Professor Charisma Choudhury

Profile

Charisma Choudhury is a Professor at the Institute for Transport Studies and the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds (UoL), where she leads the Choice Modelling Research Group. She also serves as Deputy Director of the interdisciplinary Choice Modelling Centre at UoL. Prior to joining UoL, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and as an Analyst at RAND Europe, UK, and Cambridge Systematics, USA.

Charisma holds a PhD and MSc from MIT. For her doctoral work, she focused on developing driving behaviour models with ‘Dynamic Latent Plans’. The driving behaviour models developed as part of her thesis have been implemented in leading commercial traffic simulation tools, including AIMSUN and VISSIM. In recognition of her doctoral research, she received the Gordon Newell Best Dissertation Prize from HKSTS and an Honourable Mention in the Eric Pas Best Dissertation Contest from IATBR.

Charisma’s current research focuses on leveraging emerging data sources for travel behaviour modelling, especially in the context of the Global South. These datasets range from passively generated sources (e.g., mobile phone records, smart cards, video images) to physiological sensor data (e.g., skin conductance, EEG recordings). Modelling travel behaviour using these data sources involves developing methodologies that combine data science, ubiquitous computing, and choice modelling techniques. Her research excellence in this area has earned her the Faculty for the Future Award (2011) and the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (2020).

She served as an Honorary Guest Professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, China (2019–2023), and as a Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK (2018–2023). She is currently an Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice and a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Choice Modelling and Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. She is the current Chair of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR).

Responsibilities

• Deputy-Director, Choice Modelling Centre
• Leader of the Choice Modelling Research Group

Research interests

Behaviour Modeling and Discrete Choice Analysis, Transport Modeling Using Big Data Sources, Transportation in Developing Countries, Traffic microsimulation.

• Decisions
• INFUZE (Inspiring Futures for Zero Carbon Mobility)
• Modelling the energy and environmental impacts of ride-hailing and ride-sharing services in India leveraging the passive data sources
• NEXt generation activity and travel behavioUr modelS: Bringing together choice modelling, data science and ubiquitous computing (NEXUS)
• NG-DBM - Next Generation - Driving Behaviour Models
• TOZCA – Towards Zero Carbon Aviation

Qualifications

• PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• MST, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• BSc, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Professional memberships

• Chair, International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member, Special Interest Group in 'Traditional and Alternative Approaches for Travel Behavior Analysis and Demand Modelling' of the World Conference World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS)
• Member, Institute for Engineers, Bangladesh
• Member, Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World

Student education

Previous PhD Students

• Martyna Bogacz: Neural correlates of choices
• Tianli Tang: Modelling the impacts of weather on bus demand using smart card data
• ​​​​​​​Thomas Hancock: Behavioural realism in choice models
• Md. Bashirul Haque: Integrated models of long and short-term decisions
• Evangelos Paschalidis: Modelling effects of stress on driving behaviour
• Andrew Bwamable (2018): Developing transport models using mobile phone data
• Chiara Calastri (2017): Capturing and modelling complex decision-making in the context of travel, time use and social interactions
• Andyka Kusuma (2015): Modelling driving behaviour at motorway weaving sections

Previous MEng/MSc Students:

• Di Chang (2018) Transferability of gap acceptance model across congestion levels
• Faza Bastarianto (2018) A tour-based mode choice model for Jakarta
• Yu Zhang (2017) Developing urban route choice models with GPS data
• Mathieu Plourde (2017) Modelling heterogeneity in drivers route choice behaviour in Quebec city (Visiting Student from EPFL Lausanne, co-supervised with Prof Michel Bierlaire)
• George Young (2017) Modelling parking choice behaviour using parking game experiments (MEng, School of Civil Engineering)
• Apio Rose (2016) Modelling the effect of congestion on other trips
• Alexander Patrick (2016) Developing traffic models using mobile phone data
• Umair Asif and Shoaib Hossain (2016) Developing parking choice models using parking game experiments (MEng, School of Civil Engineering)
• Flavia Anyiko (2015) Temporal transferability of car-ownership models
• Stavros Papadimitriou (2015) Transferability of car-following models
• Maria Poulopoulou (2015) Why live far and commute by car
• Manyiraho Ahabyona (2014) Transferability of gap acceptance model
• Andrew Bwambale (2014) Spatial transferability of travel demand models
• Christopher Edeimu (2014) Developing trip generation models combining mobile phone and survey data
• Benjamin Lee (2014) Modeling travel time variations in London using multiple data sources
• Irfan Bhana (2014) Modeling the effects of demographics in driving decisions
• Md. Mozahidul Islam (2013) Car-following model for mixed traffic
• Md. Shadahat Iqbal (2013) Developing origin-destination matrices using mobile phone data
• Md. Bashirul Haque (2011) Integrated mode choice and residential location choice model
• Sayeeda Binte Ayaz (2011) Modelling residential location choice of university staff members
• Annesha Enam (2010) Modelling the preference for mass rapid transit in Dhaka
• Lang Yang (2010) Modelling the preference for new modes and services in Lisbon (MIT, co-supervised with Prof Ben-Akiva)
• Sujith Rapolu (2009) Evaluating the impact of interventions on network capacity (MIT, co-supervised with Prof Ben-Akiva)

Research groups and institutes

• Choice Modelling

Current postgraduate researchers

• Maximiliano Lizana
• Faza Fawzan Bastarianto
• Azam Ali