Sanner: Novel method improves AI learning capability by 40%
 The Korea Herald today reported on the first AI achievement by LG, a South Korean multinational electronics company.
UTTRI associated faculty Professor Scott Sanner leads a team which has “improved the [AI] learning capability by 40 percent by applying the Shapley value – a measure for importance of data – for the first time in the field.”
Read more about this AI research and link to the news article and the relevant research paper.
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Toronto air quality improved 2006-2019: SOCAAR
Photo by Evan Simons on Unsplash
In a recently published study, researchers at SOCAAR, the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research, have found that policies to reduce emissions have yielded co-benefits in terms of reductions of ultrafine particles (UFP) in downtown Toronto. This improvement in air quality was associated with reduced emissions from vehicles and coal-based electricity generation.
The researchers made measurements continuously near a busy roadway in downtown Toronto between 2006 and 2019.
Read more about SOCAAR's long-term air quality study and link to the full research paper.
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Donmez leads driver attention study
  UTTRI associated faculty Professor Birsen Donmez (left) leads an interdisciplinary research team that is collaborating with the City of Guelph to evaluate driver attention and gaze towards pedestrians and cyclists at intersections. Joelle Girgis (right), a second-year master’s student in Donmez’s lab, will be leading the data collection and analysis.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Partnership Engage Grants program, the study will see Donmez team up with Professor Jay Pratt of the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, UTTRI associated faculty Associate Professor Paul Hess of the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science and Liraz Fridman, transportation safety specialist with the City of Guelph and adjunct professor in U of T’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering.
Read more about this research project in "U of T driver attention study could help cities turn the corner on road safety," U of T News, February 22, 2021.
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Toronto’s COVID-19 bike lane expansion boosted access to jobs, retail: U of T study
(L-R) PhD student Bo Lin, Professor Shoshanna Saxe and Professor Timothy Chan
The City of Toronto undertook the largest one-year expansion of its cycling network in 2020, adding about 25 kilometres of temporary bikeways.
PhD student Bo Lin and UTTRI associated faculty Professors Shoshanna Saxe and Timothy Chan used census, city and survey data to map Toronto’s entire cycling network – including the new routes – and found that additional bike infrastructure increased low-stress road access to jobs and food stores by between 10 and 20 per cent, while boosting access to parks by an average of 6.3 per cent.
Read more about this study of Toronto bike lanes and link to the full research paper.
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Liu: Optimizing to improve food delivery and bike lane network design
 Dr. Sheng Liu, Assistant Professor of Operations Management and Statistics at the Rotman School of Management, presented “Data-Driven Approaches in Smart City Operations” on February 19, 2021.
In his UT-ITE seminar, Liu discussed two projects around data-driven solutions for city operations planning and management. One project dealt with improving performance of a food delivery service, and the second one looked at optimizing the design of urban bike lane networks.
Read more about this smart city research and link to Liu's working papers on food delivery operations and bike lane network design.
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ONLINE EVENTS
- Today! February 25, 4-5:30 p.m., Sustainable Infrastructure. Introduction: Kevin Ward, University of Manchester; Matti Siemiatycki, University of Toronto. Chair: Michele Acuto, University of Melbourne. Speakers: Alana Boland, University of Toronto; Nate Millington, University of Manchester; Cathy Oke, University of Melbourne. Reconfiguring Future Urban Infrastructures Webinar Series presented by University of Manchester, University of Melbourne and University of Toronto School of Cities. Free. Registration required.
- February 26, 12-1 p.m., Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Modality Styles for Non-Mandatory Trips in the Greater Toronto Area, Patrick Loa, PhD student, University of Toronto. UT-ITE seminar series. Free, all welcome.
- February 26, 1-2 p.m., Environment + Health: Data 101 Series Seminar #1, presented by Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) and GeoHealth Network. Free. Registration required.
- March 1, 10-11 a.m., Global Urban Network Seminar 1: Urban Equitable Resilience: Power Structures, Spatial Justice, and Climate Action. Speakers: Taibat Lawanson, University of Lagos Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development; Matti Siemiatycki, University of Toronto. Moderator: Astrid Haas, Urban Economist, Kampala, Uganda. Free. Registration required.
- March 3, 12-1 p.m., Electric Vehicles. Brian Kingston, President & CEO, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association; Dr. Josipa Petrunic, President & CEO, Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC); Charles Todd, Senior Director, Investments, Canada Infrastructure Bank; Paul Soubry, President and Chief Executive Officer, NFI Group Inc. Moderated by Leslie Woo, CEO, CivicAction. Presented by Canadian Club Toronto. Free. Registration required.
- March 4, 10:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., What's in Store for the Cores: The Future of Canadian Downtowns and Central Business Districts. Three sessions presented by the Canadian Urban Institute. Free. Registration required.
- March 4, 3-4 p.m., Research at the Transit Analytics Lab: Leveraging Twitter Data to Support Transit Planning & Operations Webinar. Professor Amer Shalaby, Omar Kabbani, and Dr. Brendon Hemily, Transit Analytics Lab, University of Toronto. Presented by ITS Canada. Free for ITS Canada members; $30 for non-members. Registration required.
- March 5, 12-1 p.m., From SOP to DRIP to Business Intelligence: Challenges of Using ITS Data for Transit Planning & Management, Dr. Brendon Hemily. Presented by the UT-ITE Seminar Series and the Transit Analytics Lab (TAL). Free. All welcome.
- March 10, 4-5:30 p.m., Taking Flight: The Role of Airports in Thriving City Regions. Speaker: Jean-Paul Addie, Urban Studies Institute, Georgia State University. Panelists: Lloyd McCoomb, former President & Chief Executive Officer, Greater Toronto Airports Authority; Pamela Blais, urban planner & Principal of Metropole Consultants; Josh Neubauer, Principal, Urban Strategies. Moderator: Matti Siemiatycki, Interim Director, University of Toronto School of Cities. Presented by the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the School of Cities, University of Toronto. Free. Registration required.
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RESOURCES
PRINT
- Understanding Goods Movement in Canada: Trends and Best Practices (2021), by Adrian Lightstone, Tony Belony, Jean-François Cappuccilli, WSP Canada. Transportation Association of Canada.
- Liu, Sheng and He, Long and Shen, Zuo-Jun Max, On-Time Last Mile Delivery: Order Assignment with Travel Time Predictors (May 15, 2018). Forthcoming in Management Science.
- Liu, Sheng and Shen, Zuo-Jun Max and Ji, Xiang, Urban Bike Lane Planning with Bike Trajectories: Models, Algorithms, and a Real-World Case Study (December 1, 2018).
PAST WEBINARS & PODCASTS
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