Farah Ghizzawi (CivMin PhD 2T6) studied how e-bike delivery vehicles can make for more efficient and sustainable freight transportation in dense, crowded cities
Growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, Farah Ghizzawi (CivMin PhD 2T6) knew that her mother wanted her to be a doctor. But mathematics, not biology, was her real passion.
“I was just fascinated by how we can use numbers to describe all kids of phenomena around us,” she says.
“Mathematical models are such incredibly powerful tools for understanding how the world works, and for predicting how it could work differently if we change a few things.”
Ghizzawi applied to the American University of Beirut, but didn’t tell her mother that she had selected engineering rather than a pre-med program. She managed to keep the secret until her mother saw the engineering course codes on her tuition statement.
“She was so flipping mad, she stopped talking to me for a month,” says Ghizzawi.
“But I kept at it, and I got really high grades. I proved to her that I can do exceptional things in engineering, and eventually she came around to the idea.”
After graduation, Ghizzawi took a job at SETS International, a consulting firm that specializes in areas such as transport planning, infrastructure systems and architecture.
As a transportation modeler based in Beirut, Ghizzawi worked on planning projects primarily in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, as well as several other countries across the Gulf region, developing mathematical models to simulate passenger demand and traffic operations.
One of her key mentors was the company’s co-founder, Issam Kaysi, who inspired her growing interest in the transportation field.
“I love the idea of the transportation system as a communal space,” she says.
“Sometimes we treat economic activity in a city as though it’s separate from the transportation network, but it really isn’t. Their relationship is intertwined.”
From 2014 to 2016, Ghizzawi was both a full-time transportation planner and a full-time student, earning a master’s degree in systems engineering, also from the American University of Beirut.
But she always knew that one day she wanted to do a PhD. She discussed the idea with her mentor Kaysi, who mentioned that he had once been an adjunct professor in the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering at U of T.
“I learned later that more than half of the senior managers or directors of our company, which had branches all over the Middle East, were U of T Engineering graduates,” she says
“Until then, I had only been considering Ivy League universities in the United States, but after that, I started thinking about Toronto.”
Ghizzawi says she picked U of T for the quality of its research program, as well as the lifestyle and sense of balance she felt Toronto could offer compared with the environments she had previously experienced in Lebanon and the United States. But the most important factor was her choice of supervisor, Professor Matt Roorda (CivMin).
“I just saw the potential of him being a great mentor, and I was right,” says Ghizzawi.
Over the last five years, Ghizzawi has carried out a detailed case study on a pilot project designed to handle the challenges of last-mile freight delivery.
The Urban Quick Stop is a collaboration between U of T Engineering, Purolator and the City of Toronto. It includes a pick-up and drop-off facility built inside a standard shipping container and located in a parking space provided by the City of Toronto, at the heart of U of T’s St. George Campus.
It also facilitates door-to-door deliveries via the use of specialized e-bikes, which replace larger trucks for the critical last few kilometres of a delivery journey.
“My role was to collect and analyze the data to understand whether this new system really was better than the trucks it replaced,” says Ghizzawi.
“I used to have to go there very early in the morning to install GPS devices on these vehicles so we could gather telemetric data. I also talked to the drivers and the retail workers in the container, serving as the communication point between Purolator and my research team.”
The results of the study have now been published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. They show that the new system has clear benefits.
“E-bikes can do the job more efficiently than big trucks,” says Ghizzawi.
“It’s easier to accommodate them on the curbside, they’re safer and they interact with other transportation modes better. And on top of all that, they are zero-emission.”
“We presented our findings to city council, and Purolator now has the green light to expand city-wide. Our analysis can help with that too, in terms of locating these potential hubs across the city, sizing up the fleet and all that.”
Ghizzawi will receive her diploma at U of T Engineering’s Spring Convocation Ceremony on June 16. After that, she plans to return to working in the transportation industry.
“I want to build a name for myself in the transportation field,” she says.
“I want to be part of the conversation where decisions are being made, to be a subject matter expert who will have influence on those decisions.”
But for Ghizzawi, U of T wasn’t just about getting qualifications; it was about building relationships.
“I have always thought of myself as an open person, and I like to be friends with people who are very different than myself,” she says.
“My five years here have really been all about putting that into action. I don’t think I would have had that experience if not for my time in Toronto, and at U of T. I’m super grateful for that.”
By Tyler Irving
This story originally published by Engineering News