By Julia Davis
September 15, 2026
UW CEE's newest faculty member, Abdolmajid (Mazi) Erfani, uses AI to bring public input into infrastructure planning and design decisions.
Assistant Professor Abdolmajid (Mazi) Erfani
Abdolmajid (Mazi) Erfani joins UW CEE this autumn as an assistant professor. His research asks how artificial intelligence can help engineers and public agencies make better decisions about infrastructure, from planning a transit line to managing a major construction project, and how the people who will use that infrastructure can have a say in designing it. He leads the Analytics for Infrastructure Management Lab.
Erfani comes to the UW after three years on the faculty at Michigan Technological University. His research received national honors from the American Society of Civil Engineers, including the Arthur M. Wellington Prize and the Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize, and his funded research projects total more than $2 million.
He says the department's connections to industry, alumni and transportation agencies drew him to the UW, as did the region, which provides a unique environment for research on infrastructure systems and the use of emerging technologies to improve system planning, operation and decision-making.
Construction appealed to him for its range. “I like how interdisciplinary construction is," he says. “You have the team building, management, finance and community engagement all in one field.”
Erfani also plans to continue research that incorporates community perspectives into infrastructure decisions. One current National Science Foundation-funded project, “Generative AI for Community-Driven Green Street Designs,” uses AI to turn public input into street design options for engineers and planners to weigh alongside their own designs.
He will teach construction engineering in winter quarter and introduce a new special topics course, AI for Civil Engineers, in spring quarter.