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

Assistant Professor

About Me

Mehmet Baran Ulak (Baran) is an assistant professor of Traffic Safety and Mobility Science at the Transport Engineering and Management (TEM) research 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 computing, 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
  • 2018–2019: Researcher, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida State University
  • 2014–2018: Graduate Research Assistant, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida State University
  • 2013–2014: Project Development and Tendering Engineer, Dia Holding FZCO, Turkey
  • 2012–2013: Project Management and Coordination Engineer, SWS Engineering, 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

Engineering & Materials Science
# Bicycles
# Extreme Weather
# Hurricanes
Social Sciences
# Bicycle
# Driver
# Pedestrian
Business & Economics
# Crash
# Safety

Organisations

Research

My research interests are diverse and they span from transportation safety and accessibility to travel mode choice and smart mobility. Of the various subjects, I am interested in broad interdisciplinary areas including the statistical and spatial analysis of urban 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. During my PhD, I also gained invaluable research experience from three major disasters –Hurricane Hermine, Irma, and Michael that hit the region where I studied (Florida, USA). With this experience, I intend to continue my multifaceted research on the co-resilience of transportation and power infrastructure against disaster, as well as the assessment and mitigation of disaster outcomes.

Publications

Recent
Girgin, S. , Ulak, M. B. , & Eikenbroek, O. A. L. (2023). An agent-based electric vehicle charging demand modelling framework to assess the needs for the energy transition in transport. In L. Duboz, & B. Ciuffo (Eds.), 10th International Symposium on Transportation Data & Modelling (ISTDM2023): Booklet of Abstracts (pp. 155-158). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10207489
Boot, M. , Ulak, B. , Geurs, K. , & Havinga, P. (2023). Using body sensors in evaluations of the impact of smart cycling technologies on cycling experience. In A. Komninos, C. Santoro, D. Gavalas, J. Schoening, M. Matera, & L. A. Leiva (Eds.), MobileHCI '23 Companion: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-4). Article 43 https://doi.org/10.1145/3565066.3609736
Alisan, O. , Ulak, M. B., Ozguven, E. E., & Horner, M. W. (2023). Location selection of field hospitals amid COVID-19 considering effectiveness and fairness: A case study of Florida. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 93, Article 103794. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103794
Koloushani, M., Ghorbanzadeh, M. , Ulak, M. B., Ozguven, E. E., Horner, M. W., & Vanli, O. A. (2022). The Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Significant Factors Associated with Young-Driver-Involved Crashes in Florida. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(2), Article 696. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020696
Ulak, M. B., Ozguven, E. E., Horner, M. W., Weaver, L., Puente, J., Crute, J., Smith, D. J., Duncan, M., & Whitton, E. (2022). Ridership dynamics and characteristics of potential riders of a transit system: The SunRail of Central Florida. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 16, Article 100720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100720
Karaer, A. , Ulak, M. B., Abichou, T., Arghandeh, R., & Ozguven, E. E. (2021). Post-hurricane vegetative debris assessment using spectral indices derived from satellite imagery. Transportation research record, 2675(12), 504-523. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211029921
Ulak, M. B., Kocatepe, A., Yazici, A., Ozguven, E. E., & Kumar, A. (2021). A stop safety index to address pedestrian safety around bus stops. Safety science, 133, Article 105017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105017
Ulak, M. B., Konila Sriram, L. M., Kocatepe, A., Ozguven, E. E., & Arghandeh, R. (2021). Resilience Characterization for Multi-Layer Infrastructure Networks. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 14(4), 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITS.2021.3049368
Karaer, A. , Ulak, M. B., Ozguven, E. E., & Sando, T. (2020). Reducing the Non-Recurrent Freeway Congestion with Detour Operations: Case Study in Florida. Transportation Engineering, 2, Article 100026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.treng.2020.100026
Ulak, M. B., Yazici, A., & Aljarrah, M. (2020). Value of convenience for taxi trips in New York City. Transportation research. Part A: Policy and practice, 142, 85-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.10.016
Ulak, M. B., Ozguven, E. E., Karabag, H. H., Ghorbanzadeh, M., Moses, R., & Dulebenets, M. (2020). Development of Safety Performance Functions for Restricted Crossing U-Turn Intersections. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 146(6), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000346
Ulak, M. B., Yazici, A., & Ozguven, E. E. (2020). A Prescriptive Model to Assess the Socio-Demographics Impacts of Resilience Improvements on Power Networks. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 51, 1-16. Article 101777. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101777

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Education

Coordinator of the BSc thesis project for transport studies.

Affiliated Study Programmes

Bachelor

Master

Courses Academic Year  2023/2024

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  2022/2023

Media

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.

Contact Details

 
 

Visiting Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex (building no. 20)
De Horst 2
7522LW  Enschede
The Netherlands

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Mailing Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands

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University of Twente Drienerlolaan 5
7522 NB Enschede
+31 (0)53 489 9111
info@utwente.nl
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