Diego Correa Awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Scholarship

Diego Correa, a graduate student at NYU's Center for Urban Intelligent Transportation Systems (UrbanITS) recently received the 2016 Outstanding Graduate Student Award Scholarship from the Intelligent Transportation Society of New Jersey, a chapter of ITSAmerica. Studying under Professors Joseph Chow and Kaan Ozbay, Correa expects to earn his doctoral degree in 2017.

Next January, he will be presenting his work at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Review Board. In his paper, "Exploring the Taxi and Uber Demands in New York City: An Empirical Analysis and Spatial Modeling," he is working to analyze the impacts of emerging app-based for-hire vehicles on the industry and developing demand forecasting that account for the spatial dependence of taxi and Uber trips for various areas.

Correa points out that from 2014 to 2015 the number of Uber trips taken increased by more than 200 percent, while taxi trips decreased slightly. (Uber growth was most pronounced in outer boroughs like Staten Island and the Bronx.)

The outstanding graduate student award was only the latest that Correa, a past president of the Society of Architects and Civil Engineers of Cañar, has garnered. In his native Ecuador, the National Secretary of Science, Technology, and Innovation honored him with scholarships in both 2011 and 2012. 

Correa received his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Cuenca (2004), as well as a master’s degree in Transportation Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (2012). Subsequently, upon coming to the U.S., he earned an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering-Transportation and a Master of City and Regional Studies (MCRS), including a Certification in Transportation Studies, from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. 

Correa anticipates returning to Ecuador upon completing his graduate studies. “There are few doctoral-level transportation engineers there,” he explains, “and they are badly needed, in order to train the next generation.”