Civil engineering is both intellectual and grounded in reality.
Raziq Zaman received his B.S. in Applied Mathematical Sciences, with a Minor in Computer Science, from Texas A&M in 2021. After that, he started working as a software engineer. He discovered he didn’t enjoy that work, but he loved D.C., near which his job was located. He especially enjoyed the city’s walkability and the metro. This sparked his interest in public transportation more generally, as he discovered that problems in transportation could engage the math- focused part of his brain. He decided to pursue a graduate degree in civil engineering at UMD, which allowed him to stay in the D.C. area. Raziq entered the PhD program in Civil Engineering at UMD in Spring 2025, with a focus in Transportation and Mobility.
Raziq is studying under Dr. Cirillo, and his research focuses on synthetic generation of travel behavior data. He is looking at how to use generative modeling to enrich sparse travel data sets and then validate that data against externally observed metrics.
Raziq’s favorite thing about civil engineering is how it combines abstract concepts with real world applications like policy implementation. As he puts it, civil engineering is “both intellectual and grounded in reality.” He also enjoys how interdisciplinary research is in CEE; his own research team includes a wide array of perspectives from specialists in economics, statistics, and computer science.
Raziq says he wants to inspire younger people to do research, and he has taken on a number of mentorship and teaching roles at UMD. He has served as a teaching assistant for ‘ENCE370: Introduction to Transportation Engineering and Planning.’ He has also been a research mentor for high school students through UMD’s GLEAM (Graduate Leaders in Engineering and Academic Mentoring), and for undergraduate fellows through the Nebula Data Fellowship.
One of Raziq’s favorite opportunities from his time in CEE has been getting to present his research at the World Conference on Transport Research in Toulouse, France this past July. He will also present a paper this coming January at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.
In his free time, Raziq enjoys going to concerts and is learning to play the mandolin. He plans to graduate in 2029. After that he is considering working at a national lab or teaching at the university level.
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