I (Baran) am an assistant professor of Traffic Safety, Smart Mobility, and Resilience Science at the Transport Studies Group. My research interest spans from safety, mobility, and accessibility to resilience and disaster assessment. I am focused on the statistical and spatial analysis of traffic safety, modelling of mobility and accessibility, demographic and socioeconomic assessment of daily transportation incidents and natural hazards, and smart city concepts. I teach Traffic Safety, Smart Mobility, and Urban Resilience master courses. I am the coordinator for MSc thesis assignments for the transport engineering and management MSc track. I am a current member of the Young Academy Twente, the European Consortium of Innovative Universities, and the International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety. I am serving as editor of Traffic Safety Research journal.
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.
2011 MSc, Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
2009 BSc, Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Turkiye.
My research activities primarily involve topics of traffic safety, smart mobility, and resilient transport, with a growing focus on understanding the interactions among these domains. I continue growing my research portfolio, focusing on the safety of vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, minors and ageing individuals, and diverse groups of road users with different needs and capabilities. Furthermore, the interactions between safety and technology, including smart mobility systems as well as artificial intelligence technologies, are the research areas that I am interested in. I give particular importance to interdisciplinary research, developing links and relationships between topics that are seemingly disparate but in fact interrelated. I believe that exploring such links and relationships opens pathways beyond traditional boundaries and offers novel and innovative perspectives on the problems we deal with.
Supervision of PhDs
Teun Uijtdewilligen (graduated), research on cycling safety and effects of crowdedness on route choice and perceived safety in the Netherlands.
Georgios Kapousizis (graduated), research focusing on road safety impacts and user acceptance of smart connected bikes.
Mehrnaz Asadi (graduation date 11/10/2025), research focusing on accessibility and road safety to integrate safety in accessibility analysis and planning.
Mario Boot (expected end date 01/02/2026), research focusing on user experience of smart connected bikes.
Luqi Dong (expected end date 01/06/2026), research focusing on the impacts of shared mobility on multimodal and equitable accessibility.
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.
Bio-Intel-Mob - Integrating sustainable mobility and logistics with citizen-centric intelligent solutions for safe, smart, green, resilient, and inclusive cities (HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-04)
Development of Safety Performance Functions for Restricted Crossing U-turn (RCUT) Intersections (Florida Department of Transportation)
One Bridge at a Time: Bridging the Digital Divide for the Well-Being of Aging Populations in Smart and Connected Communities (NSF - National Science Foundation)
Multiple projects for Center for Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population (U.S. Department of Transportation)
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