In 2014, Eleftheria Kontou, also known as Ria, couldn’t pass up the comprehensive transportation curriculum offered at UFTI. Kontou is a second year Ph.D. student working in the field of electric vehicle technology.
Upon entering UF, Kontou sought after a particular graduate adviser: Dr. Yafeng Yin, associate professor of the Transportation Program in the UF Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering. One of their first projects together was determining the optimal size of the electric battery of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
“Ria is an excellent student whom I feel very fortunate to work with,” Yin said. “She is intellectually bright, very organized and wonderfully polite. I firmly believe Ria has whatever it takes to make her someday a highly responsible and forward-looking leader in the industry.”
Yin and Kontou also developed model frameworks that minimize the societal cost of adopting and using the electric vehicle technology. Next on their list is the development of a framework that minimizes users and social costs incurred while transitioning from the conventional vehicle technology to the electric one.
“Dr. Yin motivates his students to grow intellectually and professionally,” said Kontou, who was impressed with Yin’s innovative research in transportation networks even before coming to UF. “Dr. Yin possesses an extraordinary ability to point out students’ strengths and helps to build them up. His drive to advance a UF student’s knowledge in the field of transportation engineering and his genuine commitment to responsible conduct of research are remarkable.”
Not only does Kontou excel in her research projects, but has obtained many achievements through UF’s plethora of extracurricular activities, such as WTS and the Graduate Student Advisory Council. She accounts these activities with an increase in her leadership skills and opportunities for networking with professionals and academicians in the field of transportation engineering. For example, last summer and fall, she gave presentations at UF’s 4-H Camp at Levy County and the Idylwild Elementary school, promoting global communities as a member of the International Student Speakers Bureau.
“The list of extracurricular activities that a UF student can undertake is huge,” Kontou said. “These experiences help me develop a global identity, a much needed characteristic in our highly interconnected world.”
To Kontou, transportation engineering is a particularly rewarding field of study, considering the contributions a researcher can make to society.
“The welfare and the well-being of modern societies rely heavily on transportation systems,” she said. “A transportation engineer commits to achieving better mobility and, essentially, quality of life for all.”
This summer, Kontou will do an internship in the Center for Transportation Analysis at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She expects to graduate Fall 2016.