Virginia P. Sisiopiku
Founding Director of the UAB TREND Lab, Professor of Transportation Engineering, Director of UAB Transportation Program
(205) 934-9912
Dr. Virginia P. Sisiopiku is a Professor in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the UAB Transportation Program Director. Her research interests are in the areas of traffic operations, emerging technologies, livable & walkable communities, and sustainable transportation. Dr. Sisiopiku is the founding director of the UAB TREND Lab and has 25+ years of professional experience in the transportation field as an academic and a consulting transportation engineer. She also actively supports the UAB Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center (SSC) through research, teaching, and outreach activities. She leads a group of graduate students and postdocs in the study of transportation-related challenges such as congestion management, traffic safety, and performance monitoring and proposes effective strategies to address them. She also investigates the role of new and emerging technologies (such as connected and autonomous vehicles) on transportation operations and users’ behaviors. Since 2012 she leads the collaboration between UAB and the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development, and Education Center (STRIDE), a Regional University Transportation Center (UTC) funded through US DOT/RITA and directed by the University of Florida. To date, her research work produced over 200 refereed books, chapters, journal articles, and peer-reviewed conference papers and resulted in 7 technical paper awards. Dr. Sisiopiku also contributes greatly to the academic mission as an educator and a mentor. She developed and delivered undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from traditional offerings such as Transportation Engineering to specialized courses on Green Infrastructure and Transportation; Non-motorized Transportation Planning and Design; and Sustainability Design and Rating Systems. To date, she served as faculty adviser of 70 Master’s and Doctoral students in Transportation and mentored several junior faculty members and post-doctoral fellows. She is the founder of the UAB Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter and serves as the chapter’s faculty advisor since 2002. Her professional achievements and contributions to the transportation profession have been recognized by professional organizations including the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Association of Highway Engineers, IEEE, and the Women's Transportation Seminar. She is also the recipient of the 2010 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship, and the 2007 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2014 she was inducted as a Fellow of ITE and in 2018 she became the first UAB Engineering Faculty member to receive the Engineering Educator of the Year Award from the Engineering Council of Birmingham (ECOB).