I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta in Transportation Engineering. My research focuses on resilient and sustainable transportation to achieve equity, environmental, and preparedness goals for disasters and everyday conditions. I tackle this research through multidisciplinary and mixed-method approaches, via the fields of transportation, behavioral analysis, shared mobility, urban planning, emergency management, sociology, and public policy. Through this work, I build practice-ready recommendations for governmental agencies to reduce their carbon footprint, increase operational efficiency, improve safety in disasters, and promote a more fair, equitable, and just society.

Updates and Recent News

Latest Research

October 2024 - The RESUME Group published "Electric Vehicles in Emergencies and Evacuations: A Review of Resilience and Future Research Directions" in the Transportation Letters journal in October. The systematic literature review explores the current state of literature on EV resilience as well as EV benefits and challenges in disasters and evacuations. The open-access article can be found here.

September 2024 - The RESUME Group had four presentations at the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Conference in Vancouver. Thayanne Ciriaco, Narmeen Zehra, and Mohammad Babaei presented their latest research to a broad audience of practitioners, industry experts, and academics in transportation.

September 2024 - Mohammad gave an interview with the Washington Post on an article outlining the current state of electric vehicles (EVs) during evacuations and what measures owners can take to ensure their safety. The article can be found here.

August 2024 - Veronica Wambura presented her work on public transit equity in evacuation planning at the 6th Annual Bridging Transportation Researchers (BTR) Conference in the session: "Equity & Accessibility in Transportation." Thayanne Ciriaco presented her research on “Equitable Transportation and Resilience Hubs: Analysis of Underserved Population Needs, Usage, and Travel.”

August 2024 - Veronica Wambura presented her work on wildfire evacuation choice-making among underserved groups at the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium (FEGRS) and was selected as one of the 5 best oral presenters at the Symposium.

July 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new article on “Travel Behavior and Community Needs for Resilience Hubs. Sustainability Analytics and Modeling. The open access version can be found here.

July 2024 - Dr. Wong and Thayanne Ciriaco presented their research at the 17th International Association for Travel Behavior Research Conference.

June 2024 - Mohammad Babaei attended the 2024 Global Energy Show in Calgary, one of the most important energy expositions and conferences in North America. During the conference, Mohammad presented his paper "Understanding Electric Vehicle Usage and Behaviour During Evacuations From Disasters" during a poster session.

May 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new journal article on “Incorporating a Public Transit Equity Lens in Evacuation Planning.” The open-access article can be found here.

May 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new short article on “Travel Behavior during the 2021 British Columbia Floods Using De-identified Network Mobility Data.” The open-access article can be found here.

April 2024 - Dr. Wong traveled across the U.S. to speak at multiple universities on the possibility of human-centered resilience hubs as a resilient transportation strategy in disasters. His stops included Florida State, Florida A&M, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, and UC Davis. Dr. Wong chatted with many bright students, reconnected with colleagues, and met incredible new people.

April 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new journal article on “Systematic review and research gaps on wildfire evacuations: infrastructure, transportation modes, networks, and planning.” The open-access article can be found here.

April 2024 - Thayanne Ciriaco presented her work on “An Equity Analysis of Transportation for Resilience Hubs” at the ITE Northern Alberta Student Presentation Competition, winning the Top Graduate Award.

March 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new short article on “Integration of Resilient and Complete Streets in Geometric and Roadway Design Guides.” The open-access article can be found here.

February 2024 - A team of researchers from UC Davis and Oklahoma State University together with Dr. Wong published a new article on “Bicycles and micromobility for disaster response and recovery.” The open-access article can be found here.

January 2024 - The RESUME Group published a new short article on “Equity in Resilience Hub Design and Transportation through Community Discussions.” The open-access article can be found here.

January 2024 - The Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting was busy for the RESUME Group, including 10 presentations, multiple committee meetings, and many new connections.

17th International Association for Travel Behavior Research Conference (July 2024)

IATBR was a big success for the RESUME Group. Dr. Wong and Thayanne Ciriaco presented their recent research on sharing in disasters and resilience hubs, respectively. It was a great opportunity to see old friends, meet new people, and collaborate internationally. Following the conference, Dr. Wong travelled to Delft in the Netherlands to work on a UofA-funded project related to moral choice-making.

Dean’s Research Award Presentations (April 2024)

Nick de Gier: Exploration of Wildfire Airlift Evacuations and Fire Exposure

Edward Munroe: Transportation Design of Wildfire Prone Communities

Congratulations to Nick de Gier for winning Outstanding Research Performance for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as determined by the department’s faculty!

Transportation Research Board (January 2024)

The TRB Annual Meeting was a big success for the RESUME Group, and Dr. Wong was joined by Thayanne, Veronica, and Javeria to take part in one of the largest conferences in the world for transportation professionals.

Dr. Wong presented at several sessions on travel and wildfire smoke, communications for early career researchers, and electric vehicles in evacuations. Thayanne presented four times on her research related to resilience hubs and transportation and participated in the AME80 committee meeting. Veronica presented at the 6-Minute Showcase, an annual event conducted by the Young Member Council - Sustainability and Resilience to highlight the best of young member research. Due to visa challenges, Mohammad and Narmeen were unable to make it to TRB, but the RESUME Group came together to present their research.

Dr. Wong was also part of a great team that won the Blue Ribbon for Renewal, recognizing their hard work in creating the 6-Minute Showcase as part of the Young Member Council - Sustainability and Resilience.

Dean’s Research Award Presentations (December 2023)

Ian Borody: Understanding Evacuation Behaviour in Drayton Valley During the 2023 Alberta Wildfires

Brandon Husereau: Development of Procedures for Wildfire Evacuation Simulations in MATSim

Transportation Resilience 2023: International Conference on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Challenges

The RESUME Group participated in eight presentations at Transportation Resilience 2023: International Conference on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Challenges, hosted by the Transportation Research Board. Dr. Wong presented recent research on power safety shutoff events, traffic strategies in wildfire evacuations, and active transportation modes in evacuations. He also discussed a future NCHRP proposal focused on community-based and equitable transportation response in disasters.

Thayanne Ciriaco presented her recent research on travel behaviour and equitable transportation for resilience hubs. Veronica Wambura presented twice on her research focused on public transit equity in evacuation planning. She also presented Narmeen Zehra’s research on existing wildfire evacuation gaps and research directions.

British Columbia Community Field Visits

As part of a project with Infrastructure Canada, members of the RESUME Group and colleagues from the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta traveled to three communities for partner visits: Quesnel, Salmon Arm, and Nelson. It was a beautiful way to see Canada, but also a reminder of the immense wildfire risks that are present across many communities. The project team also visited two communities in Alberta (Canmore and Whitecourt) on separate trips.

8th International Wildland Fire Conference (IWFC) (May 2023)

Dr. Wong participated in the 8th IWFC in Porto, Portugal, presenting his work on traffic strategies in wildfire evacuations and the use of shared mobility in disasters to a diverse group of academics and practitioners. The conference was a great opportunity to learn directly from fire scientists, firefighters, and emergency professionals.

Dean’s Research Award Presentations (April 2023)

Enqi Liao: Understanding Travel Behavior during and after the 2021 British Columbia Floods

Sarah Wan: Resilience Hub Design: Addressing the Transportation Needs of Underserved Populations

Matthew Blain: Engineering Design of Resilient and Safe Complete Streets

Transportation Research Board (January 2023)

Dr. Wong and Thayanne Ciriaco wrapped up an exciting week at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Wong presented at three different sessions on the topics of wildfire evacuations, rural evacuations, and young member perspectives for transportation organizations. He also moderated two sessions, including a unique panel on the differences among sustainability, resilience, and society. Dr. Wong helped contribute to multiple committee meetings including:

• AMR 20: Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity

• YMC - S&R: Young Member Council - Sustainability and Resilience

• AJE 10: Committee on Strategic Management

• AMR00: Transportation Systems Resilience Section

• AM000: Transportation Sustainability and Resilience Group

Thayanne had the opportunity to share her poster on resilience hubs at a session hosted by AMR20. She also participated in multiple workshops and committee meetings. Dr. Wong also received a commendation for Outstanding Support for Young Members from the Transportation System Resilience Section.

16th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research

Dr. Wong gave a plenary lecture at the 16th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research in Santiago, Chile. He also accepted the Eric Pas Dissertation Award (2021) given by the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research. Dr. Wong also presented his research on “A Revealed Preference Methodology to Evaluate Regret Minimization with Challenging Choice Sets: A Wildfire Evacuation Case Study.” The conference was a great chance to see friends and make new connections!

Recent Talks and other Updates

August 2023: Syeda Narmeen Zehra presented her research titled “Review on Wildfire Evacuations: Infrastructure, Transportation Modes, Networks, and Planning” at the Bridging Transportation Researchers (BTR) Conference.

Feb-March 2023: Thayanne Ciriaco spoke on the topic of Resilience Hubs in four fantastic sessions, promoting knowledge exchange and sharing our research. Venues included the Edmonton Library, Hiroshima University, 2023 Celebrating Women's Success in STEM Symposium, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE). Pictured above, she received the People’s Choice poster award at CSCE Graduate Student Poster Competition at the UofA.

March 2023: Syeda Narmeen Zehra spoke at the panel session titled 'Empowering The Rising Generation' hosted by the TRB subcommittee AME20(1) - Women and Gender in Transportation. As a panelist, Narmeen discussed the continued barriers she faces in engineering and where she draws inspiration from to continue down this career path.

November 2022 - Dr. Wong presented “Lessons Learned from Recent Wildfire Evacuations in California” at the 2022 Wildland Fire Canada Conference.

October 2022 - Dr. Wong presented two talks at the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Conference.

• Identifying Traffic Strategies for Wildfire Evacuations using Past Behaviour of Evacuees

• Planning Resilient Transportation using Post-Disaster Behavioural Insights.

October 2022 - Thayanne Ciriaco presented a talk on resilience hubs at the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Conference.

September 2022 - Dr. Wong moderated a session at the 2nd Conference on Scenario Planning in Transportation. He also presented on “Future of Public Transit and Shared Mobility: Scenario Planning for COVID-19 Recovery

August 2022 - Dr. Wong joined the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE)’s Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Working Group as a subject matter expert on evacuations.

Partner and Work with the RESUME Group

The RESUME Group is excited to make a positive impact on society through our transportation research. We are looking for funding opportunities and collaborations in resilient and sustainable transportation in Canada, the United States, and globally. If you are interested in partnering with the RESUME Group, please contact Dr. Stephen Wong at stephenwong@ualberta.ca. We invite all levels of government, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, private sector companies, and private consulting firms to build more resilient and sustainable communities! For examples of practice-ready and empirically driven research, please visit the Research Page.

Archived Updates from 2023

December 2023 - The RESUME Group completed a working paper titled “Systematic Review of Electric Vehicles, Resilience, and Evacuations.” The working paper can be accessed here.

November 2023 - The RESUME Group completed a working paper on “Systematic Review and Research Gaps on Wildfire Evacuations: Infrastructure, Transportation Modes, Networks, and Planning. The working paper can be accessed here.

August 2023 - The RESUME Group completed a working paper on public transit in evacuations titled “Strengthening Public Transit Equity in Evacuation Planning through a Community-Centered Approach.” The working paper can be accessed here.

July 2023 - The RESUME Group put out two working papers on resilience hubs. The first is “Travel Behavior and Community Needs for Resilience Hubs” and can be accessed here. The second is “Equitable Transportation and Resilience Hubs: Analysis of Underserved Population Needs, Usage, and Travel” and can be accessed here.

April 2023 - Dr. Wong and a team from UC Davis and Oklahoma State University put out a working paper on Bicycles and Micromobility for Disaster Response and Recover. The working paper is available here.

March 2023 - Dr. Wong and a team from UC Berkeley and Honda Motors published an article on “Do Incentives Make a Difference? Understanding Smart Charging Program Adoption for Electric Vehicles".” The article is available here or as open-access.

March 2023 - A multidisciplinary team from the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) published a large-scale review on “Review of Research on Human Behavior in Large Outdoor Fires.” The article is available as an open access version.

February 2023 - A multidisciplinary team, created following the TRB Conference on Scenario Planning, wrote a pre-print on “Integrating equity in transportation scenario planning: A systematic review.” The working paper is available here.

Picture Sources: Photos are provided, sourced, and copyrighted by RESUME Group members.