Position Title
Master's Student, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Favorite Transit System: Chennai’s MTC Bus System
Sampath is a Transportation Engineering master’s student at UC Davis. He graduated from GITAM University in India in 2023 with a Civil Engineering degree, where he became interested in how cities move people. Working with various Chennai transportation agencies gave him exposure to real planning challenges and the systems behind them.
During his time at UC Davis, he interned with the City of West Sacramento’s Transportation and Mobility Division, which led to his current research studying how adjusting fares changes ridership demand and the way people choose to use West Sacramento’s Via microtransit service.
His broader focus is understanding what drives people’s travel decisions and how cities can use those insights to reduce car dependency and increase transit and active mode usage.