dgt08008@fe.up.pt | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2013
Research topic/area: High Speed Railway (HSR-LCC project)
Thesis Title: Improving Railway Track Maintenance Using Power Spectral Density (PSD)
Supervisors: Raimundo Delgado (FEUP), Rui Calçada (FEUP)
aldametrass@gmail.com | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2007 | Graduation year: 2012
Current position: Senior Consultant at Minsait, Spain
Research topic/area: Transportation Systems, Airports (AirNets project)
Thesis Title: Air transportation design for effective and efficient service to small remote communities: Policy options under regulatory reform
Supervisors: Álvaro Costa (FEUP), Richard de Neufville (MIT)
aleksandr.prodan@tecnico.ulisboa.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2016
Aleksandr Prodan has graduated in 2011at MIT Portugal Transportation Systems CTIS Masters and is currentely a PhD Candidate at the Doctoral Program in Transportation Systems (DPTS).
PhD Supervisores: Paulo F. Teixeira (IST), Joseph Sussman (MIT)
Thesis title: Linking Railway Infrastructure Costs to Infrastructure Charges
Research Summary: Over the past 20 years, the railway sector in Europe has been undergoing a restructuring process, where Infrastructure Management has been separated from Train Operations. This vertical separation is intended to improve performance of railways and to introduce competition into the sector. Trains now have to pay to use the infrastructure, and they are subject to certain access rules that they were not subject to before. Also, competition within the sector is slowly being introduced. This thesis studies the financial relationship between Infrastructure Managers and Train Operators to see how existing charging schemes work and whether they comply with European legislation. This thesis then aims to relate infrastructure maintenance costs to infrastructure charges and, in the last step, to develop a toolkit that will be useful for Infrastructure Managers in creating new charging schemes that are compliant with current legislation.
Publications/Conference Papers:
agalelo@dec.isel.ipl.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008
Research area: Urban Logistics (SOTUR project )
aisabel.capote@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2004 | Graduation year: 2010
Thesis Title: Programas de Manutenção de Características da Superfície de Pavimentos Associados a Critérios de Segurança Rodoviária
Supervisor: José Manuel Coelho das Neves (IST)
costa_ald@hotmail.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2013
Current position: Geotechnical Engineer at WSP Sverige
Research topic/area: HSR-RISK project
Thesis Title: Planning for Robust High-Speed Rail Systems: The Effects of Natural Hazards
Supervisors: Paulo Coelho (FCTUC), Maria da Conceição Cunha (FCTUC), Herbert Einstein (MIT)
anapaulabgb@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012 | Graduation year: 2014
Current position: Professor at UniCEUB – Centro Universitário de Brasília
Thesis Title: Diz-me como Andas que te Direi Onde Estás: Inserção do Aspecto Relacional na Análise da Mobilidade Urbana para o Pedestre
Supervisors: Luís Martinez (IST-UL), José Manuel Viegas (IST-UL)
ana.vasconcelos@tecnico.ulisboa.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2007 | Graduation year: 2011
Current position: Post-Doc at Instituto Superior Técnico
Thesis Title: Urban Accessibility: Estimation of Internal and External Environmental Costs
Supervisor: Tiago Farias (IST-UL)
IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2011 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Technology and Research (SMART) centre
Thesis Title: Improved Mobility And More Sustainable Urban Logistics Through The Configuration And Enforcement Of (Un) Loading Bays.
Supervisors: João de Abreu e Silva (IST-UL), Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP)
antonio.d.nunes@gmail.com | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2013 | Graduation year: 2016
Current Position: Analytics Solutions Specialist at Telefonica
Research Area: A user collaboration model for urban passenger transport systems
Thesis Summary: This project is concerned with the development and evaluation of a model of collaboration between users of urban passenger transport systems. The model explores a unique opportunity created by the widespread adoption of advanced personal mobile devices with ubiquitous access to wireless communication networks, to harness information that is distributed throughout urban passenger transport systems. Its ultimate goal is to improve utilisation of available resources to enhance travel experience and to promote sustainable urban transport.
Thesis Title: A user collaboration model for urban passenger transport
Supervisors: Teresa Galvão Dias (FEUP) , João Falcão e Cunha (FEUP)
antoniorandrade@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009
vasconcelos@estv.ipv.pt | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2014
Thesis Title: Avaliação do Desempenho Operacional de Rotundas: Modelos e Aplicações
Supervisors: Álvaro Seco (FCTUC), Ana Bastos Silva (FCTUC)
arminda@dec.uc.pt | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2014
Thesis Title: A methodological framework for pavement damage estimation considering simulated axle load spectra
Supervisors: Luis de Picado-Santos (IST-UL)
ashenafiaregawi@yahoo.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Invited assistant Professor at Bahirdar University
Thesis Title: Optimization based approach for land-use/transportation policy making
Supervisors: António Antunes (FCTUC), Christopher Zegras (MIT)
tavallaee05@gmail.com | IST |Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2011
Research topic/area: A Framework for Sustainable Pavements Implementation Applied to Portuguese Conditions
Research Summary: Proposing a comprehensive framework (e.g. Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and its software DARWin ME) for sustainable pavement implementation applied to Portuguese conditions that includes data preparation to locally calibrate the MEPDG procedure and adopting a proper behavior model for Portuguese conditions which may result in delivering pavement catalogue for Portuguese conditions and developing implementation guidelines for the future adoption of DARWin-ME in Portugal.
camilahenrique@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2016
Thesis Title:
Supervisors: Rosário Macário (IST-UL), Filipe Loureito (UFC)
cami@mit.edu | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008
Current position: Postdoctoral Associate, ITSLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART)
Thesis (2014): Probabilistic Safety Analysis using Traffic Microscopic Simulation
PhD Supervisors: João Cardoso, LNEC; Moshe Ben-Akiva, MIT; Filipe Moura, IST.
Research topic/area: Intelligent Transport Systems, Road Safety, Risk Analysis (SCUSSE project)
Links: Personal webpage
Thesis Abstract: Traffic microscopic simulation applications are currently a common tool in road system analysis and several application attempts to safety performance assessment have been recently carried out. However, current most common approaches still ignore causal relationships between different levels of vehicle interactions or accident types, lacking for a physical representation of the accident phenomena itself. A new generic probabilistic safety assessment framework for traffic microscopic simulation tools is proposed. The probability of a specific accident occurrence is assumed to be estimable by an accident propensity function, composed by a deterministic safety score component and a random component. The formulation of the safety score component may be specified depending on the type of occurrence and on the simulation features. The generic model is then specified for the case of urban motorways for no-accident events and three types of accidents: rear-end, lane-changing and run-off-road accidents. To deal with the lack of available trajectory data for different occurrence types, artificial trajectories from a calibrated microscopic simulation tool are used. These trajectories are obtained following a comprehensive calibration effort: extracting trajectories for a generic scenario, calibration of the simulation tool using the collected trajectories, and re-calibration of the simulation model using aggregate data for each event selected at replication. An advanced method for automatic extraction of vehicle trajectories using aerial imagery is presented, in order to collect the detailed traffic variables. A global sensitivity analysis based calibration is proposed to deal with uncertainty in the detailed calibration of complex models. The parameters of the safety model are estimated using artificial vehicle trajectory data calibrated for the Portuguese A44 motorway and using the MITSIMLab simulator. With this study it is shown how traffic microsimulation tools may replicate detailed traffic statistics that are essential to explain different accident phenomenon and how the quality of this replication is strongly linked to the simulation modelling formulation, the calibration methodology and the available data.
Keywords: traffic microscopic simulation; road safety; probabilistic assessment; driving behaviour modeling; surrogate safety measures; discrete
Publications:
[2015] “Dealing with uncertainty in detailed calibration of traffic simulation models for safety assessment”. Lima Azevedo, C., Ciuffo, B., Cardoso, J., Ben-Akiva, M. E. Transportation Research Part C. Forthcoming.
[2014] “A sensitivity-analysis-based approach for the calibration of traffic simulation models”
Ciuffo, B., Lima Azevedo, C. (2014), IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Transactions, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 1298 – 1309.
[2014] “Vehicle tracking using the k-shortest paths algorithm and dual graphs”
Lima Azevedo, C., Cardoso, J., Ben-Akiva, M. E. (2014) Transportation Research Procedia, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2014, pp 3-11.
[2013] “Road safety performance indicators for the interurban road network.”
Yannis, G., Weijermars, W., Gitelman, V., Vis, M., Chaziris, A., Papadimitriou, E., Lima Azevedo, C. (2013), Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 60, November 2013, Pages 384–395.
[2013] “Automatic vehicle trajectory extraction by aerial remote sensing”
Lima Azevedo, C., Cardoso, J., Ben-Akiva, M. E., Costeira, J.P., Marques, M. (2013), Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 111, pp 849-858.
carlosroque@iol.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2013
Current position: Research Fellow at LNEC
Thesis Title: Critérios de Segurança para a Área Adjacente à Faixa de Rodagem na Rede Rodoviária Nacional
Supervisors: João Paulo Cardoso (LNEC ), José Coelho das Neves (IST-UL)
cvilarinho@fe.up.pt | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering Year: 2012
Research topic/area: Traffic Control, Traffic Modeling
david.j.m.antunes@gmail.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012
PhD Supervisor: António Pais Antunes (UCoimbra)
Thesis Topic: Integrated Airline Schedule Recovery
dpaula@dei.uc.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2007 | Graduation year: 2012
Current position: Assistant Lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology
Thesis Title: Fighting Cruising for Parking through Online Parking Space Reservations
Supervisor: João de Abreu e Silva (IST-UL)
dianaritajorge@hotmail.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2014
Current position: Junior Software Engineer at ORTEC
Thesis Title: Optimization and Simulation of One-Way Carsharing Operations
Supervisors: Gonçalo Correia (FCTUC), Cynthia Barnhart (MIT)
diana@dec.uc.pt | FCT-UC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2015
Current Position: Project Lead at Construções António Leal, SA
Research topic/area: HSR-LCC project
Thesis Title: Rail Cargo on the Lisbon-Madrid High-Speed Rail Line: an assessment of feasibility
Supervisors: Luís de Picado-Santos (IST-UL), Bruno Filipe Santos (Delft University of Technology)
stanpapajohn@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012
PhD Supervisor: Luis Martinez (IST)
Thesis Topic: The main area of this research work is quality in urban public transport. It examines whether there are connections between quality on one side and ridership and mode choice on the other side. It focuses on elements of network design and service provision such as accessibility and connectivity but incorporates other elements that may play an important role. An urban mobility and public transport satisfaction survey has been designed and developed and the data gathered are used to calibrate structural equation models in various level of public transport operation and mode choice. The end results of these models aim to understand the relations between those elements, quality and the decision making in mode choice.
dinis.gardete@netvisao.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2016
Thesis Title: Contribuição para o estabelecimento duma mistura betuminosa adequada para o ciclo de vida através da definição na fase de formulação duma parametrização eficiente
Supervisors: Luís Picado Santos (IST) and Silvino Capitão (ISEC)
erjimenezpe@gmail.com | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Associate Professor at University of Ibague, Colombia
Research topic/area: Long-term strategies for airports: sustainable business, flexibility and network integration
Research Summary: An integrated framework for the analysis of airport strategies with a long-term perspective is proposed. We consider the airport as a multi-service firm that interacts with a network of stakeholders – the airport business network – to deliver several service packages to different groups of customers. We assess the key factors that influence the relationships within this network, which are relevant for the implementation of strategies to create sustainability in the long-term. Such strategies should incorporate flexibility as a core aspect, both at the airport and the airport network levels, in order to generate value for all relevant stakeholders
Thesis Title: Airport strategic planning in the context of low- cost carriers ascendency: insights from the European experience
Supervisors: Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP), João Claro (FEUP), Richard de Neufville (MIT)
Publications: Jimenez, E., Claro, J. and Pinho de Sousa J. (2012) Spatial and commercial evolution of aviation networks: a case study in mainland Portugal. Journal of Transport Geography (In Press). DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.04.011
fcgmartinho@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2014
Thesis Title: Misturas Betuminosas Temperadas com Incorporação de Subprodutos Industriais – Caracterização e Validação Tecnológica
Supervisor: Luís de Picado-Santos (IST-UL)
filmonghere@yahoo.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2013
Current position: Research Associate at Battelle Memorial Institute, U.S.A
Thesis Title: Improved Active Traffic Management System For Motorway Safety and Efficiency: Benefits of reducing the driving task difficulty
Supervisor: Luís de Picado-Santos (IST-UL)
ffurtado2001@yahoo.co.uk | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2016
Current Position: Modeller/Analyst at ITF – International Transport Forum
Thesis Title: Freight Rail Productivity Bottlenecks and Improvements Evaluation on a Network Scale from an Operational Costs Perspective
Supervisors: José Viegas (IST) and Chris Caplice
fredericomorgado@mail.telepac.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009
giulio.piccinini@chalmers.se | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2014
Curent Position: Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, SwedenAssistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Thesis title: Drivers behavioural adaptation to the use of Advanced Cruise Control (ACC) And Blind Spot Information System (BLIS)
PhD Supervisores: Carlos Rodrigues (FEUP)
caiado.goncalo@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Urban planner at Lisbon Municipality
Thesis Title: Modelling the Vulnerability of Complex Transport Network Systems: An Application to Seismic Risk in Urban Environment
Supervisors: Rosário Macário (IST-UL), Carlos Oliveira (IST-UL)
ggduartesantos@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2016
Current Position: Research Assistant at IST
Thesis Title: One way carsharing systems: real time optimization of staff movements and operations
Thesis Summary: Development and testing of a real time methodology for one-way carsharing systems, that is able to continuously update staff tasks to be adapted to the current system status and short-term demand forecasts, producing optimized staff movements and operations.Development and testing of a real time methodology for one-way carsharing systems, that is able to continuously update staff tasks to be adapted to the current system status and short-term demand forecasts, producing optimized staff movements and operations.
Supervisors: Gonçalo Correia (TU Delft), José Viegas (ITF OECD)PhD Advisors: Gonçalo Correia (TU Delft), José Viegas (ITF OECD)
guineng.chen@ist.utl.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2014
Current position: Transport Analyst / Modeller at ITF – International Transport Forum
Research topic/area: The Regional Impacts of High-Speed Rail
Research Summary: It focuses on exploring the impacts induced by high-speed rail (HSR) quantitatively and analyses the relationship between HSR and regional development holistically. It then proposes a simulation model, which is able to combine the different aspects of regional development, such as production, employment, private investment, population and land-use etc., and jointly evaluate the overall impacts of HSR at regional level. The model will be calibrated and validated using the data from Portugal.
Thesis Title: Regional Impacts of High Speed Rail: Prospective Analysis for Portugal and Evidences from Spain
Supervisors: João de Abreu e Silva (IST-UL)
hljones88@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2016
Research topic/area: Improving Cost-Benefit Analysis through New Methodologies for Residual Value and Lifecycle Environmental Impacts
Research Summary: Megaprojects often have cost and schedule overruns. Their analyses are criticized so the costs and benefits should be carefully assessed. The objective is to make improvements to CBA by exploring how to represent the true value an investment generates over time. A review of the major critical factor weaknesses is performed. These include traffic forecasts, cost estimates, discount rate, value of non-market goods, regional, local and environmental impacts and residual value. Improvements for the factors can be made with a highlight on two factors (residual value and lifecycle environmental impacts) that can bring innovative , robust improvements to the process.
Thesis Title: Transport Infrastructure Project Evaluation: Transforming CBA to include a life cycle perspective
Supervisors: Filipe Moura (IST-UL), Tiago Domingos (IST-UL)
jduartecosta@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2013
PhD Supervisor: Rosário Macário
Thesis Topic: Year 1 is assigned to taking selected courses that provide a theoretical and methodological foundation for the PhD project: transport demand modeling, research methodologies, transport economics, decision analysis, transport policy and institutions and business models and contracts. Year 2 is assigned to topic discovery, problem definition, proof of relevance, literature review. A major review of appraisal practice is underway, as well as a theoretical conceptualization of the intergenerational problem in appraisal. A case study will be carried out for proof of relevance. Year 3 starts with a methodological discussion followed by the submission and presentation of a dissertation project. A visit to MIT will take place during this year. A further visit to the University of Antwerp is planned to discuss the econometric aspects of the intergenerational problem. A publication is to be submitted following this visit. Year 3 is assigned to discussing and refining the methodology, to gathering data, and to begin carrying it out. Year 4 is assigned to conclude carrying out the methodology, including data processing, reflection and dissertation completion.
joana.cavadas@hotmail.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2013
PhD Supervisor: António Pais Antunes (UCoimbra)
Thesis Topic: Integrated Transit-Parking Policies
joao.miguel.carreira.almeida@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering Year: 2009
joao.crucho@tecnico.ulisboa.pt ; crucho@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012
PhD supervisor: José Manuel Coelho das Neves ; PhD Co-supervisor: Silvino Dias Capitão (ISEC)
Research area: Transportation Systems
Research summary: Use of nano-materials to improve the surface properties and the durability of road pavement wearing courses.
joaopita@gmail.com | FCT-UC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2013
Current position: Head pf Airline Business at GRU Airport, São Paulo, Brazil
Research topic/area: AirNets project
Thesis Title: Air Traffic Network Design Under Congestion
Supervisors: António Antunes (FCTUC), Cynthia Barnhart (MIT)
j.p.pritchard@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2011 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Researcher at University of Twente, The NetherlandsResearcher at University of Twente, The Netherlands
Thesis Title: Exploring the relationship between social exclusion, well-being, accessibility and daily mobility in Lisbon, Portugal
Supervisors: Filipe Moura (IST-UL), João Abreu e Silva (IST-UL)
jlopes@brisa.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2012
Current position: Technology and Information Officer at Brisa, Portugal
Research topic/area: CityMotion project
Thesis Title: Traffic Prediction for Unplanned Events on Motorways
Supervisors: João Bento (IST-UL), Moshe Ben-Akiva (MIT)
jlfeiteira@gmail.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2011
Thesis Title: Misturas betuminosas incorporando por via seca borracha de pneus usados : caracterização e validação tecnológica
Supervisor: Luis de Picado Santos (IST-UL)
liliana.magalhaes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012
Personal Website ;Research gate
PhD Supervisors: Vasco Reis and Rosário Macário (IST, CEris)
Thesis Topic: This thesis is about flexible airport development. It focuses on how to improve and adapt the passengers’ processes of an airport terminal, in order to cope with air transport uncertainty and dynamism through flexible options and assess which one produces the best results. The goal is to study the airport terminal flexibility by analyzing its processes. One of the hypotheses of this thesis is that a terminal with flexible processes is a flexible airport terminal. Uncertainty results of several factors, such as demand, economic cycles, environmental constraints or land-use restrictions. Flexibility has been pointed as a key mechanism to face uncertainty though the discussion is mainly conceptual. No methodology to measure the benefits of flexible options has been provided. The approach in this study is to analyse the terminal processes for passengers and herein, apply flexible options. Then, a decision support tool is being developed to assess the benefits of flexible options in order to choose the one which produces the best results.
lfecaetano@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010 | Graduation year: 2016
Current position: Senior Engineer at FORCE Technology
Thesis Title: Strategic model to optimize railway track maintenance and renewal operations
Supervisors: Luis Picado Santos (IST); Paulo Teixeira (IST); Joe Sussman (MIT)
luis.goncalo@fe.up.pt | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2013
Current position: Consultant at SPI – Sociedade Portuguesa de InovaçãoConsultant at SPI – Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação
Thesis Title: Development and Application Of A Strategic Rail Network Optimization Model for Freight Transport
Supervisors: António Couto (FEUP), Paulo Teixeira (UL)
ec05127@fe.up.pt | FEUP | Transport Systems PhD | Entering year: 2012
Research topic/area: Road safety: Tools to Injury Prevention – modeling and optimization for efficient management system of the emergency services
Research Summary: In order to provide efficient tools to promote the analysis of risk factors associated to injury severities and good practices in safety interventions, the project LIVE aims at the development of a data system resulting from a linkage process of the medical information and police accident report. The project outcomes will provide know-how to define measures embracing the road environment, particularly their influence on pedestrian accidents, but also to promote an efficient management system of the emergency services –further interests in implementation of an optimization system and definition of hotspots.
Supervisor: António José Fidalgo Couto (FEUP), Sara Ferreita (FEUP), Edgar Blanco
mspandou@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2016
Current Position: Associate at Thessaloniki Public Transport Authority (ThePTA)
Research summary: Urban public transport systems have significant influence on everyday life and activities of modern cities, with the institutional component playing a crucial role. This PhD dissertation contributes to this academic discussion by (i) delving into the knowledge base on institutional design theory and performance management, (ii) mapping, understanding and assessing the decision-making processes of metropolitan public transport policy, planning and operations level, as well as the interrelations among relevant stakeholders, and (iii) identifying, analyzing and evaluating the institutional design parameters that constitute determinants of good institutional, as well as overall performance. The analysis is based on an interdisciplinary and mixed methodological framework, namely a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, primarily based on comparative case study research.
Thesis Title: Institutional design as performance factor: a comparative institutional analysis of two metropolitan public transport systems
Supervisor: Rosário Macário (IST-UL)
marta.m.c.ferreira@gmail.com | FEUP |Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2013
PhD Supervisor: João Falcão e Cunha (FEUP); Jorge Pinho de Sousa (FEUP)
Thesis Topic: The main aim of this research project is to enhance public transport systems by introducing a holistic view of the whole system they are embedded in. By broadening the design space further than the existing boundaries of the transport systems and by introducing new channels in the service delivery process it is possible to find innovative ways to cocreate value. Therefore, the proposed research project has three main objectives:
mjpeneda@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems Msc 2009/2010
Current position: Head of Operations Control at Wizz Air
Thesis Title: Critical Factors for the Development of Airport Cities
Supervisors: Rosário Macário (IST)
merkebeg@yahoo.com | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009 | Graduation year: 2014
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Calgary
Thesis Title: Estimation and Prediction of Road Traffic Status with Information from Multiple Sources
Supervisors: Gonçalo Homem de Almeida Rodriguez Correia and Professor Carlos Lisboa Bento (FCTUC)
Thesis abstract: All around the World we experience the trends of the last decades on increased urbanization as more and more people shift their living to cities. However, many cities lack the resources to respond to the magnitude of the change in their urban areas, which forces people to compete for the use of land, roads, public transport, and other urban facilities. As a result of the increasing number of people, cities face an increasing number of private vehicles and commuters which in turn cause various problems such as traffic congestion, parking difficulties, traffic accidents, loss of space for productive activities, public transport inadequacy and undesirable environmental impacts. In the past, public authorities followed approaches that nowadays are financially unsustainable, focused mainly on expanding the road network to alleviate the problem. However, many analysts argue that the solution for these problems is better addressed through intelligent planning and management of the existing urban and transportation systems. Planning of the urban and transportation system traditionally relied on the knowledge of present and future problems that are associated to the urban growth such as how much travel will be generated, where these trips will take place, by which mode and on which routes. Creating such plans requires information regarding the movement of people and vehicles, knowledge of constituents of the urban system, and understanding the nature of activities at different places. There are various traditional methods for gathering the raw data necessary for urban and transportation planning. Although these methods have the advantage of providing detailed information, their limited coverage and expensive costs of implementation often make them insufficient. More recently, the spread of massive sensoring, namely through the generalized use of cellphone, is producing massive amounts of data with spatio-temporal detail about our daily activities and traveling patterns, which could be important to the planning of urban and transportation systems given their pervasiveness, low cost, and real time nature. In this thesis we explore the use of cellphone data for profiling the dynamics of urban activities and characterizing flows of people for planning of urban and transportation systems in cities. Three types of passive mobile positioning data were used: (1) Call Volume, which is the number of calls; (2) Erlang, which is used to measure the equivalent cellphone traffic per hour; and (3) Handover, which is the process of transferring an ongoing call from one base station to another without interruption of service. Our observations are based on hourly aggregated cellphone data obtained from a dataset from a telecom company in Lisbon, Portugal. Though passive mobile positioning data is extracted without incurring additional costs and operational risks for the network, it has two main limitations. Firstly, location acquired by this method is at the granularity of a cell sector, which gives uncertainty on the exact location of the collected variables; secondly, it is only acquired when a phone is engaged in a call or short message service. However, we argue that the aggregate cellphone data used in this study remains useful for our analysis, which is at a scale where the lack of a detailed level of precision is not essential. For validation of our results, we collaborated with other data providers in Lisbon to gather different ground truth datasets that could improve our understanding of urban dynamics such as census data, taxi movement, bus movement, traffic count, points of interest, and presence of people. We proposed new approaches to reflect the potential of passive mobile positioning data for urban and transportation planning. Our approach comprises three stages: (1) exploratory data analysis aimed to discover the kind of relationship that emerges between cellular networks data and urban characteristics, activities, and dynamics at a city-scale; (2) use of cellphone data to detect activities associated to the urban areas in what respects to two aspects of activities: spatial patterns of urban activities, and intensities of urban activities along the hours of a day; and (3) extraction of cellular network data for development of models that predict hourly traffic status. Our results confirm that passive mobile positioning data, taking the advantage of its pervasiveness and availability with reasonably less cost, can provide ways to analyse the dynamics of urban activities at a larger scale. In addition, our approach complements traditional urban data collection methods, which are usually made available less frequently to urban and transportation planners, and is especially useful for developing countries where other approaches are too expensive.
Keywords: cellular network; Erlang; Handover; traffic estimation; transportation planning; urban planning; urban activity; urban dynamics.
Publications
1. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C., 2015. Analysis of the pattern and intensity of urban activities through aggregate cellphone usage. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science. DOI: 10.1080/23249935.2015.1019591.
2. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C., 2014. Extracting urban activities through aggregate cellphone usage. 17th EURO working group on transportation meeting, Seville, Spain, July 2 to 4, 2014.
3. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C., 2013. Intelligent road traffic status detection system through cellular networks handover information: An exploratory study. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 32(2013), pp.76-78.
4. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C.L., 2013. Exploring cellular network handover information for urban mobility analysis. Journal of Transport Geography 31(2013), pp. 164-170.
5. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C.L., 2013. Traffic volume estimation through cellular networks handover information. 13th World Conference on Transportation Research, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 15 to18, 2013.
6. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C., 2014. Application of datasets from multiple sources for urban and transportation planning: emphasis on cellular network data. Poster presented at the 4th MIT Portugal Program Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, June 27, 2014.
7. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C., 2014. Urban sensing using cellphone data. 11th Annual Transports Study Group Conference, Covilha, Portugal, January 6 to 7, 2014.
8. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C.L., 2013. Exploring the relationship between number of bus passengers and cellular networks information. CITTA 6th Annual conference on planning research, Coimbra, Portugal, May 17, 2013.
9. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C.L., 2013. Inferring characteristics of places from cellular networks data. CITTA 6th Annual conference on planning research, Coimbra, Portugal, 17th May, 2013.
10. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bento, C.L., 2012. Intelligent road traffic status detection system through cellular networks handover information. Poster presented at the 3rd MIT Portugal Program Conference, Guimarães, Portugal, May 28 to 29, 2012.
11. Demissie, M.G., Correia, G.H., Bizarro, P., Bento, C.L., 2012. Estimation and prediction of road traffic status with information from multiple sources. 9th Annual Transports Study Group Conference, Tomar, Portugal, January 5 to 6, 2012.
Other publications
1. Demissie, M.G., 2014. Combining datasets from multiple sources for urban and transportation planning: emphasis on cellular network data. PhD thesis, Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal.
2. Demissie, M.G., 2009. Simulation based performance assessment of mini-roundabout. Master´s thesis. Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
3. Koyrita. A., Demissie, M.G., 2007. Study of property of silk fibre produced in Ethiopia and its post cocoon facilities. Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
santmigu@amazon.lu | FCTUC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2011
Thesis Title: Optimization Models for the Expansion of Airport Network
mhajizamani@yahoo.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2009
pdomingoslnec@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2016
Thesis Title: Modelação do Comportamento de Pavimentos Rodoviários Flexíveis Através de Métodos Incrementais
Supervisors: Maria Lurdes Antunes (LNEC), José Manuel Coelho das Neves (IST)
rodax_21@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2013
Thesis Topic: As part of the thesis to develop will be held in the first instance, a diagnosis of track geometry degradation patterns and a characterization of the current state of the various lines that make up the Portuguese Railways in terms of their geometric condition location. It is also aimed at the characterization of the efficiency of maintenance operations, through mathematical modeling of the dispersion patterns obtained for data recovery values obtained for each route of attack. It is also purpose of this work the development of a new indicator of geometric track quality to be used in predicting the degradation of their point defects. Finally, based on this indicator, plans to build a model predictive maintenance needs associated with the existence and evolution of point defects that can serve as input for generating algorithms to optimize the timing of railroad maintenance activities.
rafaelaarriaga@yahoo.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2007
Research topic/area: SCUSSE project
mei03006@netvisao.pt | FEUP | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008
Research topic/area: Dynamic Vehicle Routing (CityMotion project)
rui_dos_santos@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2007 | Graduation year: 2015
Thesis Title: Planning and scheduling models towards a more efficient heavy maintenance of the railway track
Supervisors: Paulo Teixeira (IST-UL), Joseph Sussman (MIT)
Research topic/area: HSR-LLC project
IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2011 | Graduation year: 2015
Current position: Senior Fellow at Project Drawdown
Thesis Title: Intermodal Passenger Transport: Are Operators On-board? A Game Theory Examination of Operator Incentives.
Supervisors: Filipe Moura (IST-UL)Filipe Moura (IST-UL)
sophia.kalak@hotmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2011 | Graduation year: 2016
Thesis Title: Flexibility of airport passenger buildings: a pedestrian and technology-oriented approach
Thesis Summary: This research project aims to explore the flexibility of airport passenger buildings. The provision of high Level of Service (LOS) is guaranteed while estimating adequately space configuration and minimizing the corresponding full costs involved. Space analysis, pedestrian planning, passenger behavior, airport performance evaluation, simulation modeling and flexibility analysis are the key scientific areas. Future uncertainty and the effect of new technologies are also taken into account. The developed methodology is applied at Lisbon Portela airport.
Supervisor: Filipe Moura (IST-UL)
tiago.fernandes@armis.pt | FCT-UC | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008
Research topic/area: CityMotion project
tiago.moco.ferreira@gmail.com | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2008 | Graduation year: 2015
Current Position: Transportation Systems Consultant at SENER
Thesis Title: Design of Railway Track Substructure Modelling the Long Term Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Behaviour Due to Traffic and Environmental Actions
Supervisors: Paulo Teixeira (IST-UL)
teiro@civil.ist.utl.pt | IST | Transportation Systems PhD | Entering year: 2010
Research topic/area: An Agent-Based Simulation approach to model a Urban Mobility System. An application to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area
Research Summary: With this research we intend to develop a simulation tool that allows analyzing the mode choice behavior on the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. This behavior will be influenced by the introduction of new more demand responsive transport options like the minibus, carpooling, carsharing and shared taxis. These new transport operators will emerge as small private companies that intend to gain position in an already existent mobility market. This model will act as a decision support tool to guide the LMA mobility market to a more sustainable and efficient configuration.
Publications: Eiró, Tomás, Viegas, José M. and L. Miguel Martínez (2011). “Configuration of Innovative Minibus Service in the Lisbon, Portugal, Municipality”. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 2217, pp. 127-35