Sikai Chen, a doctoral student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, has been awarded the 2018 Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship Award by the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs (OIGP). The Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship is a highly competitive award recognizing outstanding Ph.D. candidates for their superior interdisciplinary academic abilities and scholarly achievements. The title of Sikai's dissertation is "Crash Factors and Roadway Design Implications: New Evidence in the Traditional Environment and Insights into Emerging Operating Environments."

Sikai is currently enrolled in the Computational Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (CIGP) majoring in Computational Science and Engineering (CS&E). His research interests include applying data-driven approaches such as econometrics and machine learning algorithms to analyze highway safety and connected & autonomous vehicles. Sikai works with Professor Samuel Labi.