Omar Ahmad

Deputy Director

Mr. Ahmad has been working in the driving simulation field since 1994 and has extensive experience in the areas of autonomous agent behavior modeling, scenario authoring, simulator fidelity and extracting measures from simulator data. His Master’s thesis focused on developing a framework for specifying the behavior of intelligent agents in a virtual environment. He applied this research to modeling the behavior of intelligent traffic in a driving simulator as a Graduate Assistant and Project Analyst at the Iowa Driving Simulator. Mr. Ahmad was part of the software engineering team that wrote the software for the National Advanced Driving Simulator.

Mr. Ahmad has served as the project manager for a number of simulation-based research studies related to studying vehicle safety and human performance in the areas of active safety, impairment, driver distraction and driver modeling. He currently serves in the role of Deputy Director of NADS and is actively engaged in work related to virtual proving grounds for connected and automated vehicles, multi-site simulation studies, and matching simulator fidelity requirements to various applications. Mr. Ahmad is Co-Chair of the National Academies Transportation Research Board Committee on Simulation and Measurement of Vehicle and Operator Performance and a member of the Committee on Motorcycles and Mopeds.

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Publications:

Ahmad, O., Heitbrink, D., Schwarz, C., Wagner, G. (2016, June). Measuring the Latency of the NADS-1 Simulator. Paper presented at IMAGE 2016 Conference.

Ahmad, O., Brown, T. (2016, June). A Comparison of Transportation Research Driving Simulators.

Chrysler, S., Ahmad, O., Schwarz, C. (2015). Creating Pedestrian Crash Scenarios in a Driving Simulator Environment. Traffic Injury Prevention, Jun 2015.

Lee, J., Ward, N., Boer, E., Brown, T., Balk, S., Ahmad, O. (2013, October). Making driving simulators more useful for behavioral research – Simulator characteristics comparison and model-based transformation.

Kay, G., Ahmad, O., Brown, T., Veit, A. (2013, September). Comparison of the miniSim and STISim Driving Simulators for the Detection of Impairment: An Alcohol Validation Study. Paper presented at 7th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors.

Wilkinson, M., Brown, T., Ahmad, O. (2012). The NADS Description and Capabilities in Vision-Related Reserach. Optometry, Dec 2012, 82-85.

Lee, J. D., McGehee, D. V., Brown, T. L., Richard, C. M., Ahmad, O., Ward, N. J., Hallmark, S., Lee, J. (2011). Matching Simulator Characteristics to Highway Design Problems. Transportation Research Board, Dec 2011.

Ohlhauser, A. D., Boyle, L. N., Marshall, D., Ahmad, O. (2011, September). Drivers’ Behavior Through a Yellow Light: Effects of Distraction and Age. Paper presented at Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting.

Lee, J. D., Fiorentino, D., Reyes, M., Brown, T. L., Ahmad, O., Dufour, R., Fell, J., Ward, N. (2010, May). IMPACT Task 2: Final Report - Appendices for Final Report.

Lee, J. D., Fiorentino, D., Reyes, M., Brown, T. L., Ahmad, O., Dufour, R., Fell, J., Ward, N. (2010, May). IMPACT Task 2: Final Report.

Watson, G. S., Papelis, Y. E., Ahmad, O. (2006, January). Design of Simulator Scenarios to Study the Effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control Systems. Paper presented at TRB 2006.

Papelis, Y., Ahmad, O., Watson, G. (2005, November). Driving Simulation Scenario Definition Based on Performance Measures. Paper presented at DSCNA 2005.

Bulusu, S., Papelis, Y., Chen, B., Schikore, M., Ahmad, O. (2005, November). Embedded Data: A Step Forward in the Data Reduction Process. Paper presented at DSCNA 2005.

Ahmad, O. (2005, July). Issues Related to the Commonality and Comparability of Driving Simulation Scenarios. Paper presented at IMAGE 2005.

Ahmad, O., Tang, H. (2003, December). A Controller for Merging Traffic onto a Highway. Paper presented at IMAGE 2003.

Papelis, Y. E., Ahmad, O. (2000, August). A Comprehensive Microscopic Autonomous Driver Model for Use in High-Fidelity Driving Simulation Environments. Paper presented at TRB2001.

Ahmad, O., Papelis, Y. E. (2000, June). An Autonomous Driver Model for the Overtaking Maneuver for Use in Microscopic Traffic Simulation. Paper presented at DSC2000.

Contact:

Email: omar-ahmad@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 335-4788

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NADS key contacts:

		Daniel V. McGehee Director
		Omar Ahmad Deputy Director
All of the above can be contacted by writing to: nads-contacts@uiowa.edu

For media communications:

	Anna Dizack (319) 335-4680

For tour requests:
	nads-contacts@uiowa.edu

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