Associate Professor Meead Saberi Kalaee
- PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Transportation), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA (2010-2013)
- MS in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Transportation), Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA (2008-2010)
- BS in Civil Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran (2003-2007)
Dr Meead Saberi is an Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, a member of the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI), and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2026-2031). He received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Transportation Systems Analysis and Planning) from Northwestern University, USA, his MSc in Transportation Engineering from Portland State University, USA, and his BEng in Civil Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. Before joining UNSW in 2018, he was a Lecturer at Monash University, Melbourne.
Dr Saberi’s research interests span a broad range of topics in transportation systems analysis, traffic flow theory and network dynamics, large-scale transport network modeling and simulation, complex networks, pedestrian and crowd dynamics, and urban data analytics and visualisation. He has authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal papers. He has led and collaborated on numerous externally funded projects worth over $3 million AUD since 2015, supported by the ARC, Transport for NSW, City of Sydney, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Cisco Australia, and others. His work has advanced both theoretical and applied understanding of transport networks, urban mobility, and sustainable transport systems.
Dr Saberi is also the co-founder and CEO of footpath.ai, a UNSW spin-out that uses GeoAI and computer vision to scale and automate the mapping and analysis of pedestrian infrastructure. He serves on the editorial boards of Data Science for Transportation, npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport, and Transportation Letters, and has guest-edited special issues on emerging mobility services and machine learning in transportation research. His scholarship and service have been recognised with multiple awards, including the UNSW Faculty of Engineering Academic Excellence Award (2020) and Leadership Award from the Transportation Research Board’s Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee (2017).
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship FT250100584 (2026-2031) on "E-VeloCity: Designing Car-Reduced Urban Street Networks"
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Grant LE240100118 (2024-2025) on "The National Cycling Data and Analysis Platform (NCDAP)", Prof Christopher Pettit, Prof Jonathan Corcoran, A/Prof Ben Beck, Prof Sharon Biermann, Dr Soufiane Boufous, A/Prof Meead Saberi, Dr Jinwoo (Brian) Lee, A/Prof Parisa Izadpanahi, Dr Mike Harris, Dr Scott Lieske, and Dr Lauren Pearson.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant DP220102382 (2022-2025) on "Rethinking walking infrastructure: AI-assisted footpath network modelling", A/Prof Meead Saberi, Prof Majid Sarvi, Dr Patricia Sauri Lavieri, and A/Prof Marta Gonzalez
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant DP210102089 (2021-2024) on" Sustainable mobility: city-wide exposure modelling to advance bicycling", A/Prof Ben Beck, Prof Christopher Pettit, A/Prof Meead Saberi, Dr Simone Zarpelon Leao, Dr Kerry Nice, Prof Tarek Sayed, Prof Trisalyn Nelson, and A/Prof Meghan Winters.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant LP190100650 (2020-2023) with Adiona on "Stable on-demand optimization for workforce and fleet logistics management", A/Prof Meead Saberi, Dr David Rey, Prof Steven Waller, Mr Richard Savoie
My main research activities are mostly in the field of traffic flow theory, transport network modelling, and active mobility (walking and cycling). During the past several years, I have extensively worked on understanding dynamics and modelling of large-scale transport networks in the contexts of Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) or Network Fundamental Diagram (NFD), Simulation-based Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA), and pedestrian networks. Following is a list of some of the ongoing research projects in my group:
- Static and dynamic pedestrian traffic assignment problem (pTAP)
- Routing and pricing control in mixed autonomy congested networks
- Autonomous eco-driving
- Learning-based optimization for city logistics
- Modeling large-scale active transport models
During the past ten years, I have engaged with a number of industry and government organisations including
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- Cisco
- iMOVE CRC
- Cardno
- KPMG
- Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV)
- Transport for NSW
- Victoria Department of Transport (VicRoads)
- Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
- City of Melbourne
- City of Sydney
- Willoughby Council
- Randwick Council
- Lord Mayor Charitable Foundation
My Research Supervision
Current PhD students:
- Yininng Hu (Traffic signal optimization of Continuous Flow Intersections)
- Zahra Nourmohammadi (Learning-based optimization of city logistics)
- Fatemeh Nourmohammadi (Estimating pedestrian activities in large-scale networks)
- Ahmad Emami (AI-assisted mapping of active transport infrastructure)
- Moloud Damandeh (Measuring perceived walkability using street-level imagery)
Former PhD students:
- Abdulrahman Alhariqi (Autonomous echo-driving) 2021-2024
- Mohammadhadi Mansourianfar (Routing and pricing control of autonomous vehicles) 2020-2023
- Kai Xu (Modeling ride-sourcing services with order cancellation and platform collaboration) 2020-2023
- Bangyang Wei (Modeling and managing a transportation system with shared mobility services) 2020-2023
- Tanapon Lilasathapornkit (Pedestrian network traffic assignment) 2019-2022
- Mudabber Ashfaq (Modeling congestion propagation and dissipation as a spreading phenomenon) 2019-2022
- Homayoun Hamedmoghadam (Percolation theory and urban mobility networks) 2017-2020
- Ziyuan Gu (Optimal pricing in large-scale transport networks) 2016-2019
- Richard Amoh-Gyimah (Macroscopic safety modeling for pedestrian and bicycles crashes) 2015-2018
- Sajjad Shafiei (Dynamic origin-demand estimation in large-scale networks) 2015-2018
My Teaching
CVEN9422 Traffic Management and Control
Traffic engineering professionals are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the safe and efficient movement of people and goods through the provision and maintenance of transportation systems. The effectiveness of the transport system defines the economic development and quality of life for the entire community. This course offers students an advanced understanding of the field of traffic management and control, with a focus on traffic flow theory and characteristics of both motorised and non-motorised traffic. The course covers topics including fundamentals of traffic flow theory and analysis, queuing theory, shockwave theory and analysis, microscopic simulation, design and operations of unsignalised and signalised intersections, and network traffic flow.
CVEN4402 Transport Systems - Part 1: Network Analysis
This subject covers strategic planning aspects related to transport systems, including transport network-based analysis, modelling and optimisation techniques. Network representation of transport systems and traffic route choice modelling including user equilibrium and system optimal are the two main broad topics that will be discussed in this subject. Knowledge about different types of transport network solutions and when and where to apply them are important for transport professionals. The subject material focuses on network theory in some depth, and a reasonable mathematical competency, as well as the ability to perform computational work, will be required to follow this subject. Computer literacy will be helpful but is not essential.