Mina Ghanbarikarekani wins Best Student Paper

Mina Ghanbarikarekani, a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney, has won the Best Student Paper Award at the 2019 KES International Conference on Smart Transportation Systems.

One of the researchers on the iMOVE project Green wave for high capacity public transport services, Mina’s winning paper was An algorithm for reducing vehicles’ stop behind the bus pre-signals, co-authored by Michelle Zeibots and Yun Zou.

The abstract of the paper was this:

Transit priority systems have been considered as a solution for reducing traffic congestion in urban areas. One of the innovative priority methods applied at signalised intersections is the bus pre-signal. Bus pre-signals are traffic signals implemented prior to the main intersection to provide buses priority by stopping cars. This paper aimed to propose an algorithm to reduce the dwell time of private vehicles at intersections equipped with bus pre-signals. The algorithm calculates the optimal speed of cars approaching the pre-signal based on traffic conditions and traffic signals as well as buses’ speed and approach. Therefore, the functionality of buses and cars would be improved through the priority system and moderating their speed, respectively.

The full text of her paper is available (for a fee) as part of the collection of papers from the event, compiled in a book, Smart Transportation Systems 2019.

‘I was so excited when I got the award email. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the conference as I had another presentation at WCTR2019 in the last week of May, so could not manage to be in Malta in June. My co-author presented the paper,’ said Ms Ghanbarikarekani.

The winning paper was the result of the first part of Mina’s PhD thesis at the University of Technology Sydney. She is currently working on the second part of that thesis, on prioritising Tram Signal Priority systems at signalised intersections. This looks at increasing the delay and dwell time of private vehicles at other phases through applying green extension and red reduction to trams’ phase.

Congratulations Mina!

It has been a week of several awards announcements involving iMOVE:

• Queensland’s ZOE2 automated car up for award
• iMOVE bus data study project’s award nominations