Felix Israel Cabrera Vega

Currently, I have an active academic and professional life. I am the Head of the Transport Area at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. I develop research projects, make academic and administrative decisions and teach different courses such as Traffic Engineering, Traffic and Pedestrian Microsimulation and Mobility. I teach undergraduate students and people who work in local governments and have different backgrounds. Also, as part of my social responsibilities, frequently I appear in the media (radio, newspapers, etc.) to discuss transport issues in Lima and Peru. Furthermore, I am the co-founder of the Peruvian transport company “NEOURBE SAC” in which also I am the Head of the “Area of Innovation”.  My responsibility is to develop projects for customers who have specific needs and in which traditional transport methodologies and tools are not appropriate.

My time at ITS and Leeds was amazing and had a huge positive impact on my career and life. Thanks to this I can learn by myself and recognize that transport solutions need a holistic approach that includes other disciplines, for example, urbanism and social sciences. I also studied with people from different continents which opened my mind and showed me that cultures and customs are different which is so important to establish business with international companies. Furthermore, I have established a network around the world with my friends (classmates) and collaborate with some of them on projects for very well-known institutions like the United Nations and TRL.

Experience at ITS can open doors around the world, in the last 4 years I have been contacted by European and American transport companies who wanted to open offices in Peru.  They contacted me due to many reasons, but mainly because I studied in ITS and I have international experience.

When I was looking for a transport course outside Peru I wanted a top university with great lecturers and somewhere I could receive transport knowledge that I could later apply in my country.  After analyzing some options I decided that ITS was the best choice. To be honest I was focused only on academic criteria but later in Leeds, I understood that ITS offered me the possibility to be a better person and to know the world.

I would say that my time at ITS was the best choice that I could make not only because of the high-class academic knowledge that I received but also due to the social life, network and friends that I established. I remember the great moments with my classmates: drinking beer, playing football, travelling around Europe, dancing in parties, talking about love and developing coursework.

If you are thinking about studying at ITS do it immediately; the lecturers and the atmosphere are really good, topics will be relevant to your professional career and your life can change positively even with things that you are not expecting.  As an anecdote, I can tell you that during my course (2005-2006) Cupid visited ITS and matched 6 classmates who currently are married (I am one of them).