^{CHEN-FU LIAO}

I currently serve as a CTS research scholar and educational systems manager at University of Minnesota. I work at the Minnesota Traffic Observatory (MTO) in the Department of Civil Engineering on several transportation studies using the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies. I am also responsible for developing ITS interdisciplinary initiatives for undergraduate and graduate courses. I have developed several web-based modules using the Java™ technology for transportation-related courses in the civil and mechanical engineering departments. My other research activities include: evaluating adaptive signal priority strategies for buses using wireless communication technology; studying non-automobile mode transportation patterns; supporting advanced monitoring of traffic signal data, generating real-time performance measures; and analyzing transit and freight performance measures.

I currently work with Professor Henry Liu and David Levinson for a Simulating Transportation for Realistic Engineering Education and Training (STREET) project funded by National Science Foundation (NSF). The focus of the STREET project is to develop and fine-tune a suite of simulation programs that can be easily incorporated in the undergraduate courses.

We have developed and tested in the classroom for the following simulation modules, namely, ROAD: Roadway Online Application for Design, ADAM: Agent-based Demand and Assignment Model, SONG: Simulator of Network Growth, and OASIS: Online Application of Signalized Intersection Simulation. All simulation programs are web-based, which enable easy access and learning outside the classroom. It is noteworthy that commercial transportation simulation packages do exist. The commercial tools designed for professionals, however, are usually complicated and expensive, and thus inappropriate for classroom use, particular in the introductory course which focusing on conceptual understanding. We do not intend to duplicate or even compete with the commercial packages. Our emphasis is to provide a simple web-based simulation tool that allows student to better understand the underlying theory in transportation engineering.

In addition to the undergraduate curriculum development, five lessons and other activities were developed for high school students by David Glick based on the "Traffic Control Game", an animated intersection traffic simulation I developed. ITS Institute piloted the lessons in July 2008, during three of the four weeks of Exploring Careers in Engineering & Physical Science (ECEPS), a summer camp experience for high school students that is a program of the Institute of Technology Center for Educational Programs (ITCEP) at the University of Minnesota. The implementation and evaluation report is available here.

An enhanced version of the traffic control game, called Gridlock Buster, was recently developed by ITS institute through contract with Web Courseworks based on features and ideas from my Traffic Control Game. The Gridlock Buster game was introduced to help high school students better understand traffic management concepts and raise awareness of challenges in traffic engineering. Students were asked to explore and play the game with a goal to obtain highest score by optimizing network throughput and vehicle delay and queue. After playing the game, students were asked in groups to develop hypothesis and conduct controlled experiments using the simulation module mentioed above.

Route Optimization for Understanding Transportation Engineering (ROUTE) is developed based on Glen Koorey's approach (Getting from A to B: Using an Interactive Display to Demonstrate Transportation Planning and Design Issues) presented in 2009 TRB annual meeting. He developed a transportation board display with a landscape that allows students to place magnetic road segments for optimal route design. Based on the origin and destination and initial alignment, students can place linear or curved road segment on the board display to form a roadway along a desired path with different objective, for example, to minimize the user cost, construction cost, or both combined.
This online route optimization game is more flexible and includes additional features that will allow users to select different landscape map, origin and destination locations, and initial direction of alignments.

Combining newly available technologies such as onboard Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)-Global Positioning System (GPS), wireless communications and advanced traffic signal control systems, We have developed a Transit Signal Priority (TSP) prototype system that will subtly adjust the operation of traffic signals along bus routes so that buses carrying passengers receive fewer red signals--with minimal disruption to other traffic. In our previous research project, We evaluated the performance of DSRC versus Wi-Fi network and developed wireless communication prototype using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) embedded systems. The adaptive TSP strategy based on the AVL-GPS and wireless technology was implemented and validated at an intersection in City of Minneapolis. The next phase study is to deploy the developed systems to several intersections along an arterial to evaluate the impact and benefit of the wireless-based signal priority algorithm and validate the capacity of wireless communication network.