dr.ir. M.B. Ulak PhD (Baran)

Mehmet Baran Ulak (Baran) is an assistant professor of Traffic Safety, Smart Mobility, and Resilience Science at the Transport Studies Group. His research interest spans from transportation safety, mobility, and accessibility to resilience and disaster assessment. He is focused on the statistical and spatial analysis of traffic safety problems, network modelling of mobility and accessibility, demographic and socioeconomic assessment of daily transportation incidents and natural hazards, and smart city concepts. He teaches Traffic Safety, Smart Mobility, and Urban Resilience master courses. He is also the department coordinator of the BSc thesis projects in transport.

Before joining the University of Twente, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the Civil Engineering department of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He holds a PhD degree (2018) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Florida State University with a concentration in traffic safety, urban mobility, and transportation data analysis. He received his M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (2011) and B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (2009).

Professional Experience

• 2020-current: Assistant Professor, Transport Engineering and Management (TEM) group, Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente
• 2019-2020: Postdoctoral Associate, Civil Engineering, the State University of New York at Stony Brook
• 2014–2018: Graduate Research Assistant, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida State University
• 2012–2014: Civil Engineer, SWS Engineering and Dia Holding FZCO, Turkey

Education

• 2018 PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida State University, USA. Dissertation: Geographical Information Systems-Based Spatial and Statistical Investigation to Enhance Transportation Safety for the Aging Population
• 2011 MSc, Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Thesis: On the Influence of Pore Pressure, on the Apparent Tensile Strength of Concrete
• 2009 BSc, Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Thesis: Design of Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridge on Yeşilırmak River

Expertise

• Social Sciences

  • Urban Areas
  • Case Studies
  • Analysis
  • Evaluation
  • Cyclists
  • Bicycles
  • Traffic

• Computer Science

  • Models

Organisations

My research interests are diverse and they span from traffic safety and accessibility to smart mobility and resilience science. Of the various subjects, I am interested in broad interdisciplinary areas including the statistical and spatial analysis of traffic problems, geographical aspects of mobility and accessibility, geospatial analysis, intelligent transportation systems, and smart city concepts. I have a particular curiosity about the often disregarded importance and role of demographics and socioeconomics, or the human element in general, in tackling issues related to urban mobility.

Publications

Research profiles

Coordinator of the BSc thesis project for transport studies.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Researchers at FAMU-FSU Engineering Use Metric Specific Technology to Keep Seniors Safer on the Road (click for more information)

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Eren Ozguven and graduate student Mehmet Baran Ulak published a new study in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention that uses metrics to analyze the location of crashes, the time they occur and how this relates to the crash occurrence. The study resulted in some interesting revelations including how location is related to senior driver crash rates.

Civil engineering postdoc selected for 4TU Resilience Engineering Fellowship (click for more information)

Onur Alisan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate at the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center (RIDER) has received an esteemed fellowship award from the 4TU Center for Resilience Engineering. “I welcome the opportunity to work with Dr. Alisan on such an important topic,” Mehmet Baran Ulak, assistant professor at the University of Twente, said. “Through the collaboration between 4TU RE and RIDER, we have an excellent opportunity to conduct cutting-edge multi-disciplinary research to improve the resilience of our vulnerable communities.

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20)
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room Z214
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations