ICT student spotlight: Antoine Petit

Antoine Petit holds a master’s degree in general engineering from École Centrale de Lille, France, and a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering at Illinois under the guidance of Professor Yanfeng Ouyang and hopes to work as a consultant for a medium-sized company after graduation.

Petit’s research interest lies in transit network planning and design, as well as civil infrastructure planning for oversize/overweight vehicle traffic. “I have been focusing on the design of public transit systems under heterogeneous demand, investigating various network features and related system costs,” he says.

“The extensive knowledge I have gained in network design and public transit will help me make contributions to engineering solutions for building optimal, sustainable, and resilient transportation systems in industrialized and developing countries.”

During his graduate years at Illinois, Petit has assisted with several ICT research studies, including Illinois Department of Transportation–sponsored project R27-152, “Validation and Revision of Fees Charged for Oversize/Overweight Vehicle Permits,” which aims to review Illinois’ current oversize/overweight permit fee structure, propose revisions, and establish an efficient and equitable permit system. As a member of the research team conducting the study, Petit has worked on quantifying the safety costs related to overweight truck crashes on Illinois’ roadway network. He says that working on this project also helped him improve his data mining and R programming skills.

In his free time, Petit enjoys traveling to wild places and learning about new cultures; he has recorded short movies about his trips, which he likes to share with family and friends. He is also a rugby, tennis, and soccer fan!