance of pavements

  • Micromechanics for road materials

  • Discrete element modeling and finite element modeling techniques
  • Construction materials: asphalt, aggregate, asphalt concrete

  • Alternative materials for civil engineering

  • Recycled materials for civil engineering
  • Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Computer Science

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Transportation Network Analysis
  • Traffic Flow Theory
  • Travel Demand Analysis
  • Transportation Systems Operations and Control
  • Transportation Planning
  • Traffic Engineering
  • Optimization Methods
  • Deep Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control for Connected and Automated Vehicles

Research Interests

  • Data-driven distributionally robust optimization (DRO) based control models for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs)
  • Big traffic data analytics using machine learning
  • Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) and Graph Neural Networks (GNN) for transportation applications
  • Mobile and crowd sensing of dynamic traffic systems (e.g., Drone traffic monitoring, social media data for travel pattern analysis using Twitter and Foursquare smartphone apps)
  • Dynamic network equilibrium and optimization
  • Modeling and simulation of large-scale complex systems (e.g. Traffic Simulation)
  • Freight logistics and supply chain systems (e.g., Intermodal Freight Modeling)
  • Impact of plug-in electric vehicles to smart grid and transportation network systems
  • Interdependency and resiliency of large-scale networked infrastructure systems
  • Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs)
  • Smart Cities
  • Cyber-Physical Systems