Canada Research Chair

Canada Research Chair in Demand Forecasting and Optimization of Transport Systems

Nowadays, we are used to eating fresh fruits year round, we get internet orders delivered in a short time, many commute to work and travel to exotic destinations for vacations. The transportation of people and freight is ubiquitous and essential to our society.

While being essential, transportation has major negative impacts. The sector accounts for a large share of the green house gas emissions. People are exposed to noise and air pollutants and the inefficiencies in transport systems have major economic implications: the cost of congestion in the Montreal region alone is estimated to billions of dollars annually. Designing sustainable transport systems is one of the major challenges of today's society.

Advances in information and communication technologies alongside with advances in vehicle technologies are profoundly transforming the way we transport people and freight. They allow to create new services and they also generate tremendous amount of data capturing people’s mobility preferences and freight movements. 

The overall aim of the research program is to use data to forecast demand and design transport systems that satisfy the demand while minimizing negative impacts and inefficiencies in the system. We develop methodologies that allow to accurately forecast demand in large-scale networks. These methods combine statistical learning and operations research to forecast demand while optimizing the network of transport services.

The research will allow to build tools supporting the planning and operation of transport systems so that the population can get the services they need sustainably.

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