Dr Athanasios (Akis) Theofilatos

I am a civil and transportation engineer. I have more than 9 years of experience in several aspects of transportation safety and engineering having participated in more than 10 road safety and transportation research projects mostly funded by the European Commission as well as the Greek State. 

I have published 29 journal papers and more than 40 conference papers (Scopus h-index=11, Google Scholar h-index=13) in the field of transportation safety.  I also serve as a reviewer for more than 25 scientific journals in transport. I am also a member of the Standing Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation (Transportation Research Board, TRB, 2018 – 2021).

I joined Loughborough University in June 2019 as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Transport Systems and I am currently co-supervising a PhD student on the topic of imbalanced learning for real-time crash prediction. My research focuses on road safety, accident analysis, statistical methods, attitudes and behaviour towards autonomous vehicles, big data, machine learning, deep learning, stated preference experiments, vulnerable road user (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists) safety and behaviour as well as attitudes towards new urban air mobility services.  

I welcome enquires from post graduates who wish to pursue a PhD in my areas of research interest (or any other similar).

Current research activity 

• Real-time safety evaluation
• Imbalanced learning for real-time crash prediction
• Machine learning and deep learning for road safety applications
• Statistical modelling for crash data analysis
• Attitudes towards autonomous vehicles
• User adoption of new urban air mobility services
• Attitudes and behaviour towards DUI & fatigue driving 
• Pedestrian gap acceptance for midblock street crossing

Recently completed research projects 

• Correlating road accidents with high resolution traffic and weather data. Postdoctoral Studies, State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ), co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Greek public. Research Proposal: Duration: 2017-2019
• SaferAfrica (Innovating dialogue and problems appraisal for a safer Africa) of the Horizons 2020 framework programme on Research & Innovation of the European Commission
• SAFERWHEELS carried out for European Commission DG MOVE
• ESRA (“E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes”)
• SAFETYCUBE (“Safety Causation, Benefits and Efficiency”) of the Horizons 2020 framework programme on transport research of the European Commission

• Katrakazas C., Theofilatos A., Papastefanatos G., Härri J., Antoniou C. (in-press). Cybersecurity and its impact on road safety for CAVs: State-of-the-art, policy needs and challenges. Policy implications of Autonomous Vehicles, Elsevier.
• Souris C., Theofilatos A., Yannis G. (2019) Attitudes of Greek drivers towards autonomous vehicles - a stated preference approach. Advances in Transportation Studies B 48, 105-116.
• Theofilatos A., Cong C., Antoniou C. (2019) Comparing Machine Learning and Deep Learning Methods for Real-Time Crash Prediction. Transportation Research Record, 1-10. 
• Ziakopoulos A., Theofilatos A., Papadimitriou E., Yannis G. (in-press). A meta-analysis of the impacts of operating in-vehicle systems on road safety. IATSS Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iatssr.2019.01.003   
• Papadimitriou E., Filtness A., Theofilatos A., Ziakopoulos A., Quigley C., Yannis G. (2019) Comparative assessment and ranking of infrastructure related crash risk factors. Accident Analysis and Prevention, SI: RSS, 125, 85-97. 
• Theofilatos A., Yannis G., Kopelias P., Papadimitriou F. Impact of real-time traffic characteristics on crash occurrence: Preliminary results of the case of rare events. Accident Analysis and Prevention., 130, 151-159.
• Theofilatos A., Ziakopoulos A. (2018) Examining injury severity of moped and motorcycle occupants with real-time traffic and weather data. ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 144(11). 
• Theofilatos A., Ziakopoulos A., Papadimitriou E., Yannis G. (2018) How many crashes are caused by driver interaction with passengers? A meta-analysis approach. Journal of Safety Research, 65 11-20. 
• Tselentis D., Theofilatos A., Yannis G., Konstantinopoulos M. (2018) Public opinion on Usage-Based Motor Insurance Schemes: a stated preference approach. Travel Behaviour and Society, 11, 111-118.
• Papadimitriou E., Theofilatos A. (2017) A meta-analysis of crash risk factors in freeway entrance and exit areas. ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 43(10), 04017050.  
• Theofilatos A. (2017) Incorporating real-time traffic and weather data to explore road accident likelihood and severity in urban arterials. Journal of Safety Research, 61, 9-21.
• Theofilatos A., Yannis G., Vlahogianni E., Golias J. (2017) Modeling the effect of traffic regimes on safety of urban arterials: the case study of Athens. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 4(3), 240-251.
• Theofilatos A., Yannis G. (2017) Investigation of Powered-Two-Wheeler accident involvement in urban arterials by considering real-time traffic and weather data. Traffic Injury Prevention, 18(3), 293-298.

Undergraduate

• Transport and the Environment
• Design Skills and Urban Data Analytics
• Transport Research Methods and Digital Skills
• Transport Planning
• Transport Futures
• Global Logistics and Management
• Supervision of dissertations on topics aligned to my research interests

Postgraduate

• Supervision of dissertations on topics aligned to my research interests

Current projects

• LUSTRE: Lower urban speed limits in Europe - what does this evidence show? Funder: Road Safety Trust

Recently completed projects

• Real-time safety evaluation in the urban motorway “Attiki Odos” in Greece (2018)

Consultancies

• Civil engineering consultancy at the Cadastral Department at National Defence Fund, Greek Army

I hold a Civil Engineering Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA, 2009). Then I pursued an M.Sc. and DIC in Transport from Imperial College & UCL (2010). In 2010, I started my PhD studies in the National Technical University of Athens in the field of transport safety, while at the same time I was involved in various research projects and teaching activities at the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering. In 2014, I joined the Greek Army for an 8-month mandatory service, where I also contributed as Civil Engineer at the Cadastral Department of National Defence Fund. 

In November 2015, I successfully defended my PhD thesis (“An advanced multi-faceted statistical analysis of accident severity and probability exploiting high-resolution traffic and weather data”) and started working as a Postdoctoral researcher in EU funded projects. In 2017 I acquired my first grant for Postdoctoral studies (“Correlating road accidents with high-resolution traffic and weather data”)co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Greek public. This project finished in late 2018. 

In November 2018 I moved to Germany, where I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher (Marie Curie Fellow) at the Technical University of Munich on the field of real-time safety evaluation and attitudes towards autonomous vehicles. In June 2019, I was offered a full-time position as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Transport Systems at Loughborough University. 

Professional affiliations

• Member of the TRB Standing Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation
• Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece
• Member of the Greek Society of Civil Engineers
• Member of Greek Society of Transportation Engineers
• Fellow statistician in the Royal Statistical Society (UK)

Awards

• Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award (2019), for the SafetyCube Decision Support System (DSS). Awarded by part of the SafetyCube consortium.
• Seal of Excellence Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (2018), for the postdoctoral research proposal "SPARTAN-Safety analysis and ProActive Real-time Traffic management considering AutoNomous vehicles" which scored above 85%.
• Certificate in Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing. Accident Analysis and Prevention, Transportation Research Part F, Safety Science, Computers in Human Behavior. Elsevier Reviewing Recognition.
• PhD Studentship (2012-2015), Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering, National Technical University of Athens.
• Thomaideio Award (2015) (NTUA) for the paper "A review of the effect of traffic and weather characteristics on road safety", published in 2014 in Accident Analysis and Prevention journal.
• Thomaideio Award (2014) (NTUA) for the paper "Pedestrian Gap Acceptance for Mid-Block Street Crossing" published in 2013 in Transportation Planning and Technology journal.

External activities

• Paper reviews for Accident Analysis and Prevention, Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Transport Policy, ASCE, Journal of Transport and Health, Transportation Research Part A, Part C, Part F, Traffic Injury Prevention, Journal of Advanced Transportation, Safety Science, Journal of Transportation Safety and Security, PLOS ONE, Travel Behaviour and Society, IATSS Research, Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering (English Edition), Transportation Letters, Transportmetrica A, IEEE, IET Intelligent Transport Systems, Advances in Transportation Studies, etc. 

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

• National Technical University of Athens
• Technical University of Munich
• Cardiff University
• Delft University
• Imperial College London
• The University of Queensland
• University of South Florida
• OSEVEN Telematics
• Attiki Odos