Arwa Awad

Profile

I am a PhD researcher at the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, specialising in the Choice Modelling Group under the supervision of Professor Charisma Choudhury and Professor Stephane Hess. I received the Faculty for the Future Fellowship, funded by the Schlumberger Foundation, awarded to women pursuing advanced research in STEM.

Before joining Leeds, I gained extensive experience across both academia and industry. At the American University of Beirut, I worked as a Research Assistant in both the Business School and the Civil Engineering Department, developing optimisation and stable matching algorithms for applications in ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Bolt. My research contributed to assessing the feasibility and potential adoption of carpooling systems within AUB’s transportation context. In addition to my research responsibilities, I developed data science and programming curricula and served as a Teaching Assistant for transportation and data analytics modules.

Beyond academia, I have worked as a Senior Data Scientist for several consultancy firms and technology companies across the Middle East, where I contributed to real estate analytics, media pricing optimisation, operational forecasting and customer behaviour modelling. I built large scale data pipelines and warehouses, deployed AI powered applications such as lifestyle based property search engines and intelligent chatbots, and developed optimization models used to inform strategic pricing decisions.

Research interests

My research lies at the intersection of Machine Learning, Travel Behaviour, and Evacuation Dynamics, where I aim to enhance emergency evacuation strategies and reduce casualties in high stress, panic-driven situations. By leveraging advanced AI techniques, including generative models, deep learning, and predictive analytics, my work focuses on improving decision-support systems and modelling human behaviour under extreme conditions.

Qualifications

• Masters of Science in Computational Physics, American University of Beirut (2020 - 2023
• Bachelors of Science in Physics, Lebanese University (2017 - 2020)

Research groups and institutes

• Choice Modelling