Modeling Future Mobility Systems (WiSe)
This seminar is designed to show you how interdisciplinary problems in the mobility sector can be and to provide you with some skills to solve such problems. The course provides you with a good basis to attend our advanced seminar, or a project module afterwards.
Mandatory Prerequisites
- Modeling and Optimization in Operations Management
- Basic knowledge in modeling with Python and Gurobi
Syllabus
Transportation systems are seen as some of the most pervasive and influential systems in any society or economy as they are key enablers for significant achievements, e.g., individual mobility, trade, globalization, and wealth. Hence, transportation systems have a substantial socio-economic impact but also face tremendous challenges as transportation must (in a best-case scenario) meet the triple bottom line, fulfilling economic, ecological, and social requirements. To achieve this goal, today's and future transportation systems for freight and passenger transportation become more complex, especially with respect to intermodal freight transportation, autonomous driving, shared mobility, and the physical internet. Enormous challenges but also significant benefits for both society and investors remain in the next decade.
This course combines specific lecture parts with seminar elements. In the seminar part, teams of 2-3 students will analyze a novel transportation concept using operations research methods. Students learn how to develop and implement an appropriate mathematical model and solution methodology to solve the respective planning problem in a manner that is sufficient to allow for applied managerial analyses.
Course Organization
The first lecture contains an overview of modeling future mobility systems and presents selected topics to be covered in the seminar part of the course. Over the following three weeks, the lectures review some fundamental algorithms and modeling concepts for optimizing transportation systems, focusing on planning problems related to the course topics. After the final confirmation of groups and topics, the course's seminar part begins. Here, students work in groups on designing and implementing a computational study that answers a research question related to the course topics. This phase will be accompanied by personal meetings during Q&A sessions and additional general lectures, e.g., on scientific writing.
In intermediate presentations scheduled towards the end of the lecture period, students present and discuss their group work to receive early feedback. The seminar finishes with a final presentation and a written report.