What technologies can help unclog our current highways and how we can design new highways that serve traffic better?
Join our auto experts on Wednesday, April 19, at 11 AM ET at the second virtual event of the season to learn more about how Canadians can travel more efficiently.
Moderated by David Booth, Senior Writer, Driving
Expert Panel:
- Baher Abdulhai, Professor, Director, The Toronto Intelligent Transportation Systems Centre, University of Toronto
- Kristine D’Arbelles, Senior Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Automobile Association
- Sabrina Martineau, Vice President & Practice Lead – Civil Engineering Services Canada, SNC-Lavalin
David Booth, Driving’s Senior Writer, has a Bachelor’s degree in engineering complemented
by decades working as an automotive journalist and commentator. He has a cynic’s view of
politics, a child’s wonder for anything powerful and an engineer’s curiosity about how things
work, all crucial for dissecting and disseminating the technology the industry constantly
springs on us. And for the record, he thinks hybridization is the future, worships at the altar of
supercars and absolutely adores his motorcycles, so his perfect vehicle is a 700-horsepower
plug-in with two wheels.
Baher Abdulhai has been a professor at the University of Toronto since 1998. Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1966, and earned his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA, in 1996.
Prof. Baher Abdulhai has 35 years of experience in transportation systems engineering and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). He is the founder and Director of the Toronto ITS Centre and the founder and co-Director of i-City Centre for Automated and Transformative Transportation Systems (iCity-CATTS). Abdulhai received several awards including IEEE Outstanding Service Award, Teaching Excellence award, and research awards from Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, and Ontario Innovation Trust. He served on the Board of Directors of the Government of Ontario (GO) Transit Authority from 2004 to 2006. He served as a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in ITS from 2005 to 2010. The ITS Centre won the Ontario Showcase Merit Award of Excellence and the National GTEC Bronze Medal Award in 2005. His research team won international awards including the International Transportation Forum innovation award in 2010 (Hossam Abdelgawad), IEEE ITS 2013 (Samah El-Tantawy) and INFORMS 2013 (Samah El-Tantawy). In 2014, he won the University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award. In 2015 he has been inducted as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). In 2018, he won the prestigious CSCE Sandford Fleming
(Career Achievement) Award for his contribution to transportation in Canada. He has been elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2020. In 2021, he won the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards (OPEA) Engineering Medal for career Engineering Excellence.
Kristine D’Arbelles, Senior Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Automobile AssociationSenior Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Automobile Association
Ms. Sabrina Martineau graduated from Laval University in Civil Engineering in 2006. She has extensive project experience in the fields of municipal engineering, transportation, wastewater treatment and hydraulic development. In addition to her position as Project Manager, Ms. Martineau has also served as Department Manager for Urban Infrastructure in the Infrastructure Engineering Division – Eastern Canada, as well as Federal Market Manager
in Quebec, handling major clients in the municipal sector. Since 2022, she has taken over the position of Vice President, Practice Lead, Civil where she manages over 520 employees.