CTRE

Center for Transportation Research and Education

CTRE|People

Inya Nlenanya

TITLE

Research Scientist, CTRE

PHONE

515-294-2373

EMAIL

inya@iastate.edu

ADDITIONAL ROLES

Program Manager, Iowa Pavement Management Program

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

AFFILIATIONS

InTrans, CTRE

About Inya

Dr. Inya 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.

 

Education


  • PhD, Civil Engineering, Iowa State University, 2019
  • MS, Agricultural Engineering, Iowa State University, 2005
  • BEng, Electronic Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2002

Professional Experience


  • Research Scientist, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
  • Transportation Research Specialist, Center for Transportation Research and Education, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2010–2020
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst, Center for Transportation Research and Education, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2008–2010
  • Graduate Research Assistant, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2003–2005

Selected Journal Publications


  • Alatoom, Y. I., Z. U. Zihan, I. Nlenanya, A. B. Al-Hamdan, and O. Smadi. 2024. A Sequence-Based Hybrid Ensemble Approach for Estimating Trail Pavement Roughness Using Smartphone and Bicycle Data. Infrastructures, Vol. 9, No. 10, 179pp.
  • Al-Hamdan, A. B., Y. I. Alatoom, I. Nlenanya, and O. Smadi. 2024. Weighting Variables for Transportation Assets Condition Indices Using Subjective Data Framework. CivilEng, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 949–970.
  • Adesunkanmi, R., A. Al-Hamdan, and I. Nlenanya. 2024. Prediction of Pavement Overall Condition Index Based on Wrapper Feature-Selection Techniques Using Municipal Pavement Data. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 2678, No. 6, pp. 208–221.
  • Nlenanya, I., and O. Smadi. 2021. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
  • Nlenanya, I., and O. Smadi. 2021. A Risk Management Database Framework Implementation for Transportation Asset Management. CivilEng, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.193–213.
  • Chen, Y. A., H. Ceylan, I. Nlenanya, O. Kaya, O. Smadi, P. Taylor, S. Kim, K. Gopalakrishnan, and D. King. 2020. Long-term performance evaluation of Iowa concrete overlays. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, pp. 1–12.
  • Nlenanya, I., and O. Smadi. 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., I. Nlenanya, O. Smadi, and C. MacKenzie. 2018. Impact of Pavement Surface Condition on Roadway Departure Crash Risk in Iowa. Infrastructures, Vol. 3, No. 2, 14pp.
  • Bektas, F., O. Smadi, and I. Nlenanya. 2015. Pavement condition: New approach for Iowa Department of Transportation. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 2523, No. 1, pp. 40–46.
  • Gkritza, K., I. Nlenanya, W. Jiang, R. Sperry, and D. Smith. 2011. Infrastructure Impacts of Iowa’s Renewable Energy. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 2205, pp. 238–246.

Selected Conference Proceedings


  • Inusah, A., I. Nlenanya, and S. Hallmark. 2025. Leveraging the Integration of Connected Vehicle and Road Weather Information System Technology. Proc., 104th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 5–9.
  • Zihan, Z. U. A., F. Aghasi, S. Smadi, A. Sassani, I. Nlenanya, and B. Gelder. 2025. Computing International Roughness Index from Airborne-LiDAR-Based Point Cloud Data for In-Service State Roads. Proc., 104th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 5–9.
  • Al-Hamdan, A., Y. Alatoom, I. Nlenanya, and S. Smadi. 2025. Weighting Variables for Condition Indices Using Subjective Data Framework. Proc., 104th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 5–9.
  • Aghasi, F., S. Smadi, I. Nlenanya, and B. Gelder. 2025. Integrating Machine Learning, Remote Sensing, and GIS to Determine Road Surface Type and Construction Year from Time-Series and Multi-Spectral Aerial Imagery: A Case Study in Ames, Iowa. Proc., 104th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 5–9.
  • Al-Hamdan, A. B., I. Nlenanya, and O. Smadi. 2023. Data-Driven Approach to Identify Maintained Pavement Segments and Estimate Maintenance Type for Local Roads. Proc., 13th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads, Cedar Rapids, IA, July 23-26.
  • Adesunkanmi, R., A. Al-Hamdan, and I. Nlenanya. 2023. Prediction of Pavement Overall Condition Index Based on Wrapper Feature-Selection Techniques Using Municipal Pavement Data. Proc., 102nd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 8–12.
  • Zihan, Z. U. A, O. Smadi, and I. Nlenanya. 2023. Instance Segmentation of Pavement Distresses from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based Vision Data: An Implementation of Mask R Convolutional Neural Network. Proc., 102nd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 8–12.
  • Al-Hamdan, A., and I. Nlenanya, I. 2022. Pavement Condition Forecast for Local Roads Missing Age Information. Proc., 11th International Conference on Managing Pavement Assets, Chicago, IL, June 7–10.
  • Tran, L., B. J. Covington, I. Nlenanya, and J. Anthony. 2022. A Success Story of Stakeholder Engagement and Data Unification for Transportation Asset Management. Proc., 101st Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 9–13.
  • Nlenanya, I., and O. Smadi. 2020. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies. Proc., 99th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 12–16.
  • Bou-Saab, G., I. Nlenanya, and A. Alhasan. 2019. Correlating Visual–Windshield Inspection Pavement Condition to Distresses from Automated Surveys Using Classification Trees. Proc., 12th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads, Kalispell, MO, September 15–18.
  • Nlenanya, I. 2018. Risk Management and Data Needs: A State of the Practice Survey of State Highway Agencies. Proc., 97th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 7–11.
  • Adarkwa, O., I. Nlenanya, O. Smadi, and A. Alhasan. 2017. Quality Assessment of Pavement Roughness Data Using Conditional Inference Trees and Data Visualization Techniques. Proc., 96th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC., January 8–12.
  • Bektas, F., O. Smadi, and I. Nlenanya. 2015. Pavement Condition: A new approach for the Iowa DOT. Proc., 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 11–15.
  • Pyrialakou, V. D., I. Nlenanya, and K. Gkritza. 2014. Passenger Transportation Networks and Urbanization Level: Comparison of Classification Schemes. Proc., 93rd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 12–16.
  • Hans, Z., N. Hawkins, I. Nlenanya, and S. Lavrenz. 2012. Safety Impacts of Winter Weather on Iowa’s Rural Primary Highways. Proc., International Conference on Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather, Coralville, IA.

Book Chapters


  • Gkritza, K., I. Nlenanya, W. Jiang, R. Sperry, and D. Smith. 2012. “Bioeconomy and Transportation Infrastructure Impacts.” Green Energy and Technology: Bioenergy and Bioproducts, Springer, London, pp. 173–188.
  • Nlenanya, I. 2008. “Building an Environmental GIS Knowledge Infrastructure for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Data Mining Applications for Empowering Knowledge Societies, IDEA Group Inc., Hershey, PA.

Professional Affiliations and Honors


  • Member, Transportation Research Board AKD30 Low Volume Road Committee
  • Member, Alpha Epsilon: The Honor Society of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering
  • Member, Institute of Transportation Engineers
  • Associate Member, American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Panel Member, NCHRP Project: 17-100, Leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Safety Data Analyses
  • Panel Member, NCHRP Project: 20-102(34), Land Use Impacts of Shared and Private AVs
  • Member, 10th International Visualization in Transportation Symposium Committee
  • Reviewer, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, International Journal of Pavement Engineering, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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