Robert Hampshire

Core faculty

Robert C. Hampshire

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Hampshire—currently on leave from the Ford School and serving as Chief Science Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation—develops and applies operations research, data science, and systems approaches to public and private service industries. His research focuses on the management and policy analysis of emerging networked industries and innovative mobility services such as smart parking, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, ride-hailing, bike sharing, and car sharing. He has worked extensively with both public and private sector partners worldwide.

News

2021: A year of public policy

Dec 16, 2021

The Ford School of Public Policy is a top-ranked public policy school dedicated to preparing diverse leaders to take on society’s most pressing challenges and make transformational discoveries through cutting-edge research. Experts from the Ford...

State & Hill

Faculty News spring 2021

Jun 10, 2021

Javed Ali has appeared recently in outlets such as 60 Minutes, ABC News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, NPR’s Morning Edition, and the Los Angeles Times. He’ll become an associate professor of practice at the Ford School this...

Headshots of Javed Ali, Robert Axelrod, Paul Courant, Susan Dynarski, Adrienne Harris, Earl Lewis, Shobita Parthasarathy, Molly Spencer, David Thacher, Megan Tompkins-Stange

State & Hill

Letter from Dean Barr

Jun 10, 2021

Dear community, After a chaotic 2020 election cycle, policymakers are getting down to the difficult business of leading, making decisions, and implementing policy. With a commitment to the public good, members of our community are taking part in...

News

‘Transportation is a form of freedom’: How to make it more equitable

Jun 9, 2021

The routes and schedules of public transit, the presence or absence of sidewalks, the availability of different transportation options, and the design of highways that have divided cities—these are examples of aspects of transportation systems that...

News

Robert Hampshire appointed chief science officer at USDOT

Apr 23, 2021

Robert Hampshire will serve as the U.S. Department of Transportation's chief science officer, a role that has not been filled in more than 40 years. He was appointed assistant secretary for research and technology for the department, and will advise...

News

Robert Hampshire joins Biden administration to work in transportation research and technology

Jan 21, 2021

Robert Hampshire, associate professor at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, whose research and policy engagement focuses on understanding the societal, climate and equity implications of autonomous and connected...

State & Hill

Faculty News fall 2020

Dec 9, 2020

Javed Ali organized a panel for New America on domestic terrorism. His new podcast, The Burn Bag, produced with two Ford School alumni, A'ndre Gonawela (BA ‘19) and Ryan Rosenthal (BA ‘19), has featured U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, General David...

News

Hampshire receives PIT-UN challenge grant to create knowledge network, expand student opportunities

Nov 20, 2020

The field of Public Interest Technology is growing — putting technology to the use of social justice, the common good, and the public interest. Ford School professor Robert Hampshire has just received his second grant from the Public Interest...

News

PPIA innovates as it heads to its 40th year

Nov 9, 2020

The Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) is entering its 40th year after a summer of adjustment and innovation. The intensive seven-week summer program focuses on preparing diverse undergraduate students for...

News

Hampshire says Lyft and Uber ban in California would hurt low-income riders most

Sep 1, 2020

The state of California wants Uber and Lyft to treat its drivers as full employees, which would effectively shut down the companies’ services in the state. While a state judge ruled against the companies, the order has been delayed pending appeals....

News

Hampshire receives NSF grant to address food insecurity during the pandemic

May 27, 2020

Ford School professor Robert Hampshire works at the intersection of public policy and engineering, with a specific focus on using better transportation systems to overcome inequities in society. Since early fall 2019, he and his colleagues had been...

State & Hill

A Winding Path

May 22, 2020

Professor Robert Hampshire brings his transportation expertise to the Ford School By David Pratt State & Hill: How did you come to be interested in transportation systems and policy? Robert Hampshire: Well, it starts with me sitting in a...

View of the MCity roundabout from an elevated position

News

Growing civic-minded technologists

May 19, 2020

“This was a game-changer for us,” said Kwaku Osei, the CEO of Farmacy, a food app startup focused on user’s dietary needs. Osei was one of five social entrepreneurs of color in the Detroit metro area matched with Masters students from the Ford...

Research team takes on food insecurity in Detroit in the face of coronavirus limitations

Apr 17, 2020

Access to food is a critical measure of societal disparity that has been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. School lunch programs that previously helped bridge a gap for low income families are unavailable during school closures,...

In the Media

U-M receives $2M NSF grant to explore data equity systems

Sep 26, 2019 Michigan News

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News

Hampshire receives National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant, Admitted students

Sep 11, 2019

Robert Hampshire, associate professor of public policy at the Ford School and associate research professor at Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS), has been awarded a $948,182 grant by the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator...

News

Bike sharing research by Hampshire wins EURO Award

Jun 26, 2019

Robert Hampshire was part of the author team that won the EURO Award for the Best EJOR Paper announced today during the annual European Conference on Operational Research in Dublin. Conveyed by EURO, the Association of European Operational Research...

State & Hill

Robert Hampshire on ride/bike/scooter share options to improve traffic congestion

Apr 8, 2019

With the growing ubiquity of ride-hailing services, passengers have come to expect door-to-door service. The good news? That eliminates a key challenge of mass transit systems: how to move passengers through the first or last mile of a trip. But...

In the Media

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/research/symposium-highlights-student-involvement-research-projects

Apr 7, 2019 The Michigan Daily

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News

Gerber, Shaefer, Hampshire to serve on U-M’s Detroit Advisory Group

Feb 20, 2019

The University of Michigan has been making concerted efforts to engage thoughtfully and purposefully with the city of Detroit. To that aim, the recent inception of the Detroit Advisory Group gathers faculty leaders and community advocates to...

Ford's Robert Hampshire forecasts the future of autonomous vehicles

Feb 11, 2019

We’ve all heard the excitement (and apprehension) circulating around a future in which our cars drive themselves. While we are far from experiencing our morning commute a la the Jetsons, the potential for widely-circulated autonomous vehicles may be...

In the Media

‘Air traffic control’ for driverless cars could speed up deployment

Feb 7, 2019 Michigan News

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Hampshire and colleagues connect bikesharing and ride-hailing

Nov 16, 2018

Qi Luo (University of Michigan), Xuechun Duo (Automotive Engineering), Xuan Di (Columbia University) and Robert Hampshire assess “Multimodal Connections between Bikesharing and Ride-Hailing: An Emperical Study in New York City” in the proceedings of...

Ford School hosts faculty roundtable with Sen. Peters on issues related to emerging technologies

Nov 2, 2018

Faculty from the Ford School and around the University joined an expert roundtable with Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) on Wednesday. Sen. Peters called on faculty to provide insight into some of the rapidly-moving emerging technologies that intersect...

U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) at a roundtable hosted by the Ford School and shown here with Shobita Parthasarathy and Bob Axelrod.

News

Hampshire to Crain’s Detroit: scooters can enhance city’s mobility offerings

Sep 25, 2018

As electric scooters blanket urban centers around the country, cities are grappling with how to regulate them, including Detroit. In the past few weeks, the city’s central business district has become host to the mobility option, reports Crain’s...

News

From insight to impact: fall 2018 faculty news

Sep 4, 2018

Our top-notch associate leadership team remains in place, with Paula Lantz continuing on as associate dean for academic affairs, Elisabeth Gerber continuing as the school’s associate dean for research and policy engagement, and Ann Lin continuing to...

Policy Talks @ the Ford School

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: Infrastructure accomplishments and challenges in the Biden administration

Jan 13, 2025, 4:00-5:30 pm EST

Joan and Sanford Weill Hall Annenberg Auditorium

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will join the Ford School community for a conversation on the Biden-Harris Administration’s record in transportation and infrastructure.++Waitlist now in formation++

Watch live from this page

CLOSUP Lecture Series, Policy Talks @ the Ford School

Opportunities and challenges of autonomous vehicles: Role of governments?

Feb 10, 2020, 4:00-5:20 pm EST

Weill Hall, Annenberg Auditorium (1120)

Join us to hear Christopher Hart, former Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board discuss opportunities of autonomous vehicles and the challenges they present to federal, state and local governments.

Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Graduate Certificate Program

Jun 5, 2020 0:02:58

Learn about the student experience in the University of Michigan's unique graduate certificate program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP), based at the Ford School of Public Policy.

STPP - Science, Technology, and Public Policy - University of Michigan