EAISI lecture by visiting Professor Samitha Samaranayake

Samitha Samaranayake, Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University in New York, is a guest of Mauro Salazar, Assistant Professor at Control Systems Technology group of the department of Mechanical Engineering.

Title  |  Models and Algorithms for Transit Centric Urban Mobility  

Affordable, equitable and efficient access to personal mobility is a fundamental societal need---with broad implications for personal well-being, economic mobility, education, and public health. While shared mobility, autonomy and electrification seem to be getting most of the attention in the research community and industry (at least in the US), it is hard to envision a transportation system that is sustainable, equitable and scalable without a significant mass-transit component. This raises many interesting questions on when and how these new technologies can be integrated with mass transit to improve personal mobility and related societal goals (e.g., sustainability and equity). This talk will focus on some algorithmic and practical questions related to designing and operating such integrated multi-modal transit systems. We will discuss the problem setting at a high-level and talk about some specific challenges/solutions for ride-pooling (a.k.a. microtransit, dial-ride) and bus line-planning in the multi-modal setting (including line generation). We will also have some discussion on equity considerations if time permits.