A/ProfSimona Mihaita

I am currently the Associate Head of School Research (ASHOSR) in the School of Computer Science and an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney| Data Science Institute. My research expertise lies in applied Artificial Intelligence for healthier and resilient smart cities, safer transport and e-mobility, and sustainable buildings.

Together with the Future Mobily Lab team, I have secured significant funding across 23 research projects, contributing to more than $26.5M in total funding across Australian partners, plus the €15.6M European Union AUFRANDE programme supporting 64 dual PhD positions across Australian and French universities. Leadership roles include the $2M Australia–Singapore Strategic Collaboration (ARC Linkage/NRF), several iMOVE CRC projects on connected vehicles, automated road star rating and railway level crossing safety, and an ARENA project with Jet Charge, which is the first Australian large-fleet study for at-home charging of commercial fleet operators.

Through close collaboration with industry partners including TfNSW, DoT Victoria, V/Line, Compass IoT, TomTom, AEMO and Jet Charge, my research is applied directly to transport and urban problems. Because of this strong industry engagement, I was externally elected Board Director for ITS Australia in November 2024. I also serve as an IEEE ITSS NSW Area Chair and a member of the IEEE ITSS Board of Governors.

My standalone and collaborative work has attracted 21 awards, prizes and honours (12 competitive awards won), including the 2025 UTS Jenny Edwards Fellowship (one awarded annually across UTS), the 2023 iAwards NSW, the 2022 Women in AI Award Asia-Pacific, the 2018 and 2015 National ITS Awards for Research Excellence, and the 2018 Smart City Awards for On-Demand Transport.

Currently, I am a double finalist in the Women in Digital Awards 2026 for AI and Data Leader.

I have authored/co-authored 80+peer-reviewed publications, with 20+ in Q1/A-ranked IEEE venues, including IEEE ITSC and IEEE Transactions on ITS (the top journal in transportation science). My work has accumulated 2,600+ citations on Google Scholar as of Octpber 2026. Despite two-year maternity leaves, I have maintained research excellence while supervising 9 PhD students (4 as principal supervisor, 5 as co-supervisor) and 50+ undergraduate/postgraduate coursework students.

I have been highly active in the ITS community across Australia and internationally over the past decade, initially at CSIRO Data61 and now at UTS. I have served as a committee member and/or organiser for major conferences, including the ITS World Congress (multiple editions), ITS Australia Summit 2024, IoT Australia Impact Conference 2024, and as ITS Australia Awards judge (2022–2026). I regularly review for ARC schemes (DP/LP/DECRA/ITTC) and premier IEEE venues, while maintaining active public engagement through 50+ speaking events and media interviews with Channel 7 News and The Guardian. This combination of research excellence, industry translation and community leadership positions me to drive transformative impact in intelligent transport systems and future mobility solutions.

More details can be found at: www.simona-mihaita.com