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Internships at Kittelson
2023-10-25 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Kittelson interns work on a variety of real projects and build relationships with team members across the firm through project work, technical trainings, meet & greets, and a two-day SCOUT Summit. If you’re interested in a 2024 internship, we invite you to join us for this follow-up Q&A session to learn about the experience of interning with Kittelson, and what we look for in an internship application. You’ll hear from Sonia Daleiden, Kittelson’s director of staff development; Mark Heisinger, one of our internship program organizers; former intern Megan Mello; and Jade Ma, who interned with us most recently in Summer 2023.

Biweekly Coffee and Tea Break
2023-10-26 14:00 - 16:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
Come stop by the C2SMART Data Viz Lab for some light refreshments!

Student Learning Hub: Solving Large-Scale Optimization Problems: A Practical Guide to High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Using C++ APIs for CPLEX
2023-10-27 12:00 - 13:00
Instructor: Yuhao Liu, NYU Shanghai
Hands-on exercise: Yes
Beginner level: No prior experience required.
Schedule: Friday Oct 27th, 12-1pm

Description: This course is designed to equip the audience with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the world of high performance computing (HPC) and leverage IBM’s CPLEX optimization studio for tackling complex optimization challenges. In this course, you will learn 1) how to run computation tasks on HPC clusters; 2) how to solve optimization problems using the C++ API of CPLEX; and 3) how to deploy and run CPLEX programs on HPC clusters for large-scale optimization models and/or parallel optimization algorithms.

Seminar: Advancing Sustainable Transportation: Policy Analysis and Operation Design for Electrified Ride-Sourcing Systems.
2023-11-01 15:00 - 16:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
Presented by NYU Shanghai’s Zhibin Chen

National Stem Day
2023-11-08 10:30 - 14:30 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
C2SMARTER and ITE MET Section are hosting a National STEM Day Event with students from Bronx high school(s) on Wednesday, November 8th.

Fireside Chat- From Classroom to Career: How Students Can Harness Experiential Learning for Future Success
2023-11-08 16:00 - 17:00
C2SMARTER’S Dr. Jingqin Gao will moderate a discussion with Prof. Gabriela Gongora-Svartzman from Carnegie Mellon University.
In this insightful fireside talk, we explore the synergy between data-driven careers, industry, and education, emphasizing the transformative power of data literacy in decision-making. Prof. Gongora-Svartzman will provide insights on maximizing the value of academic and experiential opportunities, bridging the gap between education and real-world applications, and offering guidance on post-graduation career transitions. Additionally, Prof. Gongora-Svartzman will delve into the pivotal role of technologists in building public trust through technology in the public sector and promoting tech for social good. She will address the critical importance of ethical data analysis, highlighting the role of data storytelling and visualization in projects. Join us to shape a future where data-driven professionals play a vital role in fostering positive societal impact.
BIO
Prof. Gongora-Svartzman serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor for Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, where she teaches various courses, including Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization with Python, Machine Learning Foundations with Python, and Data Analytics with Tableau. She also holds the role of faculty advisor for capstone projects for various graduate programs. Before joining CMU, she was an Adjunct Instructor at Stevens Institute of Technology’s Business Intelligence and Analytics Program and an Adjunct Associate Faculty at Columbia University’s Applied Analytics Program. Prof. Gongora-Svartzman’s research focuses on Urban Informatics, Data Visualization for Decision Making, and Resilience and Social Perception. Her work uniquely bridges technical service performance with human perceptions, covering areas like disaster preparedness through social media analysis, smart city service quality, social equity movements, transportation services, and decarbonization strategies. She actively contributes to the field as a member of INFORMS, leading sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion and serving in various leadership roles. Beyond her academic pursuits, she champions women in STEM, diversity, equity, and inclusion in computing and mentors students in data competitions. She has also served as chair of the Early Career Teachers Network (ECTN 2021 and 2022), Secretary for Women in OR/MS (2021), current VP of Communications for Women in OR/MS (2022) and has been a mentor for the Women in OR/MS Mentorship program for 2019-2021.

Student Learning Hub: Essentials of Data Acquisition for Transportation Analysis
2023-11-10 12:00 - 13:00
Instructor: Vivian Otieno, Texas Southern University
Hands-on exercise: Yes
Beginner level: No prior experience required.
Schedule: Friday November 10th, 12-1pm

Description: Essentials of Data Acquisition for Transportation Analysis involves the collection, processing, and analysis of data about traffic patterns, vehicle movements, and other factors that can be useful in the transportation industry. This course will cover types of data acquisition systems, the technologies used in data acquisition, the advantages and disadvantages of data collection systems, and how the collected data is used in the transportation industry to improve the system and make it better.

C2SMARTER Industry Roundtable
2023-11-13 14:00 - 15:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
This roundtable discussion brings together founders from technology start-ups in the NYC area aiming for transportation data analytics and mobility innovations, where they will share their ventures, experiences, and lessons learned. The event will be moderated by NYU’s Prof. Eugene Vinitsky.
The panelists for the roundtable are:

Su Sanni, founder and CEO of Dollaride
Tara Pham, founder and CEO of Numina
Navjodh Singh, founder of Strata

Civil Engineering Career Fair
2023-11-29 09:00 - 14:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201

Vision Zero Research on the Road Symposium
2023-11-29 09:00 - 16:30 | One Liberty Plaza, One Liberty Plaza, NY, NY

Women in Transporation II: Lavanya Marla
2023-11-30 16:00 - 17:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201

Leveraging Passively-collected Mobility Data in Generating Spatially-heterogeneous Synthetic Population
2024-01-05 13:00 - 14:00
Conventional population synthesis methods rely on household travel survey (HTS) data. However, the synthesized population suffers from a low spatial heterogeneity issue due to high data aggregation and low sampling rates of HTS data. Passively collected (PC) data from smartphone devices or transit smart cards have the potential to overcome the limitations of HTS data, thanks to the continuous collection of mobility patterns at a high spatial resolution for a large proportion of the population. However, the mismatched spatial resolution, sampling rate, and attribute information make the fusion of HTS and PC data challenging. This study presents a novel cluster-based data fusion method that exploits the benefits of both HTS and PC data to generate a synthetic population with high spatial heterogeneity. As the number of the value combinations for spatial attributes (e.g., home and work locations) in PC data is much larger than that in HTS data, clustering is adopted to deal with the high-dimensionality issue and link spatial attributes in the two data sources. The data fusion problem is then formulated as tractable multiple low-dimensional optimization subproblems. The properties of the proposed method are analytically derived. The application of the proposed approach is demonstrated using the HTS and LTE/5G cellular signaling data from Seoul, South Korea

TRB 2024: UTC Directors Meeting
2024-01-07 09:00 - 11:00

NYU/C2SMARTER TRB Reception
2024-01-08 18:00 - 20:00
Monday, January 8, 2024
6:00pm – 8:00pm ET
Marriott Marquis Salon 15 (M2 Level)
901 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC

TRB: Center Meeting
2024-01-09 17:00 - 19:00

TRB Workshop: Understand Digital Twins for Transportation Systems
2024-01-11 09:00
Although the idea of pairing simulation with traffic operations is not new, the development and deployment of digital twins have been gaining popularity among transportation practitioners and researchers. This workshop will cover the past and current application of digital twins and future opportunities with a focus on a plethora of applications ranging from traditional traffic signal control to more ambitious city-wide management and planning of various mobility solutions. The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning to handle input and output requirements will also be discussed.

7th NYUAD Transportation Symposium
2024-01-12 08:00 - 17:00 | 19 Washington Square North, 19 Washington Square North, NY, NY
The symposium, cosponsored by C2SMARTER, will be held at the NYUAD site in NY, 19 Washington Square North, in the heart of the NYU campus, on January 12, 2024, immediately after the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting.
This year’s theme is Climate Change and Transportation.

NYC Intelligent Transportation Workshop
2024-01-16
Speakers:

Prof. Zhibin Chen (NYU Shanghai)
Prof. Xuan Sharon Di (Columbia University)
Prof. Monica Menendez (NYUAD)
Prof. Andrea Lodi (Cornell Tech)

Transit Accessibility Showcase
2024-01-23 15:00 - 18:00 | Makerspace, 6 Metrotech
The Transit Accessibility Showcase will demonstrate new and emerging technologies to assist people with disabilities in using public transportation.

Vision Zero Youth Day
2024-02-09 14:00 - 18:00

RESCHEDULED: Women in Transportation, Prof. Lavanya Marla
2024-02-14 15:00 - 16:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
The confluence of learning and optimization holds great promise for solving dynamic, online resource allocation problems under uncertainty. In this talk, I will present brief overviews of two such problems in which tools developed independently in one field have helped solve problems in the complementary field. First, we focus on the problem of collaborative routing of aircraft and unmanned vehicles, under non-stationary spatial-temporal correlations. A long unsolved question in air and ground routing has been: “if a subset of traveling vehicles can be used for exploration to update information, how should vehicles be routed to collect information most useful to minimize costs for the entire fleet”? We expand on recent advances in multi-armed bandit algorithms to solve this problem, and generate near-optimal policies. We find this could reduce travel time and fuel burn by about 5% for the fleet. Second, we study how we can improve upon long-used regret bounds in AI/ML, which are based on omniscient information about the future. Our work builds on Brown, Smith, and Sun (2010), who present an approach for information-relaxation bounds in dynamic programs. However, the computation of these penalized information-relaxation bounds (or penalized regret bounds) for large-scale systems has hitherto been discussed by many as intractable. We present tractable methods to achieve bounds for time-space network-based problems and problems modeled as block-diagonal mixed-integer programs.
Light refreshments will be provided. If you cannot join in person, register to attend via Zoom

Student Learning Hub: Fireside Chat
2024-02-21 15:30 - 16:30 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
Chris is a transportation planning professional with over 10 years of experience in the industry. He has led both regional and statewide transportation planning efforts, as well as managed several sub-area and corridor studies. In his role with AirSage, Chris advises public agency and consulting clients on how to leverage mobile device and connected vehicle data for more informed decision-making. With a diverse portfolio in developing cutting-edge decision-support tools and data-driven methodologies, he consistently champions innovative approaches to address complex transportation challenges. Chris holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Economics, complemented by a Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Kansas.

Light refreshments will be provided! If you cannot attend in person, join via Zoom

City Tech/NYU Tandon C2Smarter Poster Presentation & Social
2024-03-05 16:00 - 18:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201

Women in Transportation Series: Ilgin Guler, Penn State
2024-03-07 15:00 - 16:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
Many urban areas rely on bus transit to provide mobility to people. Transit priority strategies can be used to improve bus operations. However, implementing transit priority applications can often increase the delay of non-transit modes. Hence, the system-wide benefits or impacts of transit priority applications (TPA) are typically unknown. Moreover, the impacts and benefits of TPAs can change the mode and route choice of network users. This relationship between the effects of TPAs on traffic and behavior of the network users makes accurate evaluation of TPA locations challenging. In this talk, a bi-level location optimization algorithm that can evaluate and optimally select locations of TPA applications will be presented. Further, the accuracy of the optimization process is also addressed by testing different metaheuristic methods to identify an optimization method that can account for the interdependencies between TPA locations.
Light refreshments will be provided. If you cannot attend in person, join via Zoom

SLH: Narratives in Mapping: An Introduction to ArcGIS StoryMaps in Advocacy and Public Policy
2024-03-08 12:00 - 13:00
Instructor: Saul Bezner, Carnegie Mellon University
Hands-on exercise: Yes
Beginner level: No prior experience required. Basic GIS knowledge is preferred.
Schedule: Friday, March 8th, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm ET
Description: Are you interested in public policy? Perhaps there’s an issue in your community that you want to investigate or raise awareness for. Geospatial analysis is an excellent tool that can be applied to countless areas, from independent advocacy to high level policy. In this course, participants will hear a brief presentation concerning the effects of increasing freight traffic on community health in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Participants will then be introduced to the ArcGIS analysis tools that were used to create the presentation, including the Buffer, Clip, Summarize Within, and Spatial Join tools. No prior knowledge of these tools is needed–just and eagerness to learn! The presenter will introduce tools in ArcGIS Pro 3.1. The concepts discussed can also be applied to open-source software packages like QGIS, although the platforms themselves are different.
RSVP Link: Here

Women in Transportation Panel Discussion
2024-03-11 17:00 - 18:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
Celebrate Women’s History Month with a series of events hosted by C2SMARTER, ITE MET Section, WTS-GNY, and YPT-NYC! This panel will bring together women from different facets of the transportation industry to share their experiences and perspectives gained during their careers. The discussion will be moderated by NYU PhD candidate Daphne Cornilesse.
Light refreshments will be provided. Non-NYU guests are welcome to attend in person (registration is required) or via Zoom.

Simulating the Future of Automated Driving: Unveiling Human Factors Issues and Providing HCI Insights
2024-03-12 16:00 - 17:00 | C2SMART Center Viz Lab, 6 Metrotech Center, Room 460, Brooklyn, 11201
This speech explores the intersection of human factors, human-computer interaction (HCI), and evaluation of automated driving systems. Based on exemplary research projects, we will delve into simulations as a powerful tool for studying automated driving. We will discuss study setup in driving simulators and mixed reality environments, addressing the sim-real domain gap. Wizard-of-Oz studies and the explainability of automated driving systems are introduced, along with the crucial role of driver-vehicle cooperation. We also explore confidence and trust in these systems, emphasizing their impact on user experience.
Light refreshments will be provided. If you cannot attend in person, join via Zoom

Seminar: Chantal Himmels, BMW
2024-03-14 14:00 - 15:00
Driving simulators are among the most frequently used research tools in the automotive domain. The main reason for this is that driving simulators offer a highly controllable and inherently safe test environment. However, researchers usually aim to draw inferences about the real-world context based on driving simulator experiments. A necessary prerequisite for this is driving simulator validity, which refers to the correspondence of driver and vehicle/environment behavior in the driving simulator with that in the real world. There are various influencing factors towards driving simulator validity, and validity must be considered independently for differing driving simulators and use cases, rather than being a general simulator property. Throughout my PhD, I proposed a methodology for validating driving simulators, and conducted numerous subject studies including simulator comparisons as well as real-world studies. The results of my PhD will be presented briefly in this presentation.

WTS GNY College Outreach Careers in Transportation Panel
2024-03-27 18:30 - 19:30
Have you considered getting a PhD? Are you currently a graduate student? If so, join us for our WTS-GNY Careers in Transportation Panel where we will learn about the experiences of three PhD graduates and how their education has informed their work in the transportation industry. The discussion will be moderated by Chair of the WTS-GNY College Outreach Committee Christina Lindstrom. Please use the Zoom link below to register for the event.

SLH: Introduction to database systems and SQL
2024-03-28 12:00 - 13:00
Instructor: Ziyue Feng, New York University
Hands-on exercise: Yes
Beginner level: No prior experience required.
Schedule: Thursday, March 28th, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm ET
Description: Databases have become indispensable in our daily lives. In this one-hour session, we’ll cover the fundamental concepts of database systems and Structured Query Language (SQL). Additionally, we are going to have a hands-on session with SQL to help you become familiar with data extraction techniques.
RSVP Link: Here
