Research Assistant, İzmir Institute of Technology, Turkey 👤
Fırat Enver Kesmez is a Research Assistant at the İzmir Institute of Technology, specializing in transportation engineering. His research focuses on public transit planning, smart mobility, and big data analytics. With a background in civil engineering, he integrates computational modeling and data-driven methodologies to enhance urban mobility systems. His expertise spans mode shift estimation, micromobility data utilization, and transit network optimization. His contributions to academic research, industry projects, and teaching demonstrate his commitment to advancing sustainable and efficient transportation solutions.
🎓 Education
Fırat Enver Kesmez holds a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering (2023 – ongoing) from the İzmir Institute of Technology, maintaining a GPA of 3.88. He completed his M.S. in Civil Engineering (2020-2023) at the same institution with a perfect GPA of 4.0, focusing on smart card data for mode shift estimation under Prof. Dr. Volkan Emre Uz. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering (2011-2017) from Yıldız Technical University and attended Vilnius Gediminas Technical University as part of the Erasmus+ Exchange Programme (2014-2015).
💼 Work Experience
Fırat Enver Kesmez has diverse professional experience in both academia and the private sector. Since 2021, he has been a Research and Teaching Assistant at İzmir Institute of Technology, contributing to transportation modeling and urban mobility studies. Previously, he worked as a Cost Control Engineer at Renaissance Heavy Industries (Russia, 2019-2020) and as a Site Engineer at Siptek Industrial Services (Turkey, 2017-2019), gaining hands-on experience in construction project management and infrastructure development.
🔬 Research Interests
Fırat Enver Kesmez’s research interests lie at the intersection of public transportation, smart mobility, and data-driven urban planning. He specializes in big data analytics for transit systems, leveraging smart card data to analyze travel behavior and optimize transport networks. His work also extends to micromobility, traffic flow modeling, and multimodal transportation systems, aiming to improve sustainable mobility and smart city applications.
🏆 Awards & Recognitions
Throughout his academic and professional journey, Fırat Enver Kesmez has been recognized for his outstanding research contributions in transportation engineering. His work on mode shift estimation using smart card data was presented at the prestigious Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting 2024. Additionally, he played a key role in the Izmir Transportation Master Plan Update (2022-2024), a project funded by ESHOT, the city’s bus transportation authority.
📚 Publications
1️⃣ Kesmez, F. E., & Uz, V. E. (2025). Estimating the impact of new rail service on travel behavior of current bus passengers using smart card data. Transportation Planning and Technology, 1–32. Cited by: [Pending]
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2025.2456701
2️⃣ Uz, V.E., Kesmez, F.E. (2025). Micromobility Data Need and Data Use. In: Dündar, S. (Ed.), Micromobility, Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering. Cited by: [Pending]
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77098-2_16
Conclusion
Fırat Enver Kesmez demonstrates exceptional potential as a transportation researcher with strong academic credentials, impactful research, and applied industry experience. His expertise in data-driven transit planning and mobility analysis aligns well with contemporary urban challenges. While he has room to expand his international collaborations and publication portfolio, his contributions make him a strong candidate for the Best Researcher Award. 🏆