PhD student Shanshan Liu will spend her summer working on freight transportation and electrification research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. PhD student Denissa Purba will work on alternative fuel projects with the International Council on Clean Transportation! Congrats!
Author: Eleftheria Kontou
Dr. Kontou leads an ONR project!
Thank you Office of Naval Research for funding our Adaptive Transportation Management of Naval Logistics for Distributed Energy Supply (ATM-LOG) project. More information on our scope can be found here: https://cee.illinois.edu/news/kontou-energy-supply-issues-deployed-vehicles-contested-environments.
Kontou talks to NPR for Northern Colorado and Marketplace!
Dr. Kontou discussed the importance of rural charging infrastructure deployment at NPR for Northern Colorado https://www.kunc.org/news/2023-01-10/the-toughest-stretch-rural-colorado-and-the-push-to-electrify-our-roads and the Marketplace https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/rural-communities-are-slow-to-adopt-evs-but-a-national-charging-network-depends-on-them/! EV fast charging stations are needed in rural roads for intercity long-distance travel and we could see adoption spillovers.
Dr. Kontou and MSc graduate Wu receive CUTC awards!

Dr. Kontou received the CUTC – Cambridge Systematics New Faculty Award by the US Department of Transportation Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). This award is given annually to a tenure-track faculty member in transportation education, recognizing outstanding teaching and research contributions to the transportation field. Yen-Chu Wu, who received her MSc under the advisement of Prof. Kontou and is currently a PhD student at MIT, was also recognized for her MSc thesis “Designing Electric Vehicle Incentives to Meet Emission Reduction Targets.” Yen-Chu received the Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award for the best Master’s thesis in the field of policy and planning in transportation studies!
Kontou was awarded an NSF CAREER!
Dr. Kontou received an NSF CAREER award! Our group will study electrified transportation systems with management of bidirectional energy exchanges and infrastructure deployment for urban environmental sustainability, equity, and resilience! More information on the CAREER award’s scope can be found here.
Kontou Research Group at the 2023 TRBAM!
Our research group looks forward to presenting during the upcoming 2023 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting (#2023TRBAM)! Great opportunity to catch up with our sustainable and electrified transportation research and get to know our amazing students and graduates!

Dr. Kontou recognized as the Researcher of the Year by the Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation!
On December 6th, the Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation (IACT) recognized sustainable transportation leaders, including Prof. Kontou who was named the Researcher of the Year. Prof. Kontou was recognized for her contributions in research that helped with the planning process of electric vehicle infrastructure siting in Illinois. Find more information here: https://il-act.org/illinois-alliance-for-clean-transportation-iact-recognizes-sustainable-transportation-leaders/.

PhD student Purba a finalist of the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting poster competition!
Congratulations to Denissa Purba for being recognized for her work on evacuation route planning for alternative fuel vehicles! Her poster was among the 9 finalists out of a pool of more than 200 posters!


PhD student Zhang selected to present her MUD charging hub research at C3E!
Ruolin Zhang, PhD student, recently passed her qualifying exam! She was also selected to present her research on multi-unit dwelling (MUD) charging hub management and techno-economic assessment during the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative event in DC, which advances women’s leadership in clean energy! Find more information on the C3E event here https://c3e.org/2022-c3e-symposium; you can access the preprint of Ruolin’s research here https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4246024.

Dr. Kontou presents her DOE-funded research at UC Davis!

Dr. Kontou was invited to present her DOE-funded research on management and techno-economic assessment of community charging hubs at multi-unit dwellings on September 30, 2022. The video recording of Dr. Kontou’s presentation is available below.