Saima Zaheen joined The Lab @ DC and DDOT as a Research Assistant in June 2026. Saima is pursuing a doctoral degree in civil engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso, where she earned a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering in 2025. Her research interests include transportation safety, micromobility planning, and intelligent transportation systems.
She has worked with the City of El Paso’s Intersection Safety Improvement Program, analyzing crash data and supporting safety-based decision-making for local intersections. She also contributed to a USDOT funded University Transportation Center (C2Smarter) project to enhance transit access and safety through equitable micromobility solutions focused on underserved populations. She is currently working in a National Science Foundation funded ASPIRE research center project where she is doing corridor simulations for Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) to evaluate the interactions between electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure, and traffic. Her dissertation research focuses on converting manual intersection crash analysis process into a semi-automated process using machine learning. Saima has also held several leadership positions at UT El Paso, in the Institute of Transportation Engineers UTEP Student Chapter and the Bangladeshi Students Association. She has also received the Graduate Archer Fellowship based in D.C. dedicated to the University of Texas System students looking into their research areas from a policy lens. Following graduation, she plans to continue contributing to innovative, data-driven solutions in the transportation safety, planning and policy landscape.
Saima is originally from Bangladesh, a developing South-Asian country where she completed her undergrad in civil engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology. She loves travelling to new cities and visiting their cultural, historical and natural sites. In her free time, she likes to binge watch a movie or series otherwise simply taking a nap!