Programming and Portfolio Management

Texas A&M Transportation Institute
505 East Huntland Drive
Room 45527
Austin, TX 78752
(512) 407-1174
[email protected]

Chi-Yi Chen is currently a Data Scientist and Jr. Transportation Planner with the Programming and Portfolio Management team at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). She joined TTI in 2024 and is based in the Austin office, where she supports the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) through data automation, dashboard development, and transportation program analytics.

Dr. Chen has led the development of several key tools that enhance TxDOT’s planning and funding processes, including the Project Stage and FIN Dashboards, Projected Carryovers, Category 11 COs Dashboards, and automation of Category Factor percentage calculations. Her work has improved data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility across the Unified Transportation Program (UTP) process by streamlining workflows using Python, SQL, and Snowflake, and designing dynamic Tableau dashboards.

Prior to joining TTI, Dr. Chen completed her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, where her research focused on logistics optimization in the airline industry. She also has extensive experience in supply chain analysis, healthcare procurement, and international freight logistics from her academic and consulting work in Taiwan. Her technical expertise spans operations research, mathematical optimization, statistical analysis, and machine learning applications. She is fluent in English and Mandarin and is passionate about developing practical, scalable data tools for public sector transportation planning.