Guest lecture: Equitable Electric Vehicle Travel and Charging Infrastructure Planning

Equitable Electric Vehicle Travel and Charging Infrastructure Planning

Professor Eleftheria Kontou
The Grainger College of Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Monday, April 20, 2026. Noon – 1 p.m.
GB217 – Galbraith Building

Abstract: Prof. Kontou will showcase insights from a novel location model for equitable electric vehicle charging infrastructure placement, with objectives to minimize detours for charging and improve trip completion for low-income travelers and multi-unit dwelling residents, who face shorter electric vehicle ranges and limited home charging access. Lessons learned will focus on numerical experiments that center the Illinois Interstate and Highway road network. Beyond equitable public charging placement, Kontou will present a data-driven analysis of curbside charging placement that can augment benefits for multi-unit dwellers and renters without reliable home charging access, highlighting a case study in San Francisco CA.

Bio of Prof Kontou: Prof. Kontou is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on planning sustainable transportation systems. She earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, focusing on transportation systems, from University of Florida, and holds a M.Sc. from Virginia Tech, and a Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens in the same field. Kontou is a National Science Foundation CAREER awardee, an Associate Editor of the Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment journal, and a member of the TRB Committee on Transportation Energy Data and Technology.