Dr. Bilal Farooq
Areas of Academic Interest
Disruptive transportation technologies and services
Cyber-physical transportation systems
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Simulation
Behavioural modelling
Optimization
Active mobility
Education
| Year | University | Degree |
| 2011 | University of Toronto | PhD |
| 2004 | Lahore University of Management Sciences | MASc |
| 2001 | University of Engineering and Technology | BSc |
Selected Courses
| Course Code | Course Title |
| CV8409 | Urban Transport Systems |
| CV8410 | Travel Demand Analysis |
| CVL910 | Transportation Planning |
Spotlight
Growing up in Pakistan, Bilal Farooq was always taking things apart. 鈥淚 have some pretty remarkable engineers in my family,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ne of them brought me a computer. I treated it like the TVs, telephones and cassette players I had come across, and opened it right up. I always wanted to know how things work internally.鈥�
Farooq calls this approach 鈥渓earning through curiosity,鈥� and it still drives him today. After earning a master鈥檚 in computer science 鈥� a new field at the time 鈥� he pursued a doctorate in transportation engineering. He knew little about it, but he was intrigued by the overlap between computer and transportation networks.
Now a Canada Research Chair in disruptive transportation technologies and services, Farooq鈥檚 spirit of inquiry animates his work in traffic flow simulation and prediction, connected autonomous vehicles, and urban congestion.
鈥淚n Toronto, we have existing transportation problems and new ways to solve them,鈥� he says. 鈥淔or example, connected autonomous vehicles that tap into distributed routing systems are highly effective in reducing travel time without creating additional complications. That鈥檚 one among my many research interests in traffic modelling, congestion relief and greener travel.鈥�
飩�&苍产蝉辫;
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鈥淎 challenge in my work is offering new ways to address existing problems 鈥� without those solutions generating new headaches of their own.鈥�
- 2018 鈥� Ontario Early Researcher Award
- 2017 鈥� Canada Research Chair in Disruptive Transportation Technologies and Services
- 2016 鈥� Winner of 2016 MassMotion Academic Pedestrian Modelling Project of the Year, Oasys Software
- 2014 鈥� Qu茅bec Early Researcher Award
- Kalatian, A., Farooq, B. (2021) "Decoding pedestrian and automated vehicle interactions using immersive virtual reality and interpretable deep learning," Transportation research part C: emerging technologies 124, 102962.
- Sanaullah, I., Alsaleh, N., Djavadian, S., Farooq, B. (2021) "Spatio-temporal analysis of on-demand transit: A case study of Belleville, Canada," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 145, 284-301.
- Wong, M., Farooq, B. (2021) "ResLogit: A residual neural network logit model for data-driven choice modelling," Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 126, 103050.
- Tu, R., Gai, Y.J., Farooq, B., Posen, D., Hatzopoulou M. (2020) "Electric vehicle charging optimization to minimize marginal greenhouse gas emissions from power generation," Applied Energy 277, 115517.
- Wong, M., Farooq, B. (2020) A bi-partite generative model framework for analyzing and simulating large scale multiple discrete-continuous travel behaviour data," Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 110, 247-268.
- LiTrans focuses on emerging issues in transportation systems e.g. disruptive transportation technologies and services, complete streets, cyber-physical systems, pedestrian dynamics, resilience, and climate change. We address these issues using a highly interdisciplinary approach from the perspective of mathematics, engineering (civil, transportation, etc), computer science, and economics. Visit the website to learn more Laboratory of Innovations in Transportation (LiTrans) (opens in new window)
- Editorial Advisory Board Member, Journal of Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies ()
- Editorial Board Member, Sustainability Journal ()
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Smart Cities and Society ()
- Associate Editor, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference
- Scientific Advisor, Ontario's Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) at MaRS Toronto