Awad Abdelhalim received the B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Khartoum, Sudan in 2014 and is currently a PhD Candidate in The Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, with a focus on Transportation Systems Engineering. Awad’s graduate research spanned across multiple aspects of traffic safety and ITS applications, including driver behavior modeling, transit systems improvement, crash dataset analytics, and traffic video inference for real-time safety assessment. Being a tech-savvy transportation enthusiast experienced in traffic modeling and data science, he aspires to contribute to developing innovative mobility solutions leveraging big data and AI that make everyday commute faster, safer, more equitable, and viable for our planet. Awad also serves as an Instructor of Record in the College of Engineering, he worked for two years at the Center for Enhancement of Engineering Diversity and is currently the Vice President and Director of Legislative Affairs for the Virginia Tech Graduate Student Assembly. He has industry experience working in the transportation engineering private sector and with the Washington D.C Department of Transportation.