(L to R): Undergraduates Kemari Solomon, Diana Origa, Leah DuBose and Rolner Benjamin participated in a transportation research REU at UCLA in summer 2025. (Courtesy UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies)
Four FAMU-FSU College of Engineering students transformed from newcomers to scholars this summer, conducting groundbreaking transportation research at UCLA that will contribute to peer-reviewed publications and California’s sustainable transportation goals.
Leah DuBose, a rising junior in biomedical engineering at FAMU, joined fellow students Diana Origa, Kemari Solomon, and Rolner Benjamin in the intensive eight-week “LEAP to Graduate Success” Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (LEAP-SURE). When they arrived at UCLA in late June, they knew little about transportation research. By the end of August, they were preparing to submit a paper on the spatial and demographic characteristics of low-emission vehicle users to Transport Policy, a peer-reviewed journal.
The remarkable achievement showcases how targeted research programs can accelerate undergraduate students into graduate-level work while addressing critical real-world challenges in sustainable transportation.
From FAMU-FSU to UCLA: A Pipeline for Success
The LEAP-SURE program represents a collaborative effort between UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity, and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. The program was developed by Professor Tierra Bills, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and public policy at UCLA and alumna of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Bills secured a three-year grant through the UC Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative specifically to train and prepare students from HBCUs for graduate-level education and research. The program’s mission focuses on inspiring HBCU students to pursue graduate studies in transportation engineering, planning, and policy through interdisciplinary research experiences, group learning, and mentorship.
“I [was] looking for a niche that I could go into and thought [the program] would be a good opportunity to open my eyes to a different side of engineering,” said Origa, a rising junior and computer engineering major at FAMU.
Learning by Doing: Real Research from Day One
Bills designed the program around a “learn by doing” philosophy. From the first week, students integrated into several active projects under UCLA’s Transportation Equity Innovation Lab, where Bills serves as director. Over the summer, the students learned coding and data analysis techniques using Python to tackle real-world questions such as how travel behavior differs between electric vehicle and non-EV owners, and how proximity to public chargers influences EV adoption.
“What they were able to do while they were here is quite remarkable,” Bills said. “They were able to come into a brand new field, learn new techniques and actually produce results.”
The students’ primary research focused on examining the characteristics of low-emission vehicle users in California to support sustainable transportation planning objectives. They learned to analyze household vehicle surveys and land-use data, working with graduate mentors Daisy Mugodzeri and Kailong Ji.
Addressing California’s Electric Vehicle Challenge
California represents the largest and most mature market for electric and low-emission vehicles in the United States, with vehicle sales outpacing the second-largest U.S. market in Texas by more than five times. However, as the use of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and hybrid vehicles continues to rise, this growth may fuel increases in average vehicle miles traveled, potentially running counter to California’s VMT reduction goals.
To support the design of policies and strategies for mitigating drivers’ VMT among EV users, understanding the evolution of travel behaviors and decision-making among EV and other low-emission vehicle users is critical. The FAMU-FSU students’ research directly addressed this need using the 2024 California Vehicle Survey and community demographics data from the American Community Survey.
Each student focused on a distinct aspect of the research:
Leah DuBose studied person-level characteristics of low-emission vehicle users. Her findings revealed that despite high usage of low-emissions vehicles across California, gasoline vehicles remain the dominant vehicle type. She also found that vehicle type choices vary distinctly across racial groups, with Asian communities showing the highest rates of EV usage, followed by White communities.
Diana Origa examined spatial characteristics, including employment industries by county and their relationship to vehicle choice patterns. She discovered that California counties with higher rates of EV and hybrid vehicle use are more likely to have higher numbers of jobs in government, education, and health service sectors.
Rolner Benjamin, a rising junior and biomedical engineering major at Florida State University, focused on household-level characteristics of low-emission vehicle users, such as household size, income, and number of automobiles. He found that households with three or more vehicles tend to have greater fuel type diversity, including more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, while households with a single vehicle are more likely to have gasoline or hybrid vehicles.
Kemari Solomon, a rising senior in computer science at Florida State University, analyzed spatial differences in adoption rates for low-emission vehicles. His research revealed that hybrid vehicles were the most commonly reported vehicle type, with San Diego and Orange County leading in hybrid vehicle adoption. Across various low-emission vehicle types, plug-in hybrids ranked as the second most common.
Beyond Transportation: Building Transferable Skills
A second project tested OpenPATH, an app-based travel data collection tool designed to capture daily travel activity information, user-initiated trip reports, and responses to system-prompted survey questions. The interns beta tested the app by tracking their own daily trips to investigate its usefulness for collecting targeted data about the travel activities of underrepresented communities.
Examining their own travel behavior inspired the students to think about their daily lives and connections to the world around them in new ways.
“Transportation is something we deal with every day, and being in the program and learning more about it…I have a highlighted mindset of how the world is working when it comes to transportation infrastructure. Now I’m able to apply that in whatever I do next,” Benjamin said.
In addition to their transportation research, the students interacted with 20 other summer interns who participated in Amazon’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience @UCLA, directed by Catherine Douglas at the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. Together, the interns attended weekly trainings on topics including applying for graduate fellowships, conducting literature reviews, delivering research presentations, and other career development areas.
As the students returned to their Florida campuses, many were already thinking about how to apply these transferable skills to future research. DuBose plans to use her new coding skills to support work she will be conducting this fall in a stem cell research lab.
“One of the main skills that I picked up is coding, which will play a vital role for me as I transition back into my biomedical interests,” DuBose said.
The Power of Collaboration
Out of all the summer’s highlights, the students agreed on their biggest takeaway: the importance of teamwork and collaboration. Solomon reflected on how the group supported each other throughout the program.
“If we know we have to do a presentation tomorrow, we’re going to gather today to work on it and make sure nobody gets left behind,” Solomon said. “If one person goes, we’re all going to go together. So I think that’s been the biggest thing—holding each other up.”
The program will conclude with a spring 2026 research seminar at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, where the interns will present their research to classmates and other interested students. The research team is also working to finalize results for publication in a journal article.
The success of these four students demonstrates the power of targeted research programs in preparing undergraduate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds for graduate education and research careers. Their work not only advances understanding of sustainable transportation adoption but also establishes a model for future collaborations between the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and leading research institutions.
Editor’s Note: This article combines and synthesizes information from two UCLA sources: the Institute of Transportation Studies article “From Newcomers to Scholars: HBCU Students Explore Transportation Research at UCLA” (September 17, 2025) and the UCLA Equity website’s “LEAP to Graduate Success 2025 Summer Research Experience” page. This article was edited with a custom prompt for Claude Sonnet 4, an AI assistant created by Anthropic. The AI optimized the article for SEO discoverability, improved clarity, structure and readability while preserving the original reporting and factual content. All quotes, research findings, and factual details are drawn directly from the original UCLA sources. This article was edited and fact-checked by college staff before being published. This disclosure is part of our commitment to transparency in our editorial process. Last edited: 10/01/2025.
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