Professor Charisma Choudhury

Profile

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

Charisma holds a PhD and MSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For her doctoral work, she had 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 has received the Gordon Newell Best Dissertation Prize from the HKSTS and an Honourable Mention from the 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 data sources (e.g. mobile phone records, smart cards, video images, etc.) to physiological sensor data (e.g. skin conductance, EEG recordings, etc.). Modelling travel behaviour using these data sources involved developing methodologies to combine data science, ubiquitous computing and choice modelling techniques. Research excellence in this area has enabled her to win the Faculty for Future Award 2011 and the UKRI Future Leader Fellowship 2020.

She is an Honorary Guest Professor of Beijing Jiaotong University, China and a Turing Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK.

Responsibilities

• Leader of Choice Modelling Group, ITS, UoL
• Deputy Director, Choice Modelling Centre, UoL

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Research groups and institutes

• Cities, Infrastructure and Energy

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>