Next-Generation Transportation Simulation and Modeling Tools

Speaker: Shan Huang, Ph.D. University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Talk Title: Next-Generation Transportation Simulation and Modeling Tools

Abstract: In the seminar, Shan will present his effort to advance the state of the art of the simulation and modeling of sustainable transportation infrastructure by addressing some of the limitations of state-of-the-practice models such as the inability to deal with large amounts of data in real-time, the aggregate nature of the majority of models, the lack of network realism in driving simulation and human behavior realism in traffic simulation, and finally the inability to evaluate new and emerging Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. Within this broader research area, the presentation is divided into four tightly-connected research sub-topics. Subtopic 1 aims at developing and validating a novel forecasting paradigm named SPN to forecast traffic data, so as to provide an efficient and effective way for online traffic simulation and modeling. The SPN provides higher predictive accuracy and requires dramatically less processing time compared with existing approaches. Subtopic 2 proposes a semi-heuristic algorithm for estimating dynamic travel demand for large-scale simulation models. The algorithm manages to match the simulated traffic volumes to field counts while keeping the estimated Origin-Destination (OD) matrices close to the true ones. Subtopic 3 integrates a traffic simulator with a driving simulator to allow for human-in-the-loop simulation. The integrated simulator successfully shows differences in emissions levels among drivers with different years of driving experience. Finally, Subtopic 4 designs and implements an integrated IntelliDrive simulation testbed, and uses this testbed for the simulation and evaluation of an application named intelligent intersection. The research demonstrates the mobility enhancement and environmental benefits of the application, as well as the advantages of using the testbed to design and evaluate IntelliDrive applications. The aforementioned contributions advance the state of the art in the simulation and modeling of sustainable transportation infrastructure, broaden the range of transportation issues for which those models and tools can be used to address, and create a vision for a human-oriented, integrated, and intelligent next-generation simulation and modeling system.

Biography: Shan Huang is a Ph.D. who recently graduated from the Transportation Systems Engineering program at the University at Buffalo (UB). His research has long focused on sustainable transportation infrastructure. He developed a graduate course named “Traffic Simulation” completely from scratch. He was also serving as the founder and first president of UB’s Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter. He was granted the only New York Upstate Young Transportation Professional of the Year Award by the ITE in 2010.

Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Erin Sigman