Inya Nlenanya

About Inya
Dr. Nlenanya is a research scientist and manager of the Iowa Pavement Management Program at the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University. Dr. Nlenanya has more than 15 years of experience in transportation engineering, primarily in the integration and utilization of information systems, data analytics, and visualization. His professional experience has focused on conducting research in the areas of safety, asset management, and the integration of risk management in transportation engineering
Resume
Education
- PhD, Civil Engineering, Iowa State University, May 2019
- MS, Agricultural Engineering, Iowa State University, December 2005
- BS, Electronic Engineering, University of NIGERIA, Nsukka, May 2002
Professional Experience
- Research Scientist, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
- Adjunct Assistant Professor, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
- Transportation Research Specialist/Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst, Center for Transportation Research and Education, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2008–2020
Research Projects (Principal Investigator)
- Development of a Trail Management Program (PI), Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
- Integration of Connected Vehicle and RWIS Technologies (PI)
Research Projects (Co-Principal Investigator)
- Alternative Funding for Iowa Road (Co-PI), Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
- Pavement Management Support: Iowa DOT and Local Agencies (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
- Implementation of the Iowa DOT Pavement Management Optimization Model (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
- Planning, Implementation, and Operation of the Iowa Pavement Management Program (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
- The Actual Cost of Food Systems on Roadway Infrastructure (Co-PI), Leopold Center, Iowa State University
Other Research Projects
- Guide for Preventing and Mitigating the Risk of Bridge and Tunnel Strikes by Motor Vehicles, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board
- Unreported Deer Crashes on Major Iowa Highways, Iowa DOT
- US Road Assessment Program (usRAP) Evaluation of Interstate Truck Routes, MRI Global
- Concrete Overlay Performance on Iowa’s Roadways, National Concrete Pavement Technology Center
- Local Road Safety Plans, Kimerly-Horn and Associates
- Iowa DOT District Safety Plans, Kimerly-Horn and Associates
- High Friction Surface Treatment for High Crash Locations Phase II: Performance Assessment, Iowa DOT
- Naturalistic Driving Study: Development of the Roadway Information Database, Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), Federal Highway Administration
- Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather Phase 1II, Iowa DOT
- Pavement Management Performance Modeling: Evaluating the Existing PCI Equations, Iowa DOT
- Development of Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Consolidation Rating Formula. Iowa DOT
- Statewide Heavy-Truck Crash Assessment, Iowa DOT
- Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather Phase 1, Midwest Transportation Consortium
- Infrastructure Impacts of Iowa’s Changing Economy, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
- A Transportation Safety Planning Tool for the City of Ames, Midwest Transportation Consortium
- Evaluation of Iowa’s Driver Improvement Program, Midwest Transportation Consortium
- Asset Management: A Performance Perspective, Midwest Transportation Consortium
- Enhancing Motorcycle Conspicuity Awareness in Iowa, Iowa DOT
- Pavement Marking and Safety, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
- Evaluation for Effective Shielding of Bridge Piers, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
- Local Agency Pavement Management System, Iowa DOT
- International Road Assessment Program, MRI Global
Selected Publications
- Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2021. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.1177/03611981211020004.
- Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2021. A Risk Management Database Framework Implementation for Transportation Asset Management. CivilEng, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 193–
- Chen, Y. A., Ceylan, H., Nlenanya, I., Kaya, O., Smadi, O. G., Taylor, P. C., Kim, S., Gopalakrishnan, K. and King, D. E. 2020. Long-term performance evaluation of Iowa concrete overlays. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, pp. 1–
- Nlenanya, I. 2019. GIS-based risk management database integration and implementation framework for transportation agencies, Doctoral Dissertation. Iowa State University, Ames IA.
- Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2018. Risk Management and Data Needs: A State of the Practice Survey of State Highway Agencies. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
- Alhasan, A., Nlenanya, I., Smadi, O. and MacKenzie, C. 2018. Impact of Pavement Surface Condition on Roadway Departure Crash Risk in Iowa. Infrastructures, Vol. 3, No. 2, 14 pp.
- Bektas, F., Smadi, O., and Nlenanya, I. 2015. Pavement Condition: A new approach for the Iowa DOT. , 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 11–15.
- Pyrialakou, V. D., Nlenanya, I., and Gkritza, K. 2014. Passenger Transportation Networks and Urbanization Level: Comparison of Classification Schemes. , 93rd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 12–16.
- Gkritza, K., Nlenanya, I., Jiang, W., Sperry, R., and Smith. D. 2012. Bioeconomy and Transportation Infrastructure Impacts. Green Energy and Technology: Bioenergy and Bioproducts, Springer Verlag Inc.
- Gkritza, K., Nlenanya, I., Jiang, W., Sperry, R., and Smith, D. 2011. Infrastructure Impacts of Iowa’s Renewable Energy. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 2205, pp. 238–246.
- Nlenanya, I. 2008. Building an Environmental GIS Knowledge Infrastructure for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa in Data Mining Applications for Empowering Knowledge Societies. Hershey PA: IDEA Group Inc.
- Nlenanya, I. 2005. Knowledge Discovery Interface for Environmental Science Applications, Master’s Thesis.
Selected Technical Reports
- Rouse, E., Shaw, J., Maletsky, K., DeFord, S., Neuman, A., Nlenanya, I., and Kanghah, F. F. 2022. Alternative Funding Approaches for Iowa Roads, IHRB Project TR-790. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
- Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Hans, Z., Bektas, B. A., Knickerbocker, S., Nlenanya, I., Souleyrette, R., and Hallmark, S. 2015. Naturalistic Driving Study: Development of the Roadway Information Database, No. SHRP2 Report S2-S04A-RW-1. Second Strategic Highway Research Program, Washington, DC.
- Hans, Z., Albrecht, C., Johnson, P. M., and Nlenanya, I. 2015. Development of Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Consolidation Rating Formula. InTrans Project Report #104.
- Hans, Z., Gkritza, K., Cerwick, D., Huang, Y., and Nlenanya, I. 2014. Statewide Heavy-Truck Crash Assessment, InTrans Project Report #68. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
- Gao, J., Gkritza, K., Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Bektas, B. A., and Nlenanya, I. 2012. Asset Management and Safety: A Performance Perspective, Midwest Transportation Consortium Project No. 2009-01. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
- Hans, Z., Hawkins, N., Nlenanya, I., and Lavrenz, S. 2012. Safety Impacts of Winter Weather on Iowa’s Rural Primary Highways, No. WM-STW12-113A.
- Hans, Z., Hawkins, N., and Nlenanya, I. 2011. Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather–Phase I. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
- Smadi, O., Nlenanya, I., Ghandour, M., and Lopez Barrera, S. 2011. The Actual Cost of Food Systems on Roadway Infrastructure, InTrans Project Report #25. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
- Gkritza, K., Smith, D. E., Sperry, R. B., Nlenanya, I., and Jiang, W. Iowa’s Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Impacts, IHRB Project No. TR-593. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
- Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Nlenanya, I., and Bektas, B. A. 2010. Pavement Markings and Safety, IHRB Project No. TR-580. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
- McDonald, T. J., Nlenanya, I., and Hans, Z. 2009. Analysis of Safety Benefits for Shielding of Bridge Piers. Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
Recent Conference Presentations
- Alhamdan, A., and Nlenanya, I. 2022. Pavement Condition Forecast for Local Roads Missing Age Information. 11th International Conference on Managing Pavement Assets, Chicago, IL, June 7–10.
- Tran, L, Covington, B. J., Nlenanya, I., and Anthony, J. 2022. A Success Story of Stakeholder Engagement and Data Unification for Transportation Asset Management. Proceedings of the 101st Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 9–13.
- Nlenanya, I. and Smadi, O. 2020. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies. , 99th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 12–16.
- Bou-Saab, G., Nlenanya, I., and Alhasan, A. 2019. Correlating Visual–Windshield Inspection Pavement Condition to Distresses from Automated Surveys Using Classification Trees. , 12th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads, Kalispell, Montana, September 15–18, 589pp.
- Nlenanya, I. 2018. Risk Management and Data Needs: A state of the practice survey of state highway agencies. , 97th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 7–11.
- Nlenanya, I. (Poster, Co-presenter). 2017. Quality Assessment of Pavement Roughness Data using Conditional Inference Trees & Data Visualization Techniques. , 96th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 8–12.
Professional Affiliations and Honors
- Member, Transportation Research Board AKD30 Low Volume Road Committee
- Alpha Epsilon, The Honor Society of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering
- Associate Member, American Society of Civil Engineers