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Prof. Evdokia Nikolova Receives NSF CAREER Award

Prof. Evdokia Nikolova has been selected to receive a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. The award is the most prestigious offered by NSF’s CAREER Program, providing up to five years of funding to junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of their organizations’ missions.

Prof. Nikolova received her award for research that has the potential to reduce traffic and cellphone congestion through improving the way computer networks assess risk and account for how humans make decisions under uncertainty. Her project is focused on developing new computer algorithms and tools to minimize risk in various sectors, including transportation, telecommunications and energy. Nikolova's interdisciplinary approach brings together computer science, operations research, economics and finance. Part of this research has been adapted in the MIT CarTel system, a research project addressing transportation issues, and will be incorporated into a new interdisciplinary course for undergraduate and graduate students.