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Key Personnel Executive Committee

University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) College of Engineering and Computer Science

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Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS)
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Email: railwaysafety@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-8878
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Executive Committee

Dimah Dera, Ph.D.

Associate Director, UTRGV
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Dimah Dera, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rowan University, USA, 2020.
  • M.A. Mathematics, Rowan University, USA, 2019.
  • M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rowan University, USA, 2015.
  • B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Damascus University, Syria, 2010.

Biography

Dr. Dimah Dera is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and M.A. in Mathematics from Rowan University, USA and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Damascus University, Syria. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University from 2020 to 2021. Dimah received the NSF CRII and NSF REU supplement awards in 2022 for her current research focusing on robust machine learning and time-series analysis. She has also received the Fred W. and Frances H. Rusteberg Endowment Fellowship award in 2022. She won the Best Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP’19) and the Runner-up Best Paper Award at the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM’15). She is the recipient of the NJ Health Foundation Research Grant award (2021), the IEEE Philadelphia Sections Benjamin Franklin Key award (2021), the STEM Innovator to Watch award from the NJ Tech Council (2019), the Graduate Research Excellence award from Rowan University (2017), the NSF iREDEFINE Professional Development award (2017) and the ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational and Data Science Fellowship award (2016). Her research interests include Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Bayesian deep learning, adversarial learning, statistical tracking, and optimization.

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Associate Director, UTRGV

Martin Knecht, M.S.

Associate Director, STC
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Martin Knecht, M.S.

Education

  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), Edinburg, TX 78539, 2010
  • M.S., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, 1999
  • B.S., Engineering Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, 1997
  • A.S. Engineering, Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, IL 62749, 1995

Biography

Mr. Martin Knecht serves as the Assistant Department Chair of the Physical Science and Engineering Department at South Texas College (STC), and the Program Coordinator for STC's A.S. in Engineering Program. He is an engineering faculty at STC with 22 years teaching experience.

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Associate Director, STC

David Allen

Associate Director, TAMU
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David Allen

Education

  • Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1980
  • M.E., Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1977
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1972

Biography

Dr. David H. Allen is currently Professor of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University.  He is the Director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Center for Railway Research (CRR).  In that position Dr. Allen directs railway related research at Texas A&M University.  With more than two hundred archival publications, including four textbooks, Dr. Allen has served at four major universities within the U.S. over the course of his more than forty-year career.  He also served as the Dean of Engineering at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2002-10) and The University of Texas-Pan American (2010-13).  Dr. Allen has attracted more than $13 million in externally funded contracts and grants, and he has presented papers at more than two hundred conferences all over the world.  Dr. Allen has received numerous awards, including the Michael P. Malone Award and the T. Pian Award.  He served as President of the Society of Engineering Science in 1997.

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Associate Director, TAMU

Aemal Khattak, Ph.D.

Associate Director, UNL
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Aemal Khattak, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, NC, 1999
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, PA, 1995
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, NWFP University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan, 1988

Biography

Dr. Khattak obtained his Ph.D. from the North Carolina State University and Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. He joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering in 2000. Dr. Khattak has conducted extensive research in transportation safety with a focus on rail crossings. He is the recent-past chair the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Highway/Rail Grade Crossings (AR080). Dr. Khattak teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in transportation engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an inaugural editorial board member of the Transportation Research Board Journal – the Transportation Research Records, rail research area editor for the Journal of Transportation Safety and Security (SCI indexed). Dr. Khattak directs the US DOT UTC Mid-America Transportation Center, which is focused on promoting safety with emphasis on reducing the number of incidents involving hazardous material transport, mitigating the negative effects of crashes, and improving emergency response to unexpected events. He also manages a program focused on education of high school Native American students in Nebraska, a program focused on STEM education of middle school students, and a program for underserved/underrepresented college students. 

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Associate Director, UNL

Dimitris Rizos, Ph.D.

Associate Director, UofSC
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Dimitris Rizos, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, 1993
  • M.S., Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, 1989
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, University of Patras – Greece, 1987

Biography

Dr. Dimitris C. Rizos is an Associate Professor of Structural Mechanics in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Associate Chair of the Department.  He is the Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Railway Engineering, and he is the Coordinator of the Advanced Railroad Technology Group, the Railway Infrastructure Laboratory and the Railway Engineering curriculum at USC.  His background is in Structural Mechanics and his research focuses on the development and implementation of smart technologies for the railway infrastructure, including monitoring and condition assessment of track and structures, remote sensing and non-contact methods, train dynamics and train-track interaction.  He is the recipient of the ASCE SC section Technical Merit award, the ASME Railway Division Award, and the Bert Storey Innovative Research Award, among others, for his contributions in research and education in railway engineering.  He is the chair of ASCE TDI Rail Transport Committee; he has been selected a voting member of the NAE ad-hoc committee on safe transportation of LNG by rail; and he is a voting member of the AREMA Committee 24, and TRB Committee AR050. He has served as the principal and co-investigator in numerous transportation infrastructure research projects. In the last 8 years he has served as PI and Co-PI on railway infrastructure research projects totaling over $3 million.  His research has produced over 120 refereed technical publications conference papers and technical reports, 2 patent applications and presentations of many lectures at national and international conferences, seminars and workshops.  His research activities are funded by Federal Agencies and the private industry, including FRA, NSF, FHWA, USDOT, SCDOT, DOD, DOE, and CSX, among others.

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Associate Director, UofSC

Jia Chen, Ph.D.

Associate Director, UCR
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Jia Chen, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, 2016
  • M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2012
  • B.S., Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, 2009

Biography

Dr. Jia Chen is a Tenure-Track Assistant Teaching Professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at University of California Riverside. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Dept. of ECE at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. During 2017 and 2019, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Dept. of ECE and Digital Technology Center at the University of Minnesota. In 2016, she received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Dr. Chen’s research interests are Machine Learning, Signal Processing, Multiview Data Analytics, and Graph Mining. Central to her research are the algorithms, analysis, and applications of machine learning and statistical signal processing tools to sensor networks, social networks, wireless communication networks, images, health, biomedical, and psychology data analytics. Her research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and UCR Academic Senate. Her work has resulted in 27 peer-reviewed journal, conference, and book chapter publications. She is the recipient of UTRGV 2020 Engaged Scholar and Artist Award and UCR 2022 Regents Faculty Fellowship.

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Associate Director, UCR

Angela M. Chapman, Ph.D.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator, UTRGV
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Angela M. Chapman, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction with Science Education emphasis, University of South Florida, 2013. Dissertation title: The Effects of an Authentic Science Experience Among Urban High School Students. Committee Members: Allan Feldman (Advisor), Rosemary Closson, Sarina Ergas, Benjamin Herman.
  • M.S., Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, 1994. Thesis title: Activity Dependent Regulation of the Neurotransmitter Neuropeptide Y in the Leopard Frog, Rana pipiens.
  • B.S., Zoology, Michigan State University, 1990.

Biography

Dr. Angela Chapman is the designated center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator. She is an Associate Professor of Science Education in the College of Education and P-16 Integration at UTRGV. She has over 26 years of experience as a science educator and science teacher educator. Her research focuses on issues of equity and access in STEM education and strategies to improve participation of historically underrepresented groups. Her role involves developing curriculum, coordinating STEM summer camps, and conducting research on how gender in informal settings affects learning of and motivation toward STEM, including careers in the transportation field.

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator, UTRGV

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