Susie Lai

Susie Lai

B.S. '11, M.Eng. '12 in transportation systems

Work Title: Staff Services Traffic Engineer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Susie leads a traffic planning group within the Port Authority's Traffic Engineering group.  Her group performs a lot of traffic modeling and demand forecasting. The PA has planned major regional construction projects that will affect the region over the next few years at its tunnels, bridges, and airports. These facilities will need to still be operational when they are under construction and that is where Susie's group of engineers come in to play.  They will review the proposed construction and analyze the impact this construction will have in traffic delays and rerouting.  They think about the customer and how to keep people moving while infrastructure is being built.

CEE Educational Take Away:

Susie enjoys her work.  She feels her education prepared her well for the career position she holds.  At Cornell she learned “how to fail” and knew that if she did not know how to properly do something, she learned.  From that knowledge, if a mistake is made she knows how to recover from it. She knows that there are no challenges she cannot eventually overcome thanks to the skills Cornell and CEE have instilled in her.

Susie was a panelist at CEE's 2019 Undergraduate Open House held for freshmen.