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I’m Emmy

Hello!

I’m Emmy

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Education

2024

University of Pennsylvania

Masters of City Planning

• Concentration: Sustainable Transportation and Infrastructure Planning

• Weitzman School of Design Scholarship Recipient ($50,000 Annual Award)

• Teaching Assistant - CPLN 6500 (Transportation Planning Methods)

• Faculty Search Committee Student Representative

• Rebuilding Together Philadelphia Block Build Coordinator
  

2019

University of Southern California

Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering

• Magna Cum Laude

• Viterbi School of Engineering Outstanding Achievement in Leadership Award Winner

• American Society of Civil Engineers - President (2018-2019)

• American Society of Civil Engineers - Concrete Canoe Team Captain (2016-2018)

• Chi Epsilon - President (2018-2019)

May 2023 -

Present

Transportation Planning Intern

WSP - Philadelphia, PA

• Led the spatial analysis of proposed transit/pedestrian planning projects to determine impacts to equity and right-of-way.

• Developed a model and method to predict pedestrian flow following new transit development.
  

• Designed maps and presentation materials for community plans and grant applications in Adobe Illustrator.
  

Feb 2023 -

May 2023

Transportation Planning Intern

City of Philadelphia Streets Department - Philadelphia, PA

• Created system to determine how to equitably allocate grants with the newly created Capital Planning Team.

• Mapped project locations in ArcGIS Pro for public facing project database.
  

• Coordinated with city planners within the City of Philadelphia’s Streets Department; Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability; and Office of Complete Streets to gather future project data.
  

Jul 2019 -

Mar 2022

Project Engineer

KPFF Consulting Engineers - Los Angeles, CA

• Developed grading, storm water drainage, and utility plans for roadways, hospitals, and other land development projects with a team of project managers, architects, and CAD drafters.

• Researched and wrote technical reports, including Low Impact Development Reports and Environmental Impact Reports.
  

• Managed building and public works permits going through County and City plan check review.
  

• Provided administrative support to contractors through specification & shop drawing review, RFI responses, and in-field updates to construction drawings.
  

• Trained engineering interns and CAD designers in basic engineering design and software.
  

May 2018 -

Aug 2018

Transportation Engineering Intern

KPFF Consulting Engineers - Seattle, WA

• Worked with senior engineers on roadway design and transportation development projects in King County.

• Developed grading design for curb ramps, public transit stations, and roads in AutoCAD Civil 3D.
  

• Analyzed proposed street intersections with site distance and turn movements studies.
  

Home

Philadelphia Smart Loading Zone Analysis

R, ArcGIS Pro, Adobe Illustrator

The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT) launched a smart loading zone pilot program in 2022. The pilot program, in collaboration with a Google company, captured curb sign inventory and launched a small-scale paid booking platform for commercial vehicles in loading zones. My partner and I performed the first exploratory study of the pilot’s data outside of OIT. Our analysis included:

• Cluster analysis to uncover signage and use patterns
  

• Impact of local economic context on loading zone bookings
  

• Predictive modeling of loading zone bookings
  

Washington Ave Post-Installation Study

Microsoft Excel

In 2022, Philadelphia’s Washington Avenue was repaved with significant traffic calming measures implemented, including updated parking and loading regulations. As part of my internship with WSP, I led the evaluation and reporting of the parking/loading operations for the Year 1 Evaluation. The project team and I observed the street for four days, recording which cars were in which parking spaces. The observations from this study created data to analyze the parking occupancy, turnover, and illegal activity on the street.

52nd St Action Plan

ArcGIS Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign

For the first Studio class of my masters program, my team and I worked with the Enterprise Center, the local CDC, to create a 5-year action plan for Philadelphia’s 52nd St commercial corridor. We developed a series of recommendations and strategies to build community capacity and show that positive changes along the Corridor are possible. I focused on developing maps and graphics for the final report, including maps showing zoning, transportation, bike share, and community assets around the neighborhood.

Predicting Development Demand in Detroit, MI

R, Adobe InDesign

For my final Land Use Modeling project, my partner and I created an urban growth model designed to determined factors influencing development patterns, which then would enable the prediction of future developments in Detroit.

Using R, we created a binomial logistic regression to estimate the probability of development for specific area of land in Detroit. The model incorporated variables sourced from USGS, classifying each cell based on whether it was a wetland, forest, farm, or another undeveloped land type. Additionally, we used variables such as proximity to existing development, median household income in 2009, estimated population in 2009, and distance from the nearest highway.

To explore the potential impact of new infrastructure, we used the model on a hypothetical scenario: the construction of a new highway through the MSA. Our analysis revealed showed the impact of infrastructure on the development landscape. The introduction of a new highway indicated an increased demand for development in north and west Detroit.

Predicting Street Repaving in Philadelphia

Python

Every year, the Philadelphia Streets Department unveils its Street Paving Program and List, revealing the chosen streets for paving. During my internship, there were jokes about the selection process being completely random. I decided to test this in my Geospatial Data Science in Python final project, using 311 calls, truck accessibility, street classification, fatal crashes, bike stress, and recent repaving as the variables in my model.

After experimenting with various models, I opted for a random forest model. However, it has much room for improvement - it had low precision in predicting the streets that would be repaved in 2023 and, as a result, predicts few streets in 2024 will be repaved. This might be attributed to the decision-making process’ lack of systematic logic. The paving program offers limited insights, providing only a "Condition Index." Streets with a condition index of 100 dominate the 2023 repaved list, indicating priorities beyond street condition, safety, and recent repaving determine which streets are to be repaved.

Chicago 46th Ward Demographic Maps

ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, R, Adobe Illustrator

For my Introduction to GIS final project, I collaborated with a friend who worked for the Alderman of the 46th Ward in Chicago. The Alderman came into office in 2011 and retired in 2023, so we were looking for ways for me to help their office summarize how the ward has changed after the last 10+ years of work. I developed a series of maps showing demographic information, bike/transit accessibility, and potential for gentrification.

ArcGIS Online Maps