MARK DINGLER

Currently working on M.S.

Mark Dingler is undertaking research in the area of capacity using simulation modeling. The focus is on the impact of improved operations specifically through increased train power as compared to infrastructure investments to improve line haul capacity of rail lines.

Dingler, M.H., Y-C Lai, C.P.L. Barkan, Impact of CBTC and ECP Brakes on Capacity. Proceedings of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association Annual Conference. (September 2009).

Dingler, M.H., Y-C Lai, C.P.L. Barkan, Impact of Operational Practices on Rail Line Capacity: A Simulation Analysis. Proceedings of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL (September 2009).

Dingler, M.H., Y-C. Lai, and C.P.L Barkan. 2009. Impact of Train Type Heterogeneity on Single-Track Railway Capacity . (In Press) Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board.

Athaphon Kawprasert (Kwan) is a graduate student in railroad engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since August 2005. He received his B.Eng. in Civil Engineering from Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Bangkok , in 1998 and M.Eng. in Transportation Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok , in 2000. His master thesis title is "Travel Behaviour Analysis for Elevated Mass Rapid Transit in Bangkok ". His working experiences include one-year work as a civil engineer at ION Joint Venture for Bangkok Underground Blue Line Construction Project and four-year work at the State Railway of Thailand. Considering that further study will be very useful for his contribution to the development of rail system in his country, he requested a study leave from the State Railway of Thailand. Mr. Athaphon is currently working toward his PhD. He is interested in the safety aspects of hazardous material transportation by rail, the analyses of hazardous materials shipment routes, and the applications of Geographic Information System (GIS) on railroad routes and risk analyses. He is currently taking part in the project concerning the analyses of the risk associated with the shipment of the hazardous material by rail.

Kawprasert, A. and C.P.L Barkan 2009. Communication and Interpretation of Results of Route Risk Analyses of Hazardous Materials Transportation by Railroad. Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2097: 125-135.

Kawprasert, A. and C.P.L. Barkan 2008. Effects of route rationalization on hazardous materials transportation risk. Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2043: 65-72.

Kawprasert, A., Barkan, C.P.L. Reducing the Risk of Rail Transport of Hazardous Materials by Route Rationalization. Proceedings of the TRB 87th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (January 2008).

Xiang Liu

Currently working on M.S.

Xiang Liu is pursuing a Master's degree in Transportation Engineering. He is interested in risk analysis and decision analysis regarding hazmat transportation by rail. He is now working on balancing multiple trade-offs between cost, service and risk over hazmat rail transportation networks using stochastic/ statistical and operations research models. Before joining UIUC, he received his B.S. degree in Transportation from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

M. Rapik Saat

Graduated: May 05 - M.S.
2009 - PhD

M.S. Thesis:
SAFETY ANALYSES OF NON-ACCIDENT- AND ACCIDENT-CAUSED RELEASES FROM RAILROAD TANK CARS

Ph.D. Dissertation:
OPTIMIZING RAILROAD TANK CAR SAFETY DESIGN TO REDUCE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRANSPORTATION RISK

Dr. Mohd Rapik Saat is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His research interests include Transportation Risk Analysis, Normative Decision Making, Statistical Analysis, Data Mining and Operations Research. He has been involved in hazardous materials transportation safety and risk analysis research for nine years. His dissertation research dealt with hazardous materials transportation risk, statistical analysis of tank car accident performance, and development and application of optimization models to maximize the safety and cost-effectiveness of enhanced tank car safety designs. The methods he developed can be applied to a variety of transportation container safety design problems and were used to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of options considered by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in 2006 in their initiative developing a new specification for tank cars transporting Toxic Inhalation Hazard (TIH) materials.  Beyond his work on projects sponsored by AAR and RSI-AAR, Dr. Saat has also worked on hazardous materials transportation risk analysis projects supported by Monsanto, ICL Performance Products and ABS Consulting.  Dr. Saat has had principal daily oversight responsibility for UIUC students working on the RSI-AAR Tank Car Safety Project since 2004. He was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on August 12th, 1980, and married to Dzelda Zainal Abidin

Saat, M.R. and C.P.L. Barkan. The Effect of Rerouting and Tank Car Safety Design on the Risk of Rail Transport of Hazardous Materials. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Railway Research, Montreal (June 2006).

Saat, M.R. and C.P.L. Barkan. 2005. Release risk and optimization of railroad tank car safety design. Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board 1916: 78-87.

Steven Sawadisavi

Currently working on M.S.

Steven Sawadisavi will be working on developing machine-vision track inspection technology.

Sawadisavi, S.V., J.R. Edwards, E. Resendiz, J.M. Hart, C.P.L. Barkan and N. Ahuja. 2009. Development of a machine vision system for inspection of railroad track. Accepted: Proceedings of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL (September 2009).

Sawadisavi, S., Edwards, J.M., Resendiz, E., Hart, J.M., Barkan, C.P.L., Ahuja, N. Machine-Vision Inspection of Railroad Track . Proceedings of the TRB 88 th Annual Meeting, Washington , DC (January 2009).

Bryan Schlake received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2007 from the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign. He is now pursuing a Masters in Civil Engineering in the Railroad program. His research is related to the automated inspection of railcars through machine vision technology. He is working with a multidisciplinary team to develop a system capable of scanning railcar underbodies in order to detect critical defects.

Schlake, B.W., J.R. Edwards, J.M. Hart, C.P.L. Barkan, S. Todorovic, and
N. Ahuja, Machine Vision Condition Monitoring of Heavy-Haul Railcar Structural Underframe Components. In Proceedings: International Heavy Haul Conference, Shanghai, China, June 2009.

Schlake, B., Edwards, J.M., Hart, J.M., Barkan, C.P.L., Todorovic, S., Ahuja, N. Automated Inspection of Railcar Underbody Structural Components Using Machine Vision Technology . Proceedings of the TRB 88 th Annual Meeting, Washington , DC (January 2009).

John Zeman

Currently working on M.S.

John Zeman is a pursuing a Master's degree in Civil Engineering.  His research investigates prestressed concrete ties, particular rail seat abrasion, how it works and how to prevent it with high performance concrete materials.  His interests are in transportation structures, construction materials, design, and maintenance.  In May 2008, he received his BS in Civil & Environmental Engineering from UIUC, with a primary in Transportation Engineering and a secondary in Structural Engineering.

Mr. Lai received his PhD degree in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May of 2008. He received his BS at National Taiwan University in 2002 and MS at University of Illinois in 2004. His research dealt with various aspects of train efficiency and railway capacity analysis. He explored options for improving the energy efficiency of intermodal freight trains and developing a model to optimize its loading pattern. For capacity analysis, his work investigated what the impact on capacity is while operating passenger trains on a freight railroad. The goal was to determine the characteristics of signaling systems that will allow passenger trains to operate while minimizing interference with freight operating capacity.

Lai, Y-C. and C.P.L Barkan 2009. An Enhanced Parametric Railway Capacity Evaluation Tool (RCET). (In Press) Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board.

Lai, Y-C., C.P.L. Barkan and H. Önal 2007. Optimizing the aerodynamic efficiency of intermodal freight trains . Transportation Research, Part E 44: 820-834.

Lai, Y-C., C.P.L. Barkan, J. Drapa, N. Ahuja, J.M. Hart, P.J. Narayanan, C.V. Jawahar, A. Kumar, L. Milhon and M.P. Stehly 2007. Machine vision analysis of the energy efficiency of intermodal freight trains. Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit 221: 353-364.

Lai, Y.C., Y. Ouyang, C.P.L. Barkan. A Rolling Horizon Framework for Intermodal Loading Assignment to Improve Fuel Efficiency. In Proceedings: International Heavy Haul Conference Specialist Technical Session - High Tech in Heavy Haul , Kiruna, Sweden, June 2007, pp. 129-136.

Lai, Y-C., C.P.L. Barkan, J. Drapa, N. Ahuja, J.M. Hart, P.J. Narayanan, C.V. Jawahar, A. Kumar, L. Milhon and M.P. Stehly 2007. Machine vision analysis of the energy efficiency of intermodal freight trains. Accepted, Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit.

Lai, Y.C. and C.P.L. Barkan. Improving Energy Efficiency of Intermodal Trains Using Machine Vision and Operations Research Analysis. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Railway Research, Montreal
(June 2006).

Lai, Y-C.,  J.M.Hart, J. Drapa, N. Ahuja, C.P.L. Barkan, L. Milhon. Machine vision analysis of the energy efficiency of intermodal trains, JRC2006-94047. Proceedings of the ASME Joint Rail Conference, Atlanta , GA   (April 2006)

Lai, Y-C. and C.P.L. Barkan 2005. Options for improving the energy efficiency of intermodal freight trains. Transportation Research Record - Journal of the Transportation Research Board 1916: 47-55.

Lai, Y-C.,  J.M.Hart, P. Vemuru, J. Drapa, N. Ahuja, C.P.L. Barkan, L. Milhon, M.P. Stehly 2005. Machine vision analysis of the energy efficiency of intermodal trains. In Proceedings of the 8th International Heavy Haul Conference , Rio de Janiero, June 2005, pp. 387-394.

Daniel Peltier

Currently working on M.S.

Darwin Schafer received his Master's degree from the University of Illinois in Civil Engineering in May 2008. He is originally from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago where he attended Lake Park High School. Darwin graduated with his B.S. in Civil Engineering from University of Illinois in 2006. His research focused on predicting the location of service failures and broken rail derailments, as well as the economic impact of those events. Broken rails are the leading cause of severe derailments for all major railroads in the US and the ability to predict where a broken rail is likely to occur would be a valuable asset to any railroad. His research also examined the cost-effective solution for the railroad to implement based on the prediction. This research will assist railroads in reducing the number of service failures and broken rail derailments as well as planning effective maintenance strategies.

Schafer, D., Barkan, C.P.L. The Relationship Between Train Length and Accident Causes and Rates . Proceedings of the TRB 87th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (January 2008).