Global collaboration to make urban transport sustainable

The central theme of the endeavour is to bring together recent advances in information technology and transportation science to increase the efficiency of urban transportation systems. At the same time ensuring a sustainable and livable environment – first in Singapore and ultimately on a global scale.

Led by Amedeo Odoni, professor of aeronautics and of civil and environmental engineering, participants in the five-year project include Carlo Ratti and Chris Zegras from the department of urban studies and planning.

 Other names include, researchers from MIT’s school of engineering and the Sloan School of Management working with faculty members from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and the Singapore Management University. The collaboration makes a total of nearly 60 researchers from four academic institutions.

At the heart of the project is SimMobility, a simulation platform with an integrated model of human and commercial activities, land use, energy use, transportation and environmental impacts.

It is linked with a range of networked computing and mobility innovations.

Researchers plan to use the data generated by these devices, and a range of new tools that harness real-time information and management systems, to design and evaluate new mobility solutions for urban settings.

The project is one of a host of transportation-related efforts coordinated through the Transportation@MIT initiative, formed to speed the development of new ideas in sustainability, technology, business practice and public policy.  The Singapore collaboration represents a significant increase in the scale of MIT’s transportation-related research.