Monash Engineering PhD graduates driving the future of transport

From autonomous vehicles and active travel to adolescent mobility and advanced transport modelling, a new generation of Monash Institute of Transport Studies (MITS) PhD graduates is helping shape the future of mobility around the world.

Their research tackled some of the transport sector's most pressing challenges. Fuad Yasin Huda, PhD and Allan Pimenta, PhD explored how private autonomous vehicles could transform cities, examining their impacts on transport systems, land use and parking demand.

Today, Fuad is sharing his expertise as a Senior Lecturer at East West University in Bangladesh, while Allan has translated his research into practice through his transport planning consultancy, MobiPlan Consultoria, which delivers strategic planning solutions for urban development projects.

Jason Li (Teng) harnessed the power of big data to investigate how infrastructure and environmental factors influence active travel and micromobility choices. The research has provided valuable insights into the conditions that encourage more sustainable transport behaviours, while industry and government engagement opportunities during his PhD helped build strong professional networks.

Bob La focused on developing more transparent and explainable approaches to large-scale transport modelling, including population synthesis, household relationship generation and activity-based modelling. Now a Research Engineer at Autodesk Moldflow, he applies these skills to modelling complex systems while balancing accuracy and interpretability in real-world decision-making.