Megh KC

Ph.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

Megh Bahadur KC

I build optimization models and reinforcement-learning agents that help transit agencies electrify their bus fleets, and data tools that help cities plan cleaner freight.

Transportation Engineer, California Department of Transportation

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Portrait of Megh Bahadur KC
Peer-reviewed articles
4
Preprints and papers under review
7
Conference presentations
14+
TRB manuscripts coordinated as editor
29

News

  1. 2026

    Two papers accepted for presentation at the TRB Annual Meeting, January 2027: online deep RL for multi-line electric bus operations, and a freight policy screening model for New York City.

  2. Jul 2026

    Joined the California Department of Transportation as a Transportation Engineer.

  3. 2026

    Serving as Editor / Paper Review Coordinator for the Transportation Research Board, 2026–2027.

  4. Oct 2025

    Named a 2025–26 NYMTC September 11th Memorial Fellow ($35,000) for a freight VMT and emissions assessment tool. NYMTC announcement

  5. Sep 2025

    University at Buffalo featured the fellowship and its AI-driven approach to transportation system efficiency. UB news story

  6. Aug 2025

    Joined the TRB Standing Technical Committee on Transit Operations (AP014).

About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering at the University at Buffalo, SUNY (expected November 2026), advised by Dr. Ziqi Song. My dissertation, Accelerating Bus Transit Electrification through Optimization, Metaheuristics and Reinforcement Learning Frameworks, asks how agencies can schedule, charge and size electric bus fleets when trips, traffic and electricity prices are uncertain.

I am also a Transportation Engineer at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where I develop sub-regional travel demand models and forecasts for traffic operations analysis and environmental studies. Before that I modelled national freight flows at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL), built a freight VMT and emissions tool for NYC DOT as a subaward PI, and studied travel behavior of people with disabilities at Utah State University.

I came to research from practice: six years as a highway engineer and project manager with Nepal's Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, plus university teaching in Nepal and the US.

Education

  • Expected Nov 2026
    Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University at Buffalo, SUNY
    GPA 4.00. Advisor: Dr. Ziqi Song.
  • 2020
    M.Sc., Construction Management, Pokhara University, Nepal
    GPA 3.95, university topper and Dean's List. Thesis on bidding trends and procurement performance of road projects.
  • 2013
    B.E., Civil Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
    Ranked in the top 4 of the cohort; government merit scholarship.

Research lines

Three lines of work share one toolkit: mathematical optimization, metaheuristics and reinforcement learning applied to real agency data. Each line's projects, papers and code carry its route bullet across the site.

E

Electrified transit

Bus and school-bus electrification

Fleet sizing, routing, timetabling and charging for battery-electric buses, from mixed-integer models and metaheuristics to multi-agent deep reinforcement learning that reacts to delays, demand and time-of-use prices in real time. Includes vehicle-to-grid revenue and battery sizing.

  • MILP
  • VNS metaheuristics
  • PPO / MAPPO
  • V2G
  • Gurobi
  • GAMS

Projects

  • Multi-line electric bus scheduling and charging with deep RLUniversity at Buffalo (dissertation) · University at Buffalo · active
  • Route Optimization, On-route Charging and V2G Integration (ASPIRE)NSF Engineering Research Center · Utah State University
  • Increasing Affordability, Energy Efficiency, and Ridership of Transit Bus Systems through Large-Scale ElectrificationUS Department of Energy · Utah State University
  • Alternative Fuel Vehicles in the UDOT Maintenance FleetUtah Department of Transportation · Utah State University
7 papers and 7 talks on this line
F

Freight systems

Freight modeling and policy

National containerized freight flows, intermodal resilience, electric truck routing and city-scale freight policy screening: what congestion pricing, off-hour delivery and clean-truck programs do to VMT, greenhouse gases and air quality.

  • FAF / CFS
  • VRP
  • OR-Tools
  • Four-step demand
  • StreetLight
  • INRIX

Projects

  • Freight VMT and Emissions Assessment ToolUSDOT FHWA via NYMTC / NYSDOT · NYC DOT · awarded Oct 2025 · active
  • INFORMES, Intermodal Freight Optimization for a Resilient Mobility Energy SystemARPA-E, US Department of Energy · National Laboratory of the Rockies
  • SMART 2.0, Systems and Modeling for Accelerated Research in TransportationDOE Vehicle Technologies Office · National Laboratory of the Rockies
  • Feasibility of Electric Roadways through Localized Traffic, Cost, Adoption, and Environmental Impact ModelingARPA-E, US Department of Energy · Utah State University
1 talk on this line
I

Inclusive mobility

Travel behavior and accessibility

How people with disabilities choose travel modes and where to live, measured with discrete choice models and space-time prism accessibility, to inform transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly planning.

  • Nested / multinomial logit
  • Biogeme
  • Space-time prisms
  • ArcPy
  • Land-use change

Projects

  • Four-step Travel Demand Modeling for Individuals with DisabilitiesNIDILRR · Utah State University
3 papers and 6 talks on this line

Grants and fellowships

Funding I lead as PI, and proposals I helped write.

F Subawardee PI · Oct 2025

$35,000

Freight VMT and Emissions Assessment Tool

Sponsor
USDOT Federal Highway Administration, through NYMTC and NYSDOT
Program
September 11th Memorial Program for Regional Transportation Planning (PN23(07)8, Subaward 4024)
Host agency
New York City Department of Transportation

Awarded as a 2025–26 September 11th Memorial Fellowship. Announcement

Proposal writing

  • E
    Electric School Bus Transition Support Contractor (NYSERDA RFP 5965) $1M
    New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2025–2028. Drafted the Statement of Work.
  • E
    Expanding E-Mobility Solutions through Electrified School Buses (concept paper) $250,000
    US DOE Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Drafted the background and proposed methodology.

Scholarships

  • Prakash S. Lad Scholarship for Courage and Perseverance $2,000 2023
    College of Engineering, Utah State University

Selected papers

All 13 papers and 14 talks
  1. I

    Land Use Transition and City Desirability: Case Study of Cache County Over Two Decades

    KC, M. B. (2025). Growth and Change: A Journal of Urban and Regional Policy, 56(4)

    Published doi:10.1111/grow.70057

  2. E

    Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for Integrated Fleet and Charging Management for Electric Bus Transit Systems in a Dynamic Environment

    KC, M. B., Song, Z., & Zhao, C. (2026). Transportation Research Part C (under review); TRB Annual Meeting 2027

    Under review

  3. E

    Integrated Optimized Charging Decision and Optimal Battery Sizing of V2G-Enabled Electric School Bus Systems Including Demand Charges and Battery Ageing

    KC, M. B., & Song, Z. (2025). Applied Energy (under review)

    Under review

  4. E

    Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Integrated Bus Scheduling and Charging Management under Uncertainty in Multi-Line Public Transit Operation

    KC, M. B., & Song, Z. (2026). In preparation for Transportation Research Part C

    In preparation

Cumulative citations

Google Scholar, updated Oct 2026. Current profile

Citations
65
h-index
4
Show as table
YearCitationsCumulative
202057
202118
2022614
2023216
20241228
2025735
20263065

Experience

From highway projects in Nepal to transit research in the US. Select a stop for details.

2026/07 – present · Industry

Transportation Engineer

California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) · California, USA

  • Sub-regional travel demand models and forecasts supporting traffic operations analysis and environmental studies of project alternatives.

Teaching

  • Teaching Assistant, University at Buffalo and Utah State University 2021–present
    Transportation System Analysis (CEE 6210), Traffic Engineering (CEE 6220)
  • Assistant Professor, Pokhara University, Nepal 2020–2021
    Project Planning and Control (graduate), 100% pass rate
  • Lecturer, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 2013–2014
    Transportation Engineering I and II (undergraduate); supervised 2 final-year projects

Tools

Optimization
Python · GurobiPy · CPLEX · GAMS · Google OR-Tools · R
Machine learning
PyTorch · DQN · PPO · MAPPO · MADDPG · scikit-learn · NLP · HPC
Transportation modeling
CUBE · TransCAD · VISSIM · Synchro · Biogeme · SmartRoad
GIS and data
ArcGIS Pro · ArcPy · QGIS · SQL · Pandas · Streamlit · StreetLight · INRIX

Code and tools

github.com/meghkc

F Python package · PyPI

freight-analytics-dashboard

Interactive analytics for US rail and port freight, with a Streamlit app, a command-line tool and a Python API.

pip install freight-analytics-dashboard

PyPICodeLive app

E Research code

RL-ESB

PPO-based deep RL framework for joint fleet assignment and charging of multi-line electric bus systems under uncertainty.

Code

E Research code

Multi-school electric bus routing

Two-stage routing, scheduling and on-route charging model for large multi-school electric bus networks.

Code

E Research code

V2G school bus charging and battery sizing

Joint optimization of charging, vehicle-to-grid discharge and battery size under time-of-use and demand charges.

Code

F Open-source tool

NREL-eFRISM

Electric freight truck routing with charging-station selection on US freight networks, solved with variable neighborhood search.

Code

I ArcPy automation

Space-time prism accessibility

Automated space-time prism workflow in ArcGIS Pro measuring daily accessibility for people with and without disabilities.

Code

Service and recognition

29

Editor / Paper Review Coordinator, Transportation Research Board (TRB / TRR), 2026–2027. Coordinated peer review for 29 manuscripts on transit operations, bus electrification and demand-responsive transit.

Committees and memberships

  • TRB Standing Technical Committee on Transit Operations (AP014) 2025–2028
  • TRB Standing Committee on Bus Transit Systems (AP050) 2025
  • TRB Subcommittee on Freight Modeling (AT015(1)) 2023–2025
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Member 2025–2027
  • Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), Student Member 2023–2025

Reviewer

Transportation Research Record · TRB Annual Meeting (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026) · Energy 360 · Journal of Transportation Systems and Engineering · International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology · East African Scholars Journal of Economics, Business and Management · LEC First International Conference on Engineering and Technology

Licenses

  • California Engineer in Training (EIT) No. 188398
  • General Engineer, Civil, Nepal Engineering Council, since 2015

Awards

  • 2024
    Student Research Competition, Winner
    Institute of Transportation Engineers, Utah
  • 2024
    Recognized Presentation
    TRB Young Members Council, Sustainability and Resilience
  • 2023
    Best student term project, "Fake News Detection: Investigating ChatGPT"
    Utah State University, machine learning course (1st of 19 teams)
  • 2021
    University Topper and Dean's List, M.Sc. Construction Management
    Pokhara University
  • 2019
    Best Employee Award
    Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Nepal
  • 2019
    Outstanding M.Sc. Student of the Year
    Pokhara University

Contact

I am glad to talk about transit electrification, freight modeling, collaborations and speaking invitations.

California, USA

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