All topics

We identify new solutions to transportation problems, on the ground, in the air, or on the sea, transport of people or goods, whatever the mode. We focus on technical solutions, but also on their impact on the system as a whole. We are also interested in the interactions of the transportation systems with the land use, the economy, the environment, etc.

Extracting Activity Schedules from the Continuous Mobility Panel Data

SBB is facing changes in mobility behavior that challenge traditional planning models. This project uses the Continuous Mobility Panel data and EPFL’s expertise in activity-based modeling to provide new insights into travel demand. We will first develop a typology of travelers, capturing the heterogeneity of weekly mobility patterns. Then, we will extend the activity-based model to predict activities and trips over a full week. These outcomes will help SBB design services that reflect new behaviors, improve efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction.

Principal investigator

Michel Bierlaire

Project manager

Anne-Valérie Preto

Sponsor

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)

Period

September 10, 2025-October 31, 2026

External collaboration

SBB

LaTeX description

Optimizing the physical workplace for Urban Socio-Environmental performance (Opt-USE)

We have entered a new era of building use and work patterns. A plurality of workers in recent surveys have reported working in a hybrid format compared to office only or home only. This has resulted in low office occupancy rates. These evolving patterns of behavior have called into question the value of physical office space and added an additional layer of complexity to optimal performance of building, energy, and transportation systems. At the same time, these office buildings serve a fundamentally human purpose, facilitating interactions and collaboration among members of organizations. Such organizational processes are at risk with reduced use of office space. In this project, we aim to collaborate with Fribourg companies and organizations to collect data on workplace behavior and interactions, building space use, and commuting practices. We will develop models to aid in the optimization of flexible working policies that balance effectiveness of workplace interactions, building energy and spatial efficiency, and commuting costs. Leveraging multi-objective optimization, we propose to develop a decision-support framework for companies to tailor their remote working policies, ensuring a harmonious balance between employee well-being, environmental considerations, and operational efficiency. This research aims to address the intersection of socio-organizational and environmental goals in the operation and utilization of the built environment in Fribourg and Switzerland.

Principal investigator

Michel Bierlaire

Project manager

Evangelos Paschalidis

Sponsor

School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Period

November 01, 2024-October 31, 2026

LaTeX description

E-Bike City

This project has the following content: Transport policy is currently not finding a way out of its dilemma; the imminent need to decarbonize a sector fast which has barely moved in the recent past and the social requirement to maintain and increase accessibility across all modes, but not to encourage sprawl while still allowing further decreases in the generalised cost of travel by new technologies and business models. We propose to use a radical departure from previous proposed ideas to enable the policy and transport industry to begin thinking from a different starting point. The design idea is to reallocate 50% of the existing urban road space to e-bikes, bicycles, and other micromobility modes and to assess what this change could achieve in terms of accessibility, generalised costs of travel, changes in daily life and reductions in emissions and CO2. The project will integrate careful involvement of the various stakeholders from citizens, cities, firms to interest groups, but will also provide the materials needed to communicate the ideas and their equity impacts visually and verbally at the required levels of complexity.

Principal investigator

Michel Bierlaire

Project manager

Janody Pougala

Sponsor

Swiss Federal Office of Energy

Period

September 01, 2022-December 31, 2025

External collaboration

Prof. Axhausen (IVT - ETHZ)

LaTeX description

Intermodal freight transportation in Switzerland: demand models

This project aims to enhance demand modeling in intermodal freight transport through two key approaches: developing a more realistic synthetic dataset based on available data and adapting the activity-based approach for decision-making in freight transportation for Switzerland.

Principal investigator

Michel Bierlaire

Project manager

Pavel Ilinov

Sponsor

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)

Period

December 01, 2024-November 30, 2025

External collaboration

SBB

LaTeX description

Multi-objective disruption management for robust railway operations

In passenger railway services, a timetable defines the scheduled arrival and departure times of trains at designated stations. When a disruption occurs, the railway operator must establish a disposition timetable, a complex task due to the intricacies of rail operations and the interactions in the network. This research aims to develop a decision-support tool that optimizes disruption management using a multi-objective optimization approach. The tool will account for system constraints while minimizing passenger inconvenience, operational costs, and deviations from the original timetable. Designed with practitioners' needs in mind, it will be integrated into the industrial software Viriato, enabling the use of real production data for algorithm evaluation and refinement.

Principal investigator

Michel Bierlaire

Project manager

Lea Ricard

Sponsor

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)

Period

April 01, 2024-October 31, 2025

External collaboration

SBB

External collaboration

SMA

LaTeX description