About us

Learn more about rCITI.

Students and family celebrate graduation.

The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) is based in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW, Sydney and represents a strategic effort that unites and extends the wide range of transport research across the university campus.

We are located in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW Sydney Kensington Campus.

rCITI was established in 2011 as a strategic initiative to consolidate and expand the diverse landscape of transport research across the university. We have continued to make remarkable strides since its inception.

Our Centre

rCITI is comprised of 6 Academics, and a team of research and professional staff and continues to be keenly supported by industry and government.

We have forged robust research partnerships in public and private sectors and across industries. Our collaborations have not only endured but have strengthened, underscoring the centre's commitment to impactful, sustained relationships.

Led by Professor Taha Hossein Rashidi

Professor Taha Hossein Rashidi is at the helm of rCITI serving as Director, an expert in travel demand and land use modelling, emerging mobility options, and intelligent transportation systems. rCITI’s Deputy Director is Dr Divya Nair. Dr Nair’s expertise is in infrastructure resilience, operations, traffic flow theory, autonomous vehicles, and humanitarian logistics.

rCITI is a world-leading organisation in integrated interdisciplinary transport research, development and education. We provide expertise and experience in mobility planning, analytics, and operations, with core objectives to drive efficiency, equality and emerging technologies in mobility systems.

We aim to pursue globally-leading interdisciplinary solutions for transport planning and management that integrate three critical aspects for societal impact:
  1. Emerging mobility technology
  2. Human behaviour and choice 
  3. Institutional and market landscape

Our strength in partnerships

rCITI’s key strength is to harness the rich interdisciplinary environment at UNSW. The centre thrives on robust collaborations across Civil, Environmental, Computer, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, and Built Environment. This collaborative approach ensures a holistic perspective in addressing complex transport challenges.

We place a premium on building strong relationships with industry partners. These partnerships serve as conduits for translating our core research into practical tools and solutions that have a tangible impact on the industry. The centre has identified substantial opportunities for contribution at local, national, and international levels, with ongoing projects and integrated transport analyses already making a difference.

Year in Review

  • In the face of unprecedented challenges during 2020, New South Wales experienced natural disasters, including the devastating bushfire crisis, followed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. These events necessitated the adoption of significant measures, such as the lockdown mandated by the NSW government, leading to the migration of numerous UNSW courses online and the transition of staff and students to remote work.

    Despite this tumultuous environment characterized by continual change and unpredictability, rCITI at UNSW demonstrated resilience and commitment to maintaining the institution's world-class research standards. Throughout the year, rCITI actively engaged in a diverse range of research areas, showcasing its broad capabilities. These encompassed studies in Behaviour under Risk & Uncertainty, Econometrics, Environmental Engineering Modelling, Epidemiology, Experimental Economics, Human Factors, Integrated Transport Optimization and Planning, Network Modelling, the Role of Global Transport Systems in the Spread of Contagious Diseases, Pedestrian Crowd Modelling, Traffic Flow Theory, Traffic Safety Work-zone Management, Transport Planning, and Transportation & Freight Services, as well as Housing Markets, Land Use, and Environmental Planning.

    Despite the disruptions, the financial summary for the year 2020 reflects a collective income of $596,000 for rCITI. Noteworthy achievements include the graduation of four PhD students, the publication of 49 refereed journal articles and nine conference papers, and the supervision and support provided to 32 PhD, 23 Masters by Coursework, and 19 Honours students by the 18-strong research and academic staff.

    The year also marked changes in personnel for rCITI, with the addition of two new staff members and the departure of four. The institute actively contributed to knowledge exchange by hosting one workshop and having its staff present at 15 local and international conferences.

    Particularly commendable were the highlights of two successful ARC Linkage projects: "Stable On-Demand Optimization for Workforce and Fleet Logistics Management" led by CIs David Rey, Meead Saberi, S. Travis Waller, and Richard Savoie, and "Ageing Drivers: Cognitive Ageing and Technology" involving Kaarin Anstey, Michael Regan, Kim Kiely, Mari Velonaki, Stephen Cratchley, Lesley Ross, and John McCallum. Notably, the Visiting Senior Research Fellow Lauren Gardner received recognition as one of "The 100 Most Influential People of 2020" by Time Magazine. These achievements underscore rCITI's resilience, adaptability, and impactful contributions amid a challenging year.
     

  • 2019 was a steady year for rCITI. Our collective funding income for 2019 was $1.6 Million, we graduated 5 PhD students and 1 MPhil student, published 62 refereed journal articles and 9 conference referred papers. Our 18 research and academic staff supervised and supported 27 PhD students, 1 practicum, 22 Masters by Coursework and 54 Honours students.

     rCITI welcomed 2 new staff and said farewell to 7 staff. We hosted 7 international speakers/researchers, 2 workshops and our staff presented at 15 local and international conferences.

     rCITI’s capabilities are quite broad, these include Behaviour under Risk and Uncertainty; Econometrics; Environmental Engineering Modelling; Epidemiology; Experimental Economics; Human Factors; Integrated Transport Optimisation and Planning; Network modelling; Role of global transport systems in the spread of contagious diseases; Pedestrian Crowd Modelling; Traffic Flow Theory; Traffic Safety Work-zone Management; Transport Planning and Transportation & Freight Services, Housing Markets, Land Use & Environmental Planning. 

    Academics and researchers of rCITI have continued to expand their critical knowledge base by developing transport software and methodologies that leverage emerging data science techniques as well as the quantification of travel behaviour impacts of disruptive technologies.

     rCITI has undergone a brand refresh in collaboration with UNSW branding and a designer. A new logo has been developed to reflect rCITI’s progress and evolution as well as symbolising our connectedness into the future. In addition, materials such as PPP and letterhead have been developed. The logo and branding encapsulate well rCITI’s young history in conjunction with our collective aspirations for the future. UNSW released new branding guidelines for PPP, and brochures at the completion of the brand refresh and the centre is working with UNSW branding to identify if any new material may need to be revised. The new logo is shown below.
     

  • 2018 was a productive and successful year for the School and our Centre with the pursuit of research excellence and social impact. Our collective grant income for 2018 was $2.4 Million, we congratulated 6  students who were awarded their PhD, and had 46 refereed journal and 20 Conference referred papers published. Our 18 research and academic staff supervised and supported 24 PhD, 2 Taste of Research, 1 Practicum, 7 Masters by Coursework and 31 Honours students.

    We believe that rCITI contributed considerably to the UNSW Civil Engineering award of the 2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment, and to the School’s ranking as first in Australia and 9th in the world in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (AWRU) rankings.

    rCITI welcomed 8 new staff and said farewell to 4 staff.  We hosted 5 international speakers/researchers, 2 workshops and our staff/students presented at 10 local and international conferences.

    In 2018 rCITI continued with its relevant interdisciplinary research as well as its liaison with government and industry, this helped the centre meet rCITI’s mission of becoming a world-leading organization in integrated interdisciplinary transport research and development. And our  over-arching aim to be a major contributor and facilitator to shaping the global research field of integrated transport systems and ultimately attaining safe, efficient and sustainable transport for society.

    We thank all the staff, students and other collaborators, such as Advisian for their dedication to the centre and excellent research.

     

  • rCITI continues to build its interdisciplinary and external collaboration to explore and further its transport research.  Our centre’s research is quite broad which encompasses transport modelling to psychology, behavioural economics, transport research and human decision processes. Our projects encompass a wide range of areas, including autonomous vehicle research, risk assessment and management, and the application of experimental economics to choice in transportation.

    The core Academic team of 17 staff supervised and supported 22 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students, 1 Master by Course work and 1 Master by Research, 2 Taste of Research, 3 practicum and 16 Honours students.

    2017 was an eventful year with 10 of our research candidates graduating. It was a great achievement to have students complete and be awarded their Masters by Research or PhD.  

    We welcomed 5 new staff and farewelled 2 staff.

    Through a joint initiative with IPA, Advisian and rCITI, a paper was published where the research outcome recommends a four-step process to prepare the community for AVs:

    1. Engaging with transport industry partners and road users to benchmark community needs, hesitations and choices on AVs.
    2. Developing concurrent federal and state legislation and regulations to allow AVs to enter Australian roads.
    3. Reporting on the number, type and de-identified location of AVs entering the vehicle fleet.
    4. Routinely assessing AV uptake in long-term infrastructure, land use and wider strategic planning.

     

  • Through strategic partnerships with government and industry, and some ground breaking innovations, the team at rCITI are shaping the way forward for the future of transport. The mission of rCITI is to be a world-leading organisation in integrated interdisciplinary research and development. This is being achieved through a range of research initiatives made possible by the group’s investigation of sustainable approaches to transport infrastructure and operations, as well as its extensive liaison with government and industry. rCITI’s vision is to reshape the field of multi-modal transport engineering and planning, by introducing new innovative techniques and technologies. This will enhance society by integrating methodologies across disciplines and contextual considerations. The Centre bases its research activities around five core research pillars:- Transport Planning – ITS Communications – Infrastructure – Energy/Fuel – Computational Sustainability.

    The Transport Engineering Research Group is recognised nationally and internationally for performing high-quality theoretical and applied research in a diverse set of domains of transport engineering, and is the only one of its kind in Australia actively doing research on a comprehensive set of areas related to transport engineering including network design, optimisation, pricing, safety, planning, risk assessment, demand modelling, public transport analysis, traffic management, land use modelling, simulation and operation research.

    With eighteen academic and research staff, the group has been rapidly expanding, with 26 PhD and 4 Masters students in 2016.

     
  • Overview of Activities at rCITI – 2015

    The centre continued to thrive in 2015 under Prof Waller’s leadership. The highlights include:

    • Awarded two Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery projects.
    • Awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project.
    • Awarded Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project.
    • Establishment of TRACSLab@UNSW.
    • Awarded Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence for 2015 for “Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn, in CVEN4701 Planning Sustainable Infrastructure 2013 – 2015.”
    • Renewal of the Advisian Professor of Transport Innovation Chair.

    The collegiate and supportive relationship between students and researchers has helped make the transportation program at rCITI an effective community. This in turn has fostered many joint collaborations for research as well as providing opportunities for professional and personal development.  UNSW’s faculties/schools/centres such as Art & Design, Aviation, Built Environment, Business, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, iCinema, Mathematics & Statistics, Medicine & Health, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, Mining Engineering and Psychology have been involved in collaborative research with rCITI. Partnerships with local and international universities have been developed, these include The University of Sydney, Monash – Melbourne, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia State University, DELFT University of Technology – Netherlands, and University of Leeds – UK. The impact of these research endeavours and others is being realised as the researchers present their findings at international and national conferences, in addition to publishing in quality publications.

    Thanks to the passion and various interests of our researchers and students, rCITI has been able to sustain its ongoing growth and progress in dealing with multidisciplinary transport issues. By teaming with world-leading researchers across multiple interdisciplinary boundaries rCITI is able to conduct leading research in travel choice, econometrics, experimental economics, visualisation and transport network analysis.

    TRACSLab@UNSW

    Dr Vinayak Dixit and Dr Zhitao Xiong were involved in the establishment of the TRACSLab@UNSW in January 2015.  The TRACSLab (Driving Choice Simulation Laboratory) is a unique world-first facility built to assist the rCITI team in its comprehensive analysis of travel choice. This will be done by re-designing the fundamental choice assumptions to support the emerging transport issues of sustainability, reliability and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in our communities. The networked driving and bicycle simulators will be used for traffic modelling and collective interactions.  

    Transport themed art installation at UNSW Climate - Change Forum 

    Researchers Charlotte Wang and Dr Melissa Duell from rCITI, CVEN and Alex Byrne from UNSW Art & Design contributed to the UNSW Climate Change Festival (Thursday 29 October 2015), with a transport-themed sculptural exhibit. This was a multi-disciplinary project bringing together the disciplines of engineering, art and design in a sculptural installation. This exhibit is the first project arising from a joint venture to facilitate an exchange of ideas between traditionally disparate bodies of knowledge, to raise awareness, and to develop and implement practical, locally applicable solutions for a sustainable Sydney.

    37th Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF 2015)

    rCITI and Transport for NSW's Bureau of Transport Statistics organised and hosted the 37th Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF 2015) conference at the UNSW CBD Campus from 30 September – 2 October 2015.  ATRF is the main forum for transport planning, policy and research for both the public and private sectors in Australasia. This event brought together over 200 of the region’s leading transport professionals from academia, government and the private sector to hear and see 91 presentations and 55 posters on the latest research and initiatives.

    Recognition

    A number of our staff were recognised for their outstanding work:

    • Dr Lauren Gardner and Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi were acknowledged by the Faculty and School for their contribution to research, teaching and service, with their promotion to Senior Lecturer.
    • Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi, together with Dr Stephen Moore, A/Prof Richard Stuetz, Ruth Fisher, Prof Martin Nakata, A/Prof Iain MacGill and Elsie Edgerton-Till were awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence for 2015 for “Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn, in CVEN4701 Planning Sustainable Infrastructure 2013 – 2015”.
    •  Prof S. Travis Waller Advisian Chair for Transport Innovation was announced. Advisian (formerly Evans & Peck) were pleased with the progress of Professor Travis Waller and his team at the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) and as such confirmed their continuing support through the signing of the Advisian Professor for Transport Innovation Chair into the future.

     rCITI would like to recognise, thank and wish the following people all the best in their new endeavours:

    • Lavy Libman (CSE) for his association and collaboration with the rCITI team in the wireless communications for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) research space (2011-2015).
    • Rob Fitzpatrick (NICTA) for his commitment to providing guidance and direction to rCITI, as a member of its steering committee (2011-2015).

    Staff

    The core rCITI staffing grew to 19 professionals. This was comprised of 5 continuing academics, 6 contract/adjunct/conjoint academics, 7 researchers and one centre administrator. We're very pleased to welcome the following new staff to the rCITI team in 2015:

    • Dr Melissa Duell (Research Associate), her research interests are in network systems models that quantify previously intangible policy implications, particularly in the area of sustainability.
    • Dr Andras Bota (Research Associate), his research interest is in applications of graph theory and network science on real-life problems.

    The rCITI group published 51 research papers in journals and proceedings in 2015. Throughout 2015, the core academic staff supervised and supported 27 PhD students, 4 Masters by Research, 4 Research by Coursework and 20 Honours students. In addition, rCITI hosted four visiting students including 1 Practicum Exchange Program student, 1 Research Internship student, and 2 visiting students.
     
  • Overview of activities at rCITI – 2014

    2014 has been a stellar year.  rCITI's intake of students and staff has again increased, making it a great year, but also a very busy one. Staff and students participated in many of the research projects, seminars and conferences held on the UNSW campus and externally during the year. Significant achievements for 2014 include the award of one Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant where rCITI is the administering organisation, one ARC Discovery Project grant with the University of Sydney, and one NHMRC Project grant with UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

    Throughout 2014, the core Academic team supervised and supported 25 PhD students, 3 Masters by Research and 9 Honours students. In addition, rCITI hosted one Practicum Exchange Program students from  Harbin Institute of Technology (China).

    Grants awarded

    By investing in excellent basic and applied research, these grants will assist our centre in building its research capability and guide rCITI to reach its mission of becoming a world-class centre.  

    Prof S. Travis Waller (rCITI, UNSW) was awarded a 2015 ARC Discovery Research Grant funding the project "Adaptive Stochastic Dynamic Traffic Assignment", which will address the limitations of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning process, focusing on traffic uncertainty, driver adaptivity and information-provision.

    Prof Michiel Bliemer (USyd), Prof S. Travis Waller (rCITI, UNSW), Prof David Hensher (USyd), Dr Vinayak Dixit (rCITI, UNSW), Prof Elisabeth Rutstrom (Georgia State), Prof Stephane Hess (Uni Leeds) and Prof Hans Van Lint (TUDelft Nederlands) was awarded a 2015 ARC Discovery Research Grant funding the project "Investigating travel choice behaviour: a new approach using interactive experiments with driving simulators", which involves research on how large monetary investments involved in infrastructure decisions impacts transport policies so to improve practical behaviour models to predict responses to those transport policies so to assist a better decision making.

    Professor Raine MacIntyre (Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW), Dr Lauren Gardner (rCITI, UNSW) and Dr Anita Heywood (Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW) was awarded a 2015 NHMRC Project grant funding the project "Real time models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases", where the research will focus on the development of optimisation based network models for predicting outbreak behaviour, and developing control measures.

    Staff

    We welcome the following people to our team:

    • Dr Hanna Grzybowska
    • Dr Mojtaba Maghrebi
    • Dr Emily Moylan

    Visiting academics and guest speakers

    rCITI continued to attract a variety of visiting academics and guest speakers to the School for relevant research collaboration and seminars. This year’s visitors included:

    • Associate Professor Hillel Bar-Gera (Ben-Gurion University of the Negeva, Israel).
    • Dr Stephen Boyles (University of Texas at Austin, USA).
    • Mr Alireza Ermgaun (Sharif University of Technology, Iran).
    • Professor Guoqiang Mao, (University of Technology, Sydney).
    • Emeritus Professor Graham R Hellestrand (Embedded Systems Technology, USA).
    • Dr Nick Mattei (NICTA, Sydney).
    • Assistant Professor Amir Samimi  (Sharif University of Technology, Iran).
    • Assistant Professor Aleksandar Stevanovic (Florida Atlantic University, USA).
    • Professor Chi Xie (Shanghai Jiaotong University, China).
    • Dr Jean-Luc Ygnace (French National Institute for Transportation Research,(INRETS), France).
    Seminars and workshops
    • CAITR 2014
    • Activity-Based Modelling Symposium
    • Risks in Transport Workshop
    • rCITI/NICTA workshop
    • 22 May 2014, Adaptive Traffic Control Systems ‐ Current Trends and Future Developments (Assistant Professor Aleks Stevanovic).
    • 23 May 2014, Equilibrium Traffic Modelling seminar  (Professor S. Travis Waller) at Google Sydney.
    • 30 May 2014, Engineering Safe Mobile Systems:  Optimized Architectures - Specification – Design (Emeritus Professor Graham Hellestrand).
    • 3 June 2014, Responsive Navigation and Traffic Control Systems: The Next Generation in Intelligent Transport System Design (Professor Guogiang Mao).
    • 10 June 2014, Stochastic Network Equilibrium with Inertial Behaviors (Professor Chi Xie).
    • 13 June 2014, A Study of Proxies for Shapley Allocations of Transport Costs (Dr Nick Mattei).
    • 27 June 2014, Mode Choice and Escort Decisions in School Trips (Mr Alireza Ermgaun).
    • 27 June 2014, Modelling Disrupted Transport Network Behaviour (Mr Kasun Wijayaratna).
    • 11 July 2014, A Behavioral Mode Choice Microsimulation Model for Freight Transportation (Assistant Professor Amir Samini).
    • 25 July 2014, A Decision Support System for Real-Time Field Service Engineer Scheduling Problem with Emergencies and Collaborations (Dr Hanna Grzybowska).
    • 22 August 2014, City Sustainability –  a Transport Perspective a Journey Continues (Dr Ken Doust).
    • 5 September 2014, Gamification and Incentives to Improve Travel Behavior (Dr Jean-Luc Ygnace).
    • 19 September 2014, Scenario-based Stochastic Time-Dependent Shortest Path (Dr David Rey).
    • 24 September 2014, Potential Air Conflicts Minimisation Through Speed Control (Dr David Rey) at School of Aviation, Faculty of Science, UNSW.
    • 30 September 2014, Traffic assignment by paired alternative segments (TAPAS) Seminar 1 (Associate Professor Hillel Bar-Gera).
    • 3 October 2014, Optimal supply and demand allocations under round-trip and one-way carsharing paradigm (Ms Sisi Jian).
    • 3 October 2014, An Algorithmic Framework for the Scheduling of Construction Projects based on Ant Colony Optimization (Dr Zhitao Xiong).
    • 10 October 2014, Traffic assignment by paired alternative segments (TAPAS) Seminar 2 (Associate Professor Hillel Bar-Gera).
    • 17 October 2014, Travel time distributions, loop detector data and the 2013 BART Strike (Dr Emily Moylan).
    • 30 October 2014, Driverless Cars: New Engineering Responsibilities for Policy Makers (Professor S. Travis Waller) at IEEE Sydney Chapter.
    • 19 November 2014, Intelligent transport systems (Dr David Rey) at FRANS forum 2014.
    • 11 December 2014, Network Models for Urban Parking Search (Dr Stephen Boyles).
    • 11 December 2014, DTA – Texas Experience (Professor S. Travis Waller) at BTS.
  • Overview of activities at rCITI – 2013

    In its second year of full operation, rCITI has continued to expand and strengthen its network across campus and with relevant government and industry. Significant achievements for 2013 include two successful Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project Grants as well as a partnership with Transport for NSW (TfNSW) with a budget to rCITI of $1.5M over three years.

    Moreover, the Centre further increased its number of Postgraduate, Honours and Practicum students. Throughout 2013, the core Academic team supervised and supported 13 PhD students, 1 Masters by Coursework, 3 Masters by Research and 18 Honours students. In addition, rCITI hosted two Practicum Exchange Program students from UConn (USA) and Harbin Institute of Technology (China).

    Curriculum review implements Transport Course

    Professor Waller and his team have participated in the curriculum review of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and commenced the implementation of transport course and program initiatives for 2014. Two new transport courses as well as a Masters Transport Specialisation stream have been approved by the university on offer from 2014 onwards.

    LIEF grant for TRACSLab

    A research team led by Professor Waller and Dr Dixit won an ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant to deploy a Travel Choice Simulation Laboratory (TRACSLab), which is a world-first facility to observe collective travel choice in a realistic lab environment. The team completed the procurement process and conducted initial experiments. The driving simulators are expected to be set up soon for the full project capacity to be utilised. This lab is unique due to the focus on travel choice, networked interaction and strong teaming, including partners at the University of Sydney and iCinema (UNSW). The findings of the lab will support a new generation of transport analysis techniques for emerging issues such as sustainability, reliability, and intelligent transport systems (ITS).

    ARC Linkage grant wins

    Chief Investigators at rCITI were awarded two ARC Linkage grants this year. The project with investigators from the University of Sydney and industry partner TSS, one of the main transport software vendors globally, evolves around "Methodologies for the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and System Reliability into Transport Network Models for Consistent Multi-Scale Planning". This project improves the capabilities of transport planning techniques. Specifically, new methods are introduced which improve the realism of regional congestion modelling as well as the mathematical representation of traveller decision-making, thereby permitting an improved long-term transport plan.

    Government organisations have expressed interest in this particular project and are involved in project meetings to discuss the potential funding of a test pilot.

    GoGet Carshare is the industry partner for the second awarded rCITI Linkage Project titled "Integrating Network Modelling with Observed Choice Data for Multi-Criteria Optimization of Complex Carshare Systems: Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage". The aim is to develop methods to determine an efficient carshare system, which includes optimal location, one-way carsharing, and how carshare influences the broader transport system. By adopting such new comprehensive methods, the overall transport system will benefit through potential improvements in public transit usage.

    Three year partnership with Transport for NSW

    After ongoing meetings and scoping of potential collaboration, Professor Waller has been notified by Les Wielinga, Director General of Transport for NSW (TfNSW), that TfNSW agrees to enter into a three-year partnership with funding to rCITI of $500,000 per year. The agreement has been executed and work on project tasks has commenced. The collaboration is to "Develop and Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to Enhance the NSW Transport System" and involves close ongoing interaction between UNSW researchers and students with TfNSW staff.

    Jointly with Evans & Peck, rCITI has been appointed to the Transport Modelling Service Panel of Transport for NSW, after undergoing a competitive tender submission and selection process.

    Professor Waller has new appointments

    Professor Waller has been appointed Associate Director of the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research, a UNSW interdisciplinary Arts, Engineering and Science Centre. He is also engaged as a member of the Steering Committee for the City Futures Research Centre, UNSW's leading urban policy research centre within the Faculty of the Built Environment, focusing on key research areas such as urban planning, housing, design, development and social policy.

    Mutual research opportunities

    To further strengthen existing ties and explore additional potential areas of mutual research and projects, rCITI co-organized a collaborative workshop with researchers and staff from NICTA as well as a workshop with academics and researchers of the School of Computer Science & Engineering. The initial workshops were perceived well and similar events are being considered for the future.

    Developments in staffing

    Throughout the year, Professor Waller further expanded rCITI's core team, securing Dr David Rey, Mr Zhitao Xiong and Dr Saeed Bastani in Post-Doctoral positions. Their respective expertise compliments the Centre's efforts in key areas. Dr Rey joined rCITI from IFSTTAR (French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks) in France. His core interest is in Operations Research, which allows him to contribute to essential rCITI projects and further expand the Centre's cross-campus collaboration into areas such as aviation and air traffic flow.

    Mr Xiong completed his PhD in Transport Studies at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) and will deploy his expertise in Driving Simulation and Driving Behaviour to focus on rCITI's TRACsLab (ARC LIEF grant).

    Dr Bastani joined UNSW after the completion of his PhD at the University of Sydney and is now placed at the School of Computer Science and Engineering. He is working closely with Dr Libman on the rCITI/CSE joint project of vehicular communications matters (Distributed Protocols for Wireless Systems and Vehicular Traffic Control).

    Associate Professor Satish Ukkusuri from Purdue University (USA), who had visited rCITI in 2012, returned to UNSW with a Study Abroad Group of 26 students and two senior staff from Purdue's School of Civil Engineering. Professor Waller and Associate Professor Ukkusuri have an established long-term collaboration on research related to transportation network modelling. rCITI hosted the group in May for a visit to the Centre and a specially organised mini-talk series on Sustainability and Infrastructure. Speakers included Dr Vinayak Dixit, Dr Lauren Gardner, Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi, Associate Professor Tommy Wiedmann, Professor Ashish Sharma and Associate Professor Jinling Wang. It was also arranged for the Purdue delegation to attend a presentation at UNSW International on global education opportunities at UNSW.

    Visiting academics and guest speakers

    rCITI continues to attract a variety of visiting academics and guest speakers to the School for relevant research collaboration and seminars. This year's visitors included:

    • Professor Mark Hickman, the ASTRA Chair and Professor of Transport Engineering and Director of the Centre for Transport Strategy at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland."Analysing and Modelling Passenger Behaviour in Public Transport Networks".
    • Andrew Saul, the Founder & CEO at Genovation Cars – The Green Car Company.
      "Batteries are Included: Transport in the 21st Century".
    • Assistant Professor Nick Lownes, Director at the Center for Transportation and Livable Systems at the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut, United States.
      "Leveraging big data for equity and efficiency in public transportation systems".
    • Professor Laurent Denant-Boemont, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Laboratory for Experiments in Economics and Management at the School of Economics, University of Rennes, France.
      "Transport Costs and Location Choices in Urban Areas: Evidence from Laboratory Experiments".

    Conferences and workshops, here and overseas

    Further, Professor Waller and other rCITI staff have attended and been invited to present at a variety of conferences and workshops this year. For example, key rCITI staff participated in the annual TRB (Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting, Washington D.C), presenting research contributions and chairing several TRB Committee Meetings. rCITI was also represented at the 46th HICSS (Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences), presenting papers and participating in workshops. Moreover, Professor Waller was an invited expert to the BITRE (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) Toll Road Patronage Forecasting Seminar as well as their Steering Group Workshop. Additional invited talks included Professor Waller's and Dr Dixit's keynote speech at the Mathematics of Planet Earth Workshop, Monash University, Melbourne; Professor Waller's talk at the NSW Transport Infrastructure Summit in Sydney, at the International TSS/Aimsun User Meeting in Sydney, as well as being a Panel Chair at the 18th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS).

    A bright future ahead

    Professor Waller and his team at rCITI are looking forward to the future. 2013 has been a year of major accomplishments for rCITI, being awarded substantial funding, steadily expanding our PhD program and teaching curriculum, further strengthening the centre's relations across campus, nationally and internationally, as well as continuing to build a world-class centre with excellent staff.

     
  • Overview of activities at rCITI – 2012

    Since its launch in November 2011, rCITI has continued to expand and strengthen its network across campus and with relevant government and industry. Key achievements for 2012 include the signing of an Umbrella Deed with the NSW Government Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), as well as a Memorandum of Understanding with GoGet, the car share company and Better Place, an electric car charge network; and the award of a 2013 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) Grant for a world-first driving simulation laboratory.

    Visit from Transport Minister

    The NSW Minister for Transport, The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian visited the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in March 2012 for a presentation about the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI). Professor Travis Waller's overview of rCITI was followed by a discussion with the Minister. Attendees at the Minister's visit included delegates from UNSW such as Professor Graham Davies (Dean, Faculty of Engineering), Professor Les Field (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research), Professor T. David Waite (HoS, Civil and Environmental Engineering), and Professor Nasser Khalili (Associate Dean, Research), as well as representatives from Evans & Peck (Mr Ian McIntyre and Mr Paul Forward, Principals) and NICTA (Mr Rob Fitzpatrick, Director, Infrastructure, Transport & Logistics). During her visit, Ms Berejiklian appointed Professor Waller an invited member of the Transport Specialist Advisory Group for Transport for NSW.

    Numerous meetings with government

    rCITI staff held numerous other governmental meetings in 2012, including with Mr Mike Mrdak, Secretary at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development & Local Government who invited Professor Waller for discussions with him and his team to Canberra.

    Leif grant win to develop driving simulator

    Professor Waller and Dr. Dixit from rCITI, Professor Dennis Del Favero, Director of the UNSW iCinema Research Centre for Interactive Cinema, jointly with Professor Bliemer from the University of Sydney, were awarded a 2013 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) for a driving simulation laboratory, the Travel Choice Simulation Laboratory (TRACSLab). TRACSLab is a world-first facility to observe collective travel choice in a realistic lab environment. It is unique due to the focus on travel choice, networked interaction and strong teaming. The findings of the lab will support a new generation of transport analysis techniques for emerging issues such as sustainability, reliability, and ITS.

    rCITI heads international consortium on sustainability

    rCITI led an international consortium (including Monash, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, NICTA, DIMTS, CRRI and GoGet) for an expression-of-interest (EOI) submission on "Integrated Network Planning Methodologies for the Sustainable Convergence of Transport and Energy", to the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation Science, Research and Tertiary Education for the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) Grand Challenge. The EOI was successful in the pre-proposal stage and the team was invited to submit a full application. The outcome will be announced in 2013.

    rCITI expands staffing

    Dr. Lavy Libman joined the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW as a Senior Lecturer in March 2012. Dr. Libman was previously a Senior Lecturer at the School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney as well as a Researcher at NICTA's Networks Research Group. His primary research interests lie in cross-layer performance optimization of wireless networks as well as the applications of game theory to networks and distributed systems. Dr. Libman forms part of the core Academic staff at rCITI.

    In October, Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi from the University of Toronto, Canada, joined the Centre's core academic team and was welcomed by Centre Director Professor S. Travis Waller, Senior Lecturer Dr Upali Vandebona, Senior Lecturer Dr Vinayak Dixit, Senior Lecturer Lavy Libman (Computer Science and Engineering) and Lecturer Dr Lauren Gardner. Dr Rashidi's research expertise compliments rCITI's research efforts in key areas, including land-use and vehicle ownership models, as well as goods movement data collection and modelling methods.

    At the same time, Visiting Fellow Dr. Hironobu Hasegawa joined the transportation group from the Akita National College of Technology. Dr. Hasegawa will work with rCITI on a variety of research areas, including his key expertise in applications of machine learning and data mining algorithms in the field of transportation. In particular, he is currently collaborating on the development of a micro-simulation travel demand model for the City of Melbourne.

    Conferences and events

    Professor Waller and other rCITI staff have attended and been invited to present at a variety of conferences this year. Many rCITI staff participated in TRB (Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting, Washington D.C), presenting research contributions and chairing several TRB Committee Meetings. In addition, Prof. Waller gave an invited talk at the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Workshop at Beijing Jiaotong University in May and was a plenary speaker at the 17th International Conference of the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS) in Hong Kong in December.

    The 4th International Symposium on Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) took place on Martha's Vineyard in June and was co-organized by Professor Waller, who also presented new developments in the field of DTA including better methods for addressing day-to-day volatility in traffic flow within the transport planning process.

    In December, Professor Waller was invited to Japan to participate in an exclusive meeting of the National Institute of Informatics (NII) on "Social Issues in Computational Transportation Science". The meeting consisted of research leaders spanning computer science, big data, transport engineering, and urban planning with the aim of identifying emerging themes and cutting-edge concepts which impact numerous adjacent domains.

    Professor Waller receives innovation award

    Further, Prof. Waller received the 2011 (awarded in 2012) Hojjat Adeli Award for Innovation in Computing. The award is based on published research within the journal Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering (CACAIE), which is ranked as the top journal in Civil Engineering as well as Transportation Science & Technology (ranked by journal citation factor).

    Guest speakers and visitors

    Throughout the year, rCITI has also attracted and welcomed a variety of guest speakers to the School for relevant research seminars.
    Visitors and seminar topics included:

    • Associate Professor Karen Smilowitz of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University, United States. 
      "Transportation and logistics models in non-profit settings".

    • Professor Lisa Rutstrom from Georgia State University, United States.
      "Experiments on Driving Under Uncertain Congestion Conditions".

    • Dr. Majid Sarvi from the Civil Engineering Department at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. 
      "Crowd Safety under Panic Conditions: Linking Non-human Biological Organisms to the Development of a Crowd Dynamic Model".

    • Associate Professor Satish Ukkusuri from Purdue University, United States.  
      "Integrative Modeling Tools for Sustainable Transportation Systems" and "The Use of Large Scale Geo-Location Data for Traffic Analytics". 

    • Professor Sahotra Sarkar from the Section of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, United States.
      "Climate Change and the Risk of Vector-Borne Diseases". 

    A successful year with more to come

    It has been a successful year for rCITI in expanding and strengthening key relations and commencing new research projects. In fact, even though 2012 represents the first full year of operation for the transport centre, rCITI has already developed multiple key relationships with industry, attracted global attention for research performed at UNSW, worked on internationally funded projects, led global consortia, received substantial funding from the Australian Research Council and built a world-class staff of researchers and educators.

     
  • Overview of Activities at rCITI – 2011

    The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) is a new UNSW Centre, based in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering with activities that span the Faculty of Engineering as well as across UNSW. In the presence of supporters from Government, Industry and across the university, rCITI was officially launched in November 2011 by Professor Mary O'Kane, NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. rCITI represents a strategic effort with research and industry partners that unites and substantially augments the wide range of transport research across campus.

    rCITI supported generously by Evans & Peck

    The Evans & Peck Chair for Transport Innovation leads the new Research Centre and has been made possible by the generous support of Evans & Peck, an international infrastructure- based advisory company, and a School Industry Partner. Other financial supporters of the rCITI include NICTA, the units within UNSW including central strategic support as well as the Faculty of Engineering.

    Staffing update

    The new Evans & Peck Professor of Transport Innovation is Professor S. Travis Waller, previously in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. An expert in transport systems and planning, Professor Waller also has extensive grounding in the fields of electrical and industrial engineering making him an excellent fit for the new cross-School Faculty Centre.

    Professor Waller took up the position of Evans & Peck Professor for Transport Innovation and Director of rCITI in May 2011, welcomed by Dr Upali Vandebona (Senior Lecturer in Transport, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW) and followed by Dr Lauren Gardner (Lecturer), Dr David Fajardo (Research Associate) and Dr Vinayak Dixit (Senior Lecturer). Dr Gardner's key areas include cross-disciplinary system interaction (e.g., health impacts of transport including disease propagation due to air travel) and congestion pricing for transportation networks. Research Associate Dr Fajardo focuses on vehicle routing, automated intersection control and logistics. Dr Dixit, previously the Associate Director of Research, Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency at Louisiana State University, joined the team in October and has a keen interest in topics such as planning for risk in transportation and emergency evacuation and management.

    Awards and contract wins

    Apart from the set up of the Centre structure and the official launch of the rCITI, key achievements for 2011 include the award of the UNSW Goldstar Award for "Adaptive Stochastic Network Behaviour Modeling Approaches for Representing and Responding to Disrupted Conditions" as well as a research contract with Booz Allen Hamilton for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the Department of Transport of the United States of America (USDOT). This research project represents a major FHWA initiative to investigate the "Identification and Evaluation of Transformative and Environmental Applications and Strategies".

    Conferences and events

    Professor Waller has attended and been invited to present at a variety of conferences. He spoke at ATRF in Adelaide and presented research contributions at TRB (Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting, Washington D.C) and ITS (Australian Intelligent Transport Systems Summit, Gold Coast). In addition, Professor Waller has co-organized and cochaired a Panel at ISGT for IEEE (Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference, Perth) about the rising popularity of Electric Vehicles and this growing interdisciplinary field. He also co-organized a workshop on micro-simulation in Melbourne and presented at an international workshop on traffic management hosted by QUT.

    Workshop brings collaboration opportunities

    Resulting from rapidly increasing interest on electric vehicles, The University of New South Wales hosted an introductory workshop in November on "The Convergence of Transportation, Energy, and the Built Environment". Lead by Professor Waller and Professor Michael Neuman (Professor of Sustainable Urbanism, Faculty of the Built Environment), key speakers included Professor Mladen Kezunovic (Director, Power System Control and Protection Laboratory, Texas A & M University), Professor Michael A P Taylor (Professor of Transport Planning, University of South Australia), Dr Peter Pudney (Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia), Mr Kristian Handberg (Project Manager, VIC Department of Transport), Mr Ricardo Goldman (Managing Director at TRIM GBO, Architecture and Planning, Spain) and Mr Guy Pross (Director, Business Development and Commercial Partnerships, Better Place). Additional attendees included representation from national labs, consultancies and government. The focus of this workshop was an overview of previous international research and deployment efforts, the exploration of domain linkages, and the potential for collaboration in this growing interdisciplinary field. The intention is to hold further workshops in the future and outline possible areas of for collaboration.