Congratulations to the ITS Students of the Year! We had a really good group of nominees this year and are thrilled to announce Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD Candidate Ziad Yassine will receive the PhD Student of the Year Award and dual degree Master in City and Regional Planning and Master of Science students Jacob Champlin and Ameen DaCosta will receive the Master Student of the Year Co-Award.
PhD Student of the Year
Ziad Yassine
Ziad advances equity, sustainability, and policy through impactful transportation research
Ziad Yassine is an outstanding PhD student in Transportation Engineering whose research has made significant contributions to the field of sustainable transportation. He has already published two impactful papers on low-income carsharing in top-tier journals, with a third currently under review. Ziad’s work continues to shape the discourse on equity and sustainability in transportation, particularly through his research on electric vehicle carsharing programs aimed at benefiting low-income communities in Los Angeles. In addition to his research achievements, Ziad excels as a teaching assistant for CEE 256: Transportation Sustainability, where he demonstrates a deep commitment to student learning and engagement. His work at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center, including his contributions to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), has further expanded his influence in the field. Ziad’s dedication to advancing the public good through transportation research has led to his research influencing national policymaking, underscoring his role as a future leader in the field of transportation engineering.
Masters Students of the Year (co-award)
Jacob Champlin and Ameen DaCosta
Jacob and Ameen are transportation advocates and ambassadors both in study and activity
Jacob Champlin and Ameen DaCosta have been welcoming and active leaders in the transportation student and transportation community throughout their time at in the MS/MCP program, especially as TRANSOC co-presidents. They have participated in, planned, and led activities in the UC Berkeley community and the greater Bay Area. As co-presidents of TRANSOC, they went above and beyond to plan and execute a transit month activity and a TRANSOC transportation seminar. In addition, they supported seminar cookie hours, planned transportation field trips, workshops, and networking opportunities, and executed the TRANSOC alumni event, in addition to being part of the BART speed team last year. They participated in the visit day activities and followed up with professors about how the event went. They are good ambassadors for transportation and Berkeley by appearing on podcasts and news articles related to speedruns and other transit events in the bay area, in addition to always being welcoming to current, new and visiting students, and seminar speakers.