Rafidah’s research is related to a field of transportation system in computer science research domain. For many computer scientists, her research interests related to Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), improving the road traffic system and safety for urban environments. Her research interests include vehicular networks, mobile and wireless networks, Internet-of-Things, Cloud and Fog computing, Quality of Service (QoS), and Energy Management. She is actively involve in research grant's evaluation at University and Ministry Level.

Rafidah has performed more than 2 Million (Ringgit Malaysia) research grants from internal and external entities. She is also a co-researcher grants with other local universities such as Sunway University, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, UCSI, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Melaka. To contribute her research ideas into a community, she has designed and patent a novel framework, System and Method for Relieving Traffic Congestion (PT/5503/UM/14) (granted 23 June 2020 until 12 November 2034) for emergency rescue operations. She has filed and granted several copyrights from her research works since 2012 to current. Rafidah’s efforts are driven by the courage to implement the framework that challenges the existing protocol/standard.

She is actively publishing journals in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE - with Cumulative Impact Factor (CIF) more than 150) and Scopus. She has published more than 100 SCIE indexed journals (50% published in Tier 1), H-index (19 in Publons and 22 in Scopus), and 1562 Scopus Citation. She involves in International journal and textbook reviewers, and national research grant assessors (Ministry of Higher Education and Private Universities). Rafidah is an Associate Editor in Connected Mobility and Automation (Specialty Section), Frontiers in Future Transportation Journal, Guest Editor for a Special Issue, SCIE indexed journal reviewers, served as advisory and technical committee for International conferences, Distinguished lecture for IEEE VTS Summer School (Malaysia), and Keynote speakers for International conferences.

Rafidah won 14 awards (GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE Medals) from Research Innovation, Exhibition and Competition at National and International Level for her works on Urban Transportation and Computing Solutions (since 2012 until present). She served as external examiners for PhD thesis for public and private universities locally and internationally.

She is actively involve in curriculum development and monitoring, therefore her skills is recognised and has been appointed as the Panel Assessor/External Examiner for Existing Academic Programme and Programme Accreditation (Bachelor, Master and PhD Degrees) at Sunway University, Taylor's University, Monash University, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). Rafidah also served as a Panel Assessor for Academic Promotion at Private University in Malaysia and overseas institution.