Issues of Scale, Time, and Approach to Transportation Modeling and Simulation

You are cordially invited to a METRANS Seminar by:Kostas Goulias,
Professor of Transportation at the Geography Department of the University of California Santa BarbaraWednesday, Nov. 15th 2006, 12:00pm - 1:30pm, Ralph & Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) Room 215** Bring a bag lunch. Refreshments will be served. **ABSTRACT: In this presentation, an overview of changing requirements for modeling and simulation is offered. Rapid changes of these requirements emerge from a need to address travel behavior and develop procedures in facets that emerge from three sources: a) dynamic planning practice; b) sustainable and green visions, and c) new research and technology. The typical aspects of data collection, modeling, and simulation considered for transportation policy analysis and planning are in this way examined from perspectives that raise many questions about our ability to make programmatic assessments. For each of these fundamental areas questions are posed as potential candidates for research programs and topics for Ph.D. dissertations and many issues remain largely under scrutinized. They include issues of scale in time and space, content and procedures for which models are designed, and the need to revert time in simulation to address problems of strategic planning and scenario buildin g.SPEAKER BIO: Kostas Goulias, PhD, is Professor of Transportation at the Geography Department of the University of California Santa Barbara since 2004. In that department he is teaching courses in transportation modeling and simulation at the senior undergraduate level and the graduate level.
The courses contain material on regional transportation policy and planning. The bulk of the time is dedicated to the development of models from the conceptual design, to data collection, estimation and use in policy analysis. The models examined and analyzed are about land use, demographics, and activity participation and travel behavior. From 1991 to 2004, Goulias has been Professor of Civil Engineering at PennState University and the director of the Transportation Operations Program at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute since 1997. He was also the director of the Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems, a center of excellence in the College of Engineering, and the director of a regional research and education consortium the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center.
Dr. Goulias has been the author and co-author of more than 160 papers, book chapters, and reports to sponsors the majority of which are on new methodological developments in the area of travel behavior and new models for activity based data collection modeling and simulation. He is also the editor-in-chief and contributing author of the 2003 Transportation Systems Planning engineering handbook by CRC press and the editor of the 2007 Elsevier book Transport Science and Technology. Goulias developed estimation methods and computer code for data analysis and simulation systems for nationwide demographic simulation, travel demand forecasting, and other data management and decision support systems. His research emphasis is on forecasting the demand for transportation services and on the impact simulation and forecasting of policy actions including telecommunications and information systems with particular focus on the dynamics of travel behavior. He has also been the immediate past chair of the National Academy of Science -Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Travel Behavior and Values and he is the founder and chair of the TRB Task Force on Moving Activity-based Approaches to Practice. Dr. Goulias earned a Ph.D. in 1991 from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Davis, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering in 1987 from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a Laurea (BS and MS) in Civil Engineering in 1986 from the University of Calabria, College of Civil Engineering, Cosenza, Italy.
Dr. Goulias has worked on many projects providing transportation engineering and planning consulting services to State/Federal agencies and International organizations and firms. He has worked in the United States, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Germany, Portugal, and Australia developing new modeling techniques, simulation frameworks, and providing expert reviews of technologies and engineering practice and policies.For more information, please contact Hossein Ataei (ataei@usc.edu).

Location: Ralph And Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) - 215

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Georgia Lum