Issue link: http://uwashington.uberflip.com/i/742071
PACTRANS SEMINAR SERIES PacTrans continued its regional seminar series to help generate discussions of ongoing and future research and foster an exchange of information between transportation professionals and researchers. Each PacTrans regional seminar talk is broadcasted over the internet as a webinar to offer cost-effective participation from remote sites in the region. Dr. Pitu Mirchandani, Professor of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), and Senior Sustainability Scientist within the Global Institute of Sustainability and the Director of Advanced Transportation and Logistics Systems (ATLAS) Research Laboratory, discussed MIDAS-CPS: The Possible Future of Proactive Traffic Management Systems. The MIDAS hopes to demonstrate the synergistic use of a cyber-physical infrastructure consisting of smart-phone type devices; cloud computing, wireless communication, and intelligent transportation systems to manage vehicles in the complex urban network – through the use of traffic controls, route advisories and road pricing/rewards – to jointly optimize drivers' mobility as well as achieve the sustainability goals of reducing energy usage and improving air quality. Dr. Yahong Rosa Zheng, Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, discussed a system that can be used to monitor bridge scour and communicate such information to necessary authorities (e.g., bridge operation and maintenance crews) via underwater communications. She also discussed some of the issues that make underwater wireless communications significantly more complicated and prevent conventional technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi from being used. Charlie Howard, Director of Planning for the Puget Sound Regional Council, discussed population and jobs growth in the Puget Sound Region, and what the implications of that growth are, specifically regarding the region's transportation system. He discussed infrastructure finance gaps/ innovative ideas, broken high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and right- of-way prioritization. Dr. Basile Chaix, Professor and Research Director at Inserm (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), discussed his work with immense amounts of data, stemming from a wide array of fields, including some from the built environment, and perform analyses in an effort to make meaningful observations about the way the built environment affects the rest of our lives as humans. More specifically his group is interested in the neighborhood's effect on health and the relationship between transport and health. Dr. Daniel Sterling, Founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis, gave a presentation titled, "Transportation Revolution: Radical Changes on How we Travel." Dr. Sperling has put significant value on how to reduce vehicle use; how to shift away from high carbon fossil fuels; how to create transport systems that are cheaper, better, more sustainable, less expensive, less resource, less carbon, and more accessible. Dr. Tarek Sayed, Professor and distinguished Scholar at the University of British Columbia, discussed the two main transportation engineering approaches to improving road safety: reactive and proactive. He argued that there is a need for transportation professionals to take a proactive approach that addresses road safety problems before they are allowed to emerge. 23 2014-2015 Annual Report