Resilient New Mobility Systems in the Age of Automation, Connectivity and Sharing Services

Jiaqi Ma, PhD

Program Director and Associate Professor,

University of California, Los Angeles

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 11 a.m. | 140 Ketter Hall

This seminar begins with an exploration of the concept of resilience, which encompasses not only the engineering aspects of creating robust systems but also the social dimensions of equity and accessibility. We then focus on three pivotal research areas that epitomize our approach at the UCLA Mobility Lab that integrates these perspectives to foster technological innovations that enhance societal well-being, environmental sustainability, and economic viability to building resilient new mobility systems. First, we examine the transformative impact of automation and connectivity on safe intersection management, highlighting how these technologies inclusively protect all Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). This initiative demonstrates how smart, connected systems can significantly improve urban mobility safety and efficiency for all. Next, our seminar presents a comprehensive, risk-informed decision-making framework designed to ensure the operational safety of shared highly automated vehicles deployed at scale. This methodological approach allows us to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks associated with the integration of automated vehicles into existing transportation networks and identify data needs and system requirements for safe operations of automated mobility. Finally, we introduce our initiative of Mobility AI Networks, a digital twin technology that dynamically models the demand and supply of new mobility services. This innovative tool provides critical insights into system performance under different scenarios and potential unintended consequences and aids agencies in making informed decisions to guide the evolution of transportation systems.

Professor Jiaqi Ma is director of FHWA Center of Excellence on New Mobility and Automated Vehicles, an associate professor at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, director of the UCLA Mobility Lab, and associate director of UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. He has led and managed many research projects funded by U.S. DOT, NSF state DOTs, and other federal/state/local programs covering areas of smart transportation systems, such as vehicle-highway automation, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), connected vehicles, shared mobility, large-scale smart system modeling and simulation, and artificial intelligence and advanced computing applications in transportation. He is editor in chief of the IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, and associate editor of Nature Scientific Reports, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, ASCE Open, and Transportation Research Part C. He is a vice chair (and incoming chair) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation, member of TRB Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications, member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Connected & Autonomous Vehicles Impacts Committee, publication board member of IEEE ITS Society and co-chair of the IEEE ITS Society Technical Committee on Smart Mobility and Transportation 5.0.