IST Lab Activities @ IISc Open Day 2023
IST Lab Activities- IISc Open Day 2023
The IISc Open Day 2023 witnessed enormous participation and enthusiasm from the public. Thousands visited the campus to attain insights into the cutting-edge science and engineering research being conducted at the institute. The IISc Sustainable Transportation lab (IST Lab.) also planned a plethora of activities, demonstrations, and presentations to show how scientific decision-making help to address societally relevant transportation problems, including climate change mitigation, sustainable urban mobility, road safety, disaster resilience, and quality of life. People were welcomed to the IST lab through a very pertinent study titled “Microscopic Traffic Simulation Modelling to Evaluate Traffic Congestion Mitigation Measures on Roads around IISc Campus,” presented by Kiran. The study explained the comparative analysis of different alternatives (flyovers, extra widening, signal time improvisations, modal share increase of public transport, etc.) to avoid congestion on roads. Visitors were also informed about the bicycle gifted to Prof. Ashish Verma, by the mayor of Amsterdam, as a token to simulate and initiate bicycles as relevant means of transport in Bengaluru. The bicycle was placed in a designated selfie corner to encourage the promotion of non-motorized transportation and cycling. Harendra, a fellow lab member, encouraged people to visit IST Lab while briefing about the overall work summary of the IST Lab. He also presented his poster explaining the role of road accidents as the leading causes of death, injury, and hospitalization globally.
Picture 1: Visitors posing in front of the bicycle gifted by the mayor of Amsterdam
Picture 2: Kiran explaining the comparative analysis of different to avoid congestion on roads
Picture 3: Visitors understanding the aspects of road safety from Harendra
The poster demonstration revealed that accidents not only affect the loss of life but also have an economic burden on society due to accidents of the most productive age group (15-49 years). Rapid traffic growth plays an adverse role in road safety due to less availability of road space. Approximately 71 % of the victims in road accidents come from Vulnerable Road users (VRUs), i.e., pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorized two-wheelers. Some immediate safety measures like traffic rules & regulations and Engineering safety measures can help significantly reduce accidents. Visitors were notified that accident analysis throughout the city and microscopic examination would give insight into the further reduction of injuries and deaths. Some of the visitors were shocked to see the data of VRUs proportion of deaths in India, and were complaining about the congestion of Bengaluru, and met some visitors from the transportation industry. As visitors ventured further into our lab activities, they were greeted by Nipun and Karthika, who described the Kumbh Mela experiment. The Kumbh Mela experiment aimed to advance the understanding of crowd movement behaviour, crowd monitoring, and estimation techniques using multiple information sources and a set of state-of-the-art data fusion algorithms. There were two poster presentations - 1) a brief introduction to the Kumbh Mela experiment and 2) several empirical studies covering different aspects of crowd dynamics. Details related to the field data collection at Ujjain Kumbh Mela 2016 and experimental data collection were explained. The latter was also demonstrated using a controlled experimental setup where the participants of Open day were allowed to take part.
Picture 4: The Registrar of IISc Bangalore, Capt. Sridhar Warrier discussing the Kumbh Mela Experiment with Nipun and Karthika
The experiment aimed to understand the behaviour of pedestrians under normal conditions vs. low visibility conditions. An L-shaped region was prepared with region-1 as the normal area and region-2 as the constrained area. Region-1 will provide unrestricted free-flow conditions under proper lighting. Region-2 was characterized by low visibility. The pedestrian movement was detected through GoPro cameras. Pedestrians enter from region 1 and exit through region 2. There were curtains spatting regions 1 and 2, thus, pedestrians did not have any information about the constraints before entering. Once the activity was completed, the participants were explained about the scope of the experiment and provided with survey forms recording their response behaviour and demographics.
Picture 5: Enthusiastic participation of the visitors in the pedestrian experiment
The experiment was planned and implemented by the team of Nipun, Karthika, and Aitichya, along with the help of other IST Lab members. A couple of the empirical studies were also explained through posters and simulation videos. Continuing the topic of simulation, Aitichya discussed the Air Traffic Model for Airspace (ATMA) of India. It is a predictive simulation software developed at IISc and is India’s first air traffic simulation software. Visitors also witnessed the live air traffic around the Bengaluru region and were explained how the data is being processed through an Automatic Dependent Surveillance and Broadcast (ADS-B) antenna-dump setup. He also explained how his Ph.D. research focuses on the optimization of gate-to-gate air transport operations envisioned to help minimize operational delays and maximize airport efficiency while ensuring the safety of passengers. The possibility of integrating the research solution into ATMA of India software to help air traffic control and management in India was also discussed.
Picture 6: A group of kids trying to manage the air traffic over India
Further, visitors observed the research aiming to understand the interaction between sustainable transportation measures and Quality of Life (QOL) by combining subjective and objective indicators. This work was presented by Hemanthini. The study involves two levels: (1) Local level - understanding the impacts on QOL due to pedestrianization of urban streets (2) Metropolitan, regional level - evaluating the network level effects on QOL due to sustainable transport measures. There was a poster presentation demonstrating the framework and a few results from the local-level study. In addition, a simple questionnaire-based survey was conducted using google forms, through which 51 responses were recorded. Building on the survey, a unique poll was conducted on different transportation perspectives to understand the choices of people. The scenarios considered were as follows: (1) Pedestrianization vs. without complete pedestrianization, (2) Congestion Pricing vs. no congestion pricing, (3) Elevated Corridor vs. metro corridor, and (4) Separate walking or cycling lanes vs. more new roads for cars. Voting is done as a brainstorming session by placing a dot against their preferred choices. The aim was to understand the public perspective on a few transportation measures discussed at the institutional level. Nearly 239 votes were received for each scenario.
Picture 7: Hemanthini explaining the interaction between sustainable transportation measures and Quality of Life (QOL)
Picture 8: Participant polling for their preferred transportation measure
Another lab member, Furqan, introduced the role of Electric Vehicles in sustainable urban mobility. He explained the factors affecting the adoption of electric vehicles in India. In addition, his demonstration also focuses on developing a model for the optimal placement of public electric vehicle charging stations. There was a poster presentation focusing on the details of the overall research. Details related to the data collection, methodology, data analysis, and results were explained. In addition, the EV charging infrastructure dashboard, which shows the location of the proposed EV charging stations based on the traffic patterns and the grid capacity in the city of Bengaluru, was also showcased. Furqan’s exhibition was followed by Rohit, who presented a poster titled: “What are Sustainable Development Goals? See how transportation helps to achieve these goals.” The poster depicted the importance of sustainable development and sustainable development goals. The main focus of the poster was to showcase and explain how transportation helps achieve these UN SDGs. Details related to transportation being a major contributor to global GHG emissions and other externalities, such as traffic accidents, Bengaluru floods, etc., were explained. The linkage between the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and transportation was discussed. A couple of indices were explained, which try to measure the current sustainability status of the transportation system.
Picture 9: Furqan explaining the EV adoption behaviour to the visitors
Picture 10: The results of the choice scenario poll
Picture 11: Rohit explaining the linkage between transportation and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
A simple and fun quiz was conducted by Maneesha and Akshaya with a focus on the little enthusiasts who visited IST Lab on Open day. The quiz contained three different sections of questions, all related to transportation. It was designed as a fun and engaging way of getting the little kids involved and excited about learning. Signs and marking, puzzles, and General Knowledge were the three categories from which the participant was able to choose by spinning a Spinning wheel. Upon answering the question, they were given gifts to show our appreciation and as a way to motivate and incentivize participation. The response was overwhelmingly positive and wonderful. As visitors started leaving after going through the varied activities of IST Lab, they were requested to participate in a slogan hunt contest. Participants came up with exciting slogans about one of our IST lab projects. The ideology behind the contest was to conclude the message of IST Lab among the participants through feedback. One of our participants contested a slogan, “Do pedal but not juggle” with a view of promoting bicycling. The contest helped us to know the perspectives of people about our lab activities.
Picture 12: Eager participation from kids in the Quiz hosted by Maneesha and Akshaya
As discussed so far, this open-day IST Lab featured various activities, including poster presentations, exhibitions, microscopic traffic simulation modelling presentations, quizzes, and experiments. The activities showcased ongoing state-of-the-art research in the IST lab. In addition, there were interactive sessions where attendees could engage with faculty members, students, and research staff to discuss their research, teaching, and career in Transportation Systems Engineering. Visitors even freely expressed their problems regarding traffic congestion, traffic jams, and no real-time information about public transportation. We, in turn, discussed the role of transportation systems through science and engineering in mitigating their concerns. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Attendees appreciated the opportunity to engage with professors and students and learn more about the department’s research and teaching activities.
Picture 13: Prof. Ashish Verma interacting with the Open Day attendees and students
Picture 14:The IST Lab team photo after the successful wrap of Open Day 2023