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I-SENSE Impact is a series highlighting how research experiences shape the people behind the innovation. These stories showcase how hands-on research, collaboration and mentorship at I-SENSE prepare graduates to tackle real-world challenges in cybersecurity, smart infrastructure, health technologies and beyond. Through their journeys, we demonstrate how investing in talent today drives technological advancement tomorrow.

Erfan Farhangi Maleki joined I-SENSE to work on research that could make a tangible difference beyond the laboratory. Through the institute's partnership with the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3), he found the opportunity to apply artificial intelligence to one of the biggest challenges facing future transportation systems: helping vehicles better sense and anticipate the movement of the world around them.

Working with I-SENSE faculty fellow Jinwoo Jang, Ph.D., Erfan focused on vehicle trajectory prediction, an area of research that helps autonomous vehicles and intelligent transportation systems anticipate how nearby vehicles are likely to move. More accurate predictions can help vehicles make safer decisions in complex traffic environments while giving engineers better tools to understand traffic flow in increasingly connected cities.

Using the Waymo Open Dataset and other large-scale transportation datasets, Erfan developed a sequence-to-sequence transformer model that improved prediction accuracy over existing approaches. The project combined machine learning, transportation engineering and real-world data — reflecting I-SENSE's Smarter Cities focus on developing technologies that address practical challenges facing communities.

While the research sharpened his technical expertise, mentoring undergraduate researcher Morgan Benavidez changed how he viewed success as a researcher.

"A defining moment for me at I-SENSE was mentoring my undergraduate intern, Morgan, whose dedication ultimately earned him the Best Student Research award," he said. "Guiding him through technical roadblocks and helping him shape his research required me to think bigger than an individual contributor and focus on empowering someone else's success. Celebrating that achievement changed how I saw myself as a researcher. It taught me that my greatest impact comes not only from my own work, but from helping others reach their potential."

Today, Erfan is a research scientist at Meta, where he designs and implements advanced systems that improve user experience at scale. While the applications are different, he says the mindset he developed at I-SENSE — approaching ambitious problems through research, collaboration and mentorship — continues to shape his work.

"My experience under Dr. Jang’s support and mentorship prepared me by giving me hands-on exposure to ambitious projects, high standards for research and opportunities to work with and mentor others," he said.

For students considering a career in research, Erfan encourages them to embrace opportunities that extend beyond their own projects.

"Take full advantage of the people and resources around you," he said. "Focus on collaboration, leadership and communication as much as technical work. That's where I found the confidence to take on bigger challenges.”