PhD Candidate

Primary Website

https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/vnwashington

Education

MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI;

BS in Industrial and Operations Engineering, Kennesaw State University, Marietta, GA

Research Interests

Applications: natural hazards, human behavior, hurricane evacuations, departure time estimates, flood insurance, flood mitigation

Methods: operations research, predictive models, statistical models, agent-based models, surveys, interviews

Biography

Valerie Washington is a PhD Candidate in Industrial and Operations Engineering, and is co-advised by Drs. Seth Guikema and Joi-Lynn Mondisa. Her dissertation research focuses on the influence of natural hazards on human behavior. More specifically, for this research, she (1) Uses mobile phone location data to infer departure times during Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, and uses statistical models to identify factors that may contribute to the observed departure trends; (2) Predicts travel times during hurricane evacuations using historical travel time trends; and, (3) Develops an agent-based simulation model to evaluate the impact of subsidized flood insurance on communities.

Advisors: Seth Guikema, Joi Mondisa
Positions Sought: Government, Research, Industry
Expected Graduation: May 2022

Awards

Bill Anderson Fund Fellowship, William Averette Anderson Fund (08/2018 – Present);

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (09/2017 – Present);

Rackham Merit Fellowship, University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School (09/2017 – Present);

2016 Engineering Student of the Year for State of Georgia, Georgia Society of Professional Engineers (02/2016)

Publications

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

Washington, V. & Mondisa, J.-L. (2021, Sep.). “A need for engagement opportunities and personal connections: Understanding the social community outcomes of engineering undergraduates in a mentoring program.” Journal of Engineering Education. doi:10.1002/jee.20422

Chen, T. Y., Washington, V. N., Aven, T., & Guikema, S. D. (2019, Nov.). Review and Evaluation of the J100-10 Risk and Resilience Management Standard for Water and Wastewater Systems. Risk Analysis, 40:608-623. doi:10.1111/risa.13421