CUTC recognizes CEE professor, recent graduate

The U.S. Department of Transportation Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) has awarded the CUTC-Cambridge Systematics New Faculty Award to assistant professor Eleftheria Kontou. This award is given annually to a tenure-track faculty member in transportation education, in recognition of outstanding teaching and research contributions to the transportation field. 

Kontou has been on the CEE at Illinois faculty since 2019, where her research focuses on transportation planning, electrification and emerging vehicle technologies operations, as well as transportation and energy sectors interdependencies. 

Recent alumna Yen-Chu Wu received CUTC’s Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award for her Master’s thesis "Designing Electric Vehicle Incentives to Meet Emission Reduction Targets." Wu, who was advised by Kontou and earned her Master’s degree in 2022, received the award for the best Master’s thesis in the field of policy and planning in transportation studies. Wu and Kontou developed a mathematical model to design and allocate electric vehicle rebates and charging infrastructure investments that induce electric vehicle adoption and achieve emission reduction targets. Learn more about their work here.

Kontou and Wu were honored at the recent CUTC 2023 Annual Awards Banquet in Washington DC.