2021 News

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FMRI's Associate Director of Research, Dr. John Hourdos, Serves as a Keynote Speaker at the 7th Intelligent Transport Systems Conference in Athens December 8–9, 2021, Athens, Greece Dr. John Hourdos, FMRI Associate Director of Research serves as a keynote speaker at the 7th Intelligent Transport Systems Conference in Athens. The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems, ITS Hellas, organized with great success the 7th ITS Hellas Conference which was held in Athens, on December 8-9th, 2021. This hybrid Conference was held under the theme “Transportation & Logistics 4.0: Exploring Innovation”, focusing on the challenges, the needs and the benefits that will be brought by the progression in the area of transportation in Greece.
FMRI's Associate Director, Dr. Mihalis Golias, awarded the Inland Maritime Port Executive (IMPE) Professional Certification December 6, 2021, Port of Decatur, Alabama The FMRI's Associate Director, Dr. Mihalis Golias, awarded with the Inland Maritime Port Executive (IMPE) Professional Certification by the International Association of Marine Port Executives (IAMPE). The IAMPE is a not-for-profit industry association that provides professional development for coastal and inland port and terminal managers and executives. Programs are reviewed and approved for certification by the Association’s Board of Advisors, comprised of over 20 industry professionals. Academic partners include the Graduate Schools at Maine Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Texas Southern University as well as the Continuing Education Program of the State University of New York Maritime College. The Association offers professional and accredited programs in Coastal and Inland Port Management and Executive Management, as well as certification programs for Marine Terminal Operator and IMDG/Hazardous Awareness.
FMRI at the 2nd International Conference "Intermodal Transports: Innovations in Planning, Management, Business Development, and Decision Making" October 14–15, 2021, Alexandroupolis, Greece The FMRI faculty and staff have been invited to participate at the 2nd International Conference “Intermodal Transports: Innovations in Planning, Management, Business Development & Decision Making” in Alexandroupolis, Greece. The international conference focused on strategic planning, business development and economic contribution, specifically related to intermodal transport with distinguished keynote speakers from industry and academia expressing their views and proposing solutions to the aforementioned topics. The FMRI’s Director, Dr. Evangelos Kaisar, was one of the keynote speakers presenting the topics “Challenges for Studies and Research in U.S.A.” and “Intermodal Transports: Innovations in Planning, Management, Business Development & Decision Making”. At the same conference, the FMRI’s Graduate Research Assistant, Ms. Vasia Antonoglou, presented two FMRI research projects titled, “Identification of Emergency Truck Parking Location in Florida State with Spatial Analysis Tools” and “Mathematical Optimization Model for Minimizing the Autonomous Robots Logistic Cost via Artificial Intelligence Algorithm”.
FMRI Research published at TRR July 30, 2021, Portland, OR We are pleased to announce that the paper by Dr. Miguel Figliozzi, professor at Portland State University, titled “Accessibility and Equity Analysis of Transit Facility Sites for Common Carrier Parcel Lockers” was recently accepted in the Transportation Research Record. You can check out a summary of this work below. Abstract: Transit goals have typically focused on commuter trips, but facilitating urban last-mile freight logistics is a potential strategy to increase transit ridership and mitigate the demands of parcel distribution on the transportation network. Presently, most parcel lockers operate out of private businesses, but consumer surveys have found that transit users may be interested in locker facilities at transit facilities. The implementation of an unmanned, secure, common carrier parcel locker system could have benefits for non-transit users as well. This research presents a multiple-criteria approach for analyzing the potential of public transportation facilities as a host for a common carrier locker system. Accessibility and equity metrics, including ridership, mode of transportation, spatial distribution, and sociodemographic profiles of coverage areas are utilized. A case study utilizing real-world data from the Portland, OR region and its transit facilities is used to illustrate accessibility and equity tradeoffs. The results demonstrate that multiple facility types have the potential to host a locker system, but there are complex accessibility and equity tradeoffs to be considered by stakeholders and policymakers when prioritizing locations.
The I-40 Bridge Failure Threatens National Freight Transportation May 18, 2021, United States On May 11, Arkansas DOT bridge inspectors discovered a crack in the structure of the Hernando De Soto Bridge on I-40 over the Mississippi River. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) closed the bridge between Memphis, TN, and West Memphis, AR, to all traffic. Vehicles were detoured to the I-55 bridge three miles away, a detour that is creating traffic delays in the surrounding highway network. Due to rerouting of the traffic, statistics show that in rush-hour travel time is up to 75 minutes, while in a normal day, commuters could bypass it in 15 minutes on average. The American Transport Research Institute (ATRI) studied traffic after bridge closure compared to normal operations before closure. Find more information on the link below Read more
FMRI Research: Epidemic Risk on Public Transit March 15, 2021, United States This paper titled "Estimation and Mitigation of Epidemic Risk on a Public Transit Route using Automatic Passenger Count Data" studies the potential spread of infectious disease through passenger encounters in a public transit system using automatic passenger count (APC) data. An algorithmic procedure is proposed to evaluate three different measures to quantify these encounters. Compressed sensing is employed to estimate a sparse passenger flow matrix planted in the underdetermined system of equations obtained from the APC data. This research was developed by Pramesh Kumar, Alireza Khani, and Eric Lind from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and John Levin from Metro Transit, Minneapolis. Read more
FMRI Research: Home Deliveries and the COVID-19 Lockdown March 15, 2021, United States During the COVID-19 lockdown, home deliveries have changed from being a desirable luxury or comfortable solution to a health-supporting and essential service for the vulnerable population. However, this has brought to light access inequalities that preceded the pandemic. In this research titled "Factors Affecting Home Deliveries Before and During COVID-19 Lockdown: Accessibility, Environmental Justice, Equity, and Policy Implications" and developed by Miguel Figliozzi and Avinash Unnikrishnan, from Portland State University, the concept of home-based accessibility (HBA) is introduced and a series of research questions were addressed. Exploratory and confirmatory models are estimated utilizing data collected from an online survey in the Portland metropolitan region. This research is part of the documentation considered for the update of the Portland Freight Plan. Read more
FMRI Graduate Students Awarded Research Assistant of the Year - Honorable Mention February 22, 2021, Boca Raton, FL The FMRI is honored to announce the students awarded in the 3rd Annual Graduate Academic Excellence Awards. Held by The FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science, this event aims at recognizing exceptional graduate students and their impressive research projects and academic accomplishments. This year, the FMRI's graduate assistant Katerina Koliou was awarded Graduate Research Assistant of the Year - Honorable Mention. Ms. Koliou is graduating this semester with a project on data analysis of vehicle movement during large scale emergencies and disasters. She also presented a poster of an FMRI project in the same event, and you may find it here.
FMRI Graduate Student Awarded Best Poster February 22, 2021, Boca Raton, FL The FMRI is honored to announce the students awarded in the 3rd Annual Graduate Academic Excellence Awards. This event was hosted by the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University. In the poster presentation session of this event, the Best Poster MS award was granted to Anika Tabassum. She presented the project "An Optimization Model for Determining Optimal Fleet Size for a Robot-sharing System". This is an FMRI project and you can watch her presentation here.
FMRI Research: Autonomous Delivery Robots and the COVID-19 Pandemic February 15, 2021, United States The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has put a global spotlight on autonomous delivery robot (ADR) technology for contactless package deliveries. Increased market interest has been pushing developers to provide large-scale ADR operation across the US. This study titled "Evaluating Public Acceptance of Autonomous Delivery Robots During COVID-19 Pandemic" was developed by Dr. Sabya Mishra and Dr Mihalis Golias from the University of Memphis, Dr. Miguel Figliozzi from Portland State University, and Dr. Evangelos Kaisar from Florida Atlantic University. It offers a detailed analysis of consumer preferences, trust, attitudes, and willingness to pay (WTP). Read more
FMRI Research: Analysis of Vehicle Moviments during the COVID-19 Pandemic February 15, 2021, United States This research titled "Analysis of Vehicle Movement during the COVID-19 Pandemic" has identified the changes in vehicle movement in the pandemic year of 2020. Vehicles were categorized based on its class with an emphasis on heavy vehicles. Dr. Evangelos Kaisar and Katerina Koliou from Florida Atlantic University, and Dr. Scott Parr from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University applied statistical methods to find the days with significant changes and analyze the demand and resilience of transportation. Read more
WTS FAU Student Chapter hosts its first Workshop on Career Advancement February 12, 2021, Boca Raton, FL With the support of WTS International, the WTS FAU Student chapter partnered up with the WTS FIU Student Chapter to host the 1st WTS @ FAU Resume & Interview Workshop. The virtual event was presented by Erin Emmons and Thuha Nguyen, with participation of other WTS South Florida Chapter members and president Benazir Portal. The goal of this virtual event was to help students on a successful school-to-work transition and improve their confidence in their job seeking game. Activities included tips on how to develop a resume and acing an interview. Professionals in areas related to Transportation provided feedback on both student's resumes and mock interviews.
FMRI Workshop at TRB 2021 January 24, 2021, United States The FMRI team would like to thank all 160+ participants that contributed to the success of our workshop titled "Freight Planning & Operational Logistics for the 'New Normal'". We also had valuable discussions in breakout sessions. This workshop was sponsored by the Freight Transportation Planning & Logistic Committee (AT015) and co-sponsored by the Standing Committee on Urban Freight Transportation (AT025). It was presided by Dr. Evangelos Kaisar and Mr. Charles Edwards, from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. You can watch the Workshop archive in the TRB Virtual Event platform below (requires conference access).