By Jisu Lee, MPL 2017

We are pleased to announce that Deepa Rama Hegde has started a new position at METRANS, working as a research assistant under METRANS Director, Professor Genevieve Giuliano, on “Evaluating Freight Efficiency Metrics,” a METRANS research project funded by Caltrans to evaluate freight efficiency metrics. This study aims to develop a set of performance measures to monitor the performance of the California freight system and measure progress to respond the targets of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan and the FAST Act (The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act). Deepa will be working to examine the freight efficiency measure, conduct a survey of the freight performance measures for Caltrans, and research on the effect of GDP on greenhouse gas emissions and studying various transportation models.

Deepa initially joined METRANS’s administrative team in August 2016, assisting with center management, reporting, and communication activities.

Born and raised in Bangalore, India, Deepa earned her bachelor’s degree in Information Science and Engineering fromVisvesvaraya Technological University. Her areas of interest were operating systems, databases, and programming. She then worked as a data engineer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise for two years before she came to USC for her MS in Business Analytics. While there, she was recognized and appreciated for “Making a Difference: Execution” four times by her former application managers.

Deepa is interested in data analytics, specifically social media and human behavior analytics. She aspires to become a data scientist who brings positive changes to society through her knowledge and research.

JiSu Lee:

JiSu Lee is a Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in the movement of people and goods within a city and what defines a characteristic of a city. She expects to complete her degree in May 2017. She can be reached at [email protected] or at [email protected].