IWCTS 2011 - 4th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Computational Transportation Science (IWCTS) 2011

The 4th International Workshop on Computational Transportation Science intends to bring together communities interested in the computation, knowledge discovery and technology policy aspects of surface transportation systems. The organizers of IWCTS welcomes papers from researchers in computer science, urban and regional planning, civil engineering, geography and geoinformatics, and related disciplines to submit papers for consideration for presentation and discussion at the one-day workshop (on November 1, 2011) and for publication in the conference proceedings.

BACKGROUND

Transportation is a vast sector, involving vehicles, infrastructure and travelers with complex and dynamic environment. The proliferation of sensors and wireless communication amongst these entities provides opportunities for transportation services that address changing mobility needs in efficient and equitable ways. For instance, the automobile has evolved from being a basic transportation device into an advanced system with myriad on-board computational technologies that address needs ranging from automated crash avoidance to wellness. Traveler information concepts have evolved from messages relayed from roadside message signs and factory-installed in-vehicle navigation devices to navigation and wayfinding via hand-held devices connecting travel activity patterns, social networks and multiple modes of transportation. Transportation infrastructure itself has evolved from concrete and asphalt and isolated traffic control to complex sensor systems that are able to detect and generate massive amounts of data in real-time.

These trends rest on top of rapid urbanization and formation of mega metro regions, changing demographics and rapidly aging societies, globalization of trade and generation of complex freight transportation and supply chains, and significant changes anticipated in the domains of energy and climate change. These broader trends have profound implications for transportation systems of the future and have already led to the instrumentation and interconnectedness of many complex systems within their own domains. Transportation systems should be able to address these changes and respond in efficient and cost-effective manner.

These trends generate significant research questions relating to computation, knowledge discovery and technology policy. Transportation systems, due to their distributed/mobile nature, can become the ultimate test-bed for a ubiquitous (i.e., embedded, highly-distributed, and sensor-laden) computing environment of unprecedented scale. Information technology is the foundation for implementing new strategies, particularly if they are to be made available in real-time to wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs. A related development is the emergence of increasingly more sophisticated geospatial and spatio-temporal information management capabilities. Human factors, technology adoption and use, and user feedback and user-centered design are areas of technology policy central to the success of this ubiquitous computing environment.

The emerging discipline of Computational Transportation Science (CTS) combines computer science and engineering with the modeling, planning, and economic aspects of transportation planning and engineering to leverage developments in the above domains. The discipline goes beyond vehicular technology, and addresses pedestrian or bicycle systems on hand-held devices, non-real-time issues such as data mining, as well as data management issues above the networking layer. By taking advantage of ubiquitous computing, CTS applications can help create more efficient, equitable, livable and sustainable transportation systems and communities.

SCOPE OF THE SUBMISSION

The International Workshop on Computational Transportation Science invites submissions of original, previously unpublished papers on CTS issues. Position papers that report novel research directions or identify challenging problems are also invited. Papers incorporating one or more of the following themes are especially encouraged:

Uncertain information distributed among moving travelers/vehicles and the infrastructure
Travel information for pedestrian, biking, and other non-motorized applications
Social networks, social media applications in travel
Computation of costs of multi-modal travelling
Information regarding transfers to alternate modes of transportation
Data mining and statistical learning for travel information
Dynamic shortest path computations using forecasts
Human-computer interfaces in intelligent transportation applications
Privacy and security in transportation information
Social and institutional information related to travel
Real-time negotiation among travelers
Novel applications targeted to health, mobility and wellness
Novel applications targeted to livability and sustainability
Crowdsourcing and participatory sensing including urban sensing and volunteered GIS
Mobile artificial-intelligence aspects related to transportation
Sensor information related to transportation
Wireless communication with travelers and vehicles
Human factors, adaptive driving, crash-related research
Technology adoption, use, travel behavior impacts
User feedback (eco-feedback), user-centered design, persuasive technology in transportation
Collaborative filtering and recommender systems for daily travel
Design and implementation research relating to assistive technologies

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Authors should prepare an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of their full paper. Papers must be in English and not exceed 6 pages double column in ACM SIG format (US Letter size, 8.5 x 11 inches) including text, figures and references. Position papers are limited 4 pages. Each submission should start with: the title, abstract, and names, contact information of authors, type of the submission (research paper or position paper). Authors are asked to register the titles and abstract of their papers in advance. To submit a paper, please visit https://cmt2.research.microsoft.com/IWCTS2011. Accepted papers will be published in the ACM digital library. Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their paper will be presented at the workshop.