Seminar Smart & Sustainable mobility by honorary doctorates
15 January 2025 13:30 till 17:30 - Location: Aula TU Delft – Mekelweg 5 in Delft / Lecture Room A – First Floor | Add to my calendar
TU Delft will be conferring two honorary doctorates during the Dies Natalis in January. They will be awarded to Professor of Engineering Alexandre Bayen (UC Berkeley) and Professor Environmental Science & Policy Susan Handy (University of California at Davis).
On the day before the Dies, on Wednesday 15 January 2025, the honorary doctorates together with their honorary promotors of TU Delft, will host a seminar to share how they work on smart and sustainable mobility. Everyone is welcome to join: employees, students, alumni, peers and professionals.
Programme
13:30-14:00 Welcome - Coffee/Tea
14:00-15:00 Prof. Alex Bayen / Moderator: Prof. Bart van Arem
14:00-14:30 Lecture by prof. Bayen ‘Mixed-autonomy traffic at scale: how can a small proportion of automated vehicles improve overall traffic efficiency?’
14:30-15:00 Q&A
15:00-15:30 Coffee/Tea break
15:30-16:30 Prof. Susan Handy / Moderator: Prof. Bert van Wee
15:30-16:00 Lecture by prof. Susan Handy ‘Shifting Gears: The Role of Research in Changing Professional Thinking’
16:00-16:30 Q&A
16:30-17:30 Drinks
Talk by Alexandre Bayen
This talk summarizes rapid progress made in the integration of machine learning techniques with cloud computing, in the context of mixed autonomy traffic. The talk will present a new platform in which a cloud-based system can broadcast high level “speed plans” through lossy communication channels such as the cellular network, to a fleet of vehicles with some level of automation. The vehicles are then able through their autopilots to control the surrounding traffic collaboratively, with the objective of reducing the energy footprint of congestion. Algorithms are designed to smooth “stop-and-go” waves on freeways, which are a significant cause of energy waste and accidents. Results from a large-scale experiment involving 100 automated vehicles are presented, in which Nissan, Toyota and GM vehicles are collectively able to run the algorithms on the I24 freeway in Nashville, TN, showcasing improvement in the overall energy consumption by up to 10%.
About Alexandre Bayen
Professor Alexandre (“Alex”) Bayen is the Liao Cho Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department, and currently also serves as Associate Provost for the Berkeley Space Center at NASA Ames. He also serves as the Director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute. He is the Principal Investigator of the CIRCLES and FLOW projects, and served for seven years as the Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. Bayen has authored or edited five books, and over 250 peer reviewed journal and conference articles. He has received numerous awards, including the PECASE Award from the White House, the CAREER Award from the NSF, the Ruberti Prize from the IEEE and the Huber Prize from the ASCE. He received a BS from the Ecole Polytechnique, France, an MS and PhD from Stanford University. He worked at NASA Ames, and served at the French DoD, where he retired with the rank of Major.
Talk by Susan Handy
The transportation system in the U.S. has been shaped by a core set of ideas that are embedded in professional practice. These ideas – freedom, speed, mobility, vehicles, capacity, and others – have produced a system in which most people are dependent on driving. Shifting to a more sustainable system requires a shift in thinking on the part of the transportation profession. In this talk, I take a critical look at the ways in which professional thinking is – and is not – shifting and consider the role of different kinds of research in supporting, encouraging, and documenting those shifts.
About Susan Handy
Professor Susan Handy is a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California at Davis, where she is teaching in the Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning major and in the Transportation Technology and Policy Program. She is also the director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, part of the federal university transportation centers program. Her research focuses on the relationships between transportation and land use, particularly the impact of land use on travel behavior, and on strategies for reducing automobile dependence.
Our bicycling work is housed at the BicyclingPlus Research Collaborative.
Making Sense of Mobility
This event is part of TU Delft’s 183nd Dies Natalis celebrations with the theme Making Sense of Mobility. From 13 to 17 January we discuss and shape the future of mobility together. We invite all students, employees, alumni, partners and peers to take part in one of our events week and join the Dies Natalis anniversary ceremony. With debates, lectures, demo’s and a Mobility Innovation event, there should be something to meet your needs.