Arwa Awad

Arwa Awad is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, specializing in the Choice Modelling Group under the supervision of Professor Charisma Choudhury and Professor Stephane Hess. She is a recipient of the Faculty for the Future Fellowship, funded by the Schlumberger Foundation, awarded to women pursuing advanced research in STEM.

Her research lies at the intersection of Machine Learning, Travel Behavior, and Evacuation Dynamics, where she aims to enhance emergency evacuation strategies and reduce casualties in high stress, panic-driven situations. By leveraging advanced AI techniques, including generative models, deep learning, and predictive analytics, her work focuses on improving decision-support systems and modelling human behavior under extreme conditions.

Before joining Leeds, Arwa gained extensive experience across both academia and industry. At the American University of Beirut, she worked as a Research Assistant in both the Business School and the Civil Engineering Department, developing optimization and stable matching algorithms for applications in ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Bolt. Her research contributed to assessing the feasibility and potential adoption of carpooling systems within AUB’s transportation context. In addition to her research responsibilities, she developed data science and programming curricula and served as a Teaching Assistant for transportation and data analytics modules.

Beyond academia, Arwa has worked as a Senior Data Scientist for several consultancy firms and technology companies across the Middle East, where she contributed to real estate analytics, media pricing optimization, operational forecasting and customer behavior modelling. She built large scale data pipelines and warehouses, deployed AI powered applications such as lifestyle based property search engines and intelligent chatbots, and developed optimization models used to inform strategic pricing decisions.

Educational Background:

• Masters of Science in Computational Physics, American University of Beirut, 2020 - 2023
• Bachelors of Science in Physics, Lebanese University, 2017-2020