Category: Events

Science is Wonderful! 2020

Events, News

The online science exhibition will take place online between 22 and 24 September 2020 and is part of the European Research & Innovation Days.

This year, the event will be open to schools and public from all over Europe through a dedicated online platform, where they will be able to meet and talk to researchers, ask them questions, perform their own scientific experiments, play games and watch an array of online activities in different languages. Particpants can discover the microbes that make our food tastier, take an underwater voyage to experience our cultural heritage, uncover a method to turn waste into wonderful materials and artworks – and many more scientific marvels that have a direct impact on our everyday lives. The flagship event may even inspire visitors – young and old alike – to embark on an exciting, fulfilling career in science!

The event will shine a spotlight on 40 research projects funded by the European Union that impact citizens’ lives and. These projects address the development of solutions to the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath, as well as the priorities that are at the core of both European and Global recovery efforts – such as the European Green Deal.

LEVITATE is happy to be one of the 40 selected projects. Anna Craciun (Transport for Greater Manchester) and Martin Zach (Austrian Institute of Technology) will give a presentation during the virtual event to explain the importance and usefulness of the project’s final product on local levels.

How to register

Schools, citizens and stakeholders can participate in the event for free. Once registered you will be able to access the virtual event by logging in on the website.
Register now »

Further details about the event platform and the programme of activities will be made available in the next days.

About EU R&I days

The EU R&I days brings together world leaders to debate and shape the future of research and innovation. This Research and Innovation days take place in a crucial year. The event follows an unprecedented global crisis. It also takes place just ahead of the launch of Horizon Europe – starting its next research and innovation programme in 2021 – and an enhanced European Research Area. The EU R&I days therefore will provide a unique chance to discuss how research and innovation will benefit the future of Europe and beyond.

2nd LEVITATE webinar: The impacts of automation in urban transport – featuring local urban strategies

Events

Urban mobility is going through unprecedented changes during these weeks. Cities are facing challenges which require unique solutions in no time due to the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to these, local mobility strategies for longer terms must be reviewed and adapted to the new normal.

Will connected and automated technologies play a more substantial role in urban mobility? How can we predict their impacts on urban mobility?

LEVITATE partners and city representatives are eager to share their views with you!

Title: 2nd LEVITATE Webinar: The impacts of automation in urban transport – featuring local urban strategies
Date & time: 10:00-11:30 CET, 11 June, 2020

Registration has closed.

Source photo:
Vienna City Adminsitration/©schreinerkastler.at

Webinar: the future impacts of automation in freight transport

Events

This webinar, which took place on 23 April 2020, gave an insight on autonomous solutions in freight, as well as their future impacts and potentials in the transport sector.

Presentations
– Introduction of LEVITATE and its use case on freight transport
– VIL (Platform for the logistics sector in Flanders) presents their project ALEES
– Overview of ALICE on Autonomous Freight Transport Potentials

View webinar recording
Are you also curious about recent autonomous innovation in freight transport and research on their future impacts and potentials? Then have a look at the recording of the webinar.

About LEVITATE
LEVITATE is a 3-year project which main output will be a policy support tool (PST) to help local authorities forecast the impacts of automated vehicles over the short, medium and long-term. The PST will also contain a back-casting tool providing guidance to local authorities on which measures to implement to achieve desired outcomes against a backdrop of increasing vehicle automation.

Advances in Connected and Autonomous Mobility – IEEE ITSC 2020

Events

The 2020 annual flagship conference of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society will be held in Rhodes, Greece in September. LEVITATE will contribute to this conference with a special session: Advances in Connected and Autonomous Mobility: From Data to Models, Impacts and Enablers for Adoption.

Recent breakthroughs in technology, digital infrastructure, dynamic mapping and big data computing will transform the way we will plan, undertake, interact, make decisions and use our built environment and transportation infrastructure for the movement of people and goods. Connected and Autonomous Mobility (CAM), enabled by vehicle connectivity and automation, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT), allows unprecedented capability to collect, exchange and analyze large volumes of data to formulate models and tools for optimal decision making at individual, local and city levels and will, therefore, increasingly be revolutionized our economy and society over the next decade. However, to what extent they will disrupt mobility and transport operations is still a subject of research. CAM services are expected to emerge in various forms affecting different user groups and imposing network-level changes on various urban scales. To this end, understanding public acceptance and the levels of adoption (and respective timing) of emerging technologies, devising novel approaches and modeling tools to replicate mixed and CAV (Connected and Autonomous Vehicles) traffic in large-scale urban networks for impact assessment and identifying large-scale procedures and policies for CAV traffic management are the key factors for successful deployment of CAM services.

This special session aims at:

  1. providing the audience with information about the deployment of state-of-the-art vehicular and transportation technologies to CAM in a smart city context;
  2. discussing the latest advancements, existing data, conceptual and modeling hurdles and challenges in both research and practice (particularly on the selected topics below)
  3. identifying potential research gaps and collaboration opportunities between industry and academia.

3rd Annual Workshop on System Dynamics in Transportation

Events

The System Dynamics Society Special Interest Group in Transportation (SDS T-SIG) are pleased to announce that the 3rd Annual Workshop on System Dynamics in Transportation Modelling will take place in Palermo (Italy) on April 16th – 17th 2020, hosted by the Department DEMS & CED4 – System Dynamics Group, University of Palermo.

This free workshop will consist of a mix of presentations, practical sessions and network / sharing / collaboration building opportunities as well as the SDS T-SIG Annual Meeting. Participants do not need to be a SDS T-SIG member to present or attend.

The intention of the workshop is to showcase the range of research and practise being carried out in transport studies and planning using system dynamics (SD) as a modelling method, and it is designed to:

  • Promote the role of SD in transportation;
  • Facilitate communication and collaboration in transportation and SD;
  • Share teaching materials, works in progress, best practise case studies and state-of-the-art use of SD in transportation research and planning.

Read more »

SRG workshop

Registration for the 2nd LEVITATE Stakeholder Workshop is now open

Events

The LEVITATE consortium is pleased to invite stakeholders, in particular public authorities, road users, researchers and industry players to participate in the Stakeholder Workshop, to discuss how the policy support tool (PST) – developed by the project – could help cities identifying the possible societal level impacts of connected and automated vehicles on roads.

The aim of this second meeting is to gather feedback from stakeholders on the first version of the policy support tool:

  • predict the impact of vehicle automation (forecasting tool) and
  • identify (policy) interventions to help achieve certain long-term mobility goals and/or to mitigate the potential negative effects of vehicle automation (backcasting tool).

The LEVITATE partners would like to hear your thoughts about (i) the structure and usability of the tool; (ii) which functionalities it should have; (iii) what level of customisation it should offer to enable meaningful outputs for users; and (iv) the backcasting methodology.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to see how the first version of the policy support tool works using realistic scenarios and to provide feedback on the content of some of the building blocks of the tool, such as the measures that public authorities can take to manage the arrival of automated vehicles (policy interventions).

When?
9:00-15:00, 26 November

Where?
The EGG, Rue Bara 175, Brussels (just before the Polis Conference)

Registration: online

Stakeholder Reference Group workshop in Gothenburg

Events, News

Gothenburg is hosting experts from Europe and beyond today to discuss which societal impacts connected and automated vehicles will have. The workshop is organised within the Horizon 2020 funded research project LEVITATE.

The LEVITATE project develops methods to forecast societal level impacts of connected and automated transport (CATs). This includes the impact of CATs on safety, the environment, the economy and society.

To develop tools that meet the needs of future users, 45 experts from Europe and Australia have come to Gothenburg to discuss their visions, expectations, use cases and conflicts for a future with connected automated vehicles.

“Vehicle automation and connected mobility services will have a major impact on transport safety, the environment and prosperity. We have to find the best approaches to ensure future technologies will be beneficial to individuals, society and industry stakeholders”, says Prof. Pete Thomas of Loughborough University and the coordinator of the LEVITATE project.

What regulation will deploy benefits and mitigate the risks?
The impacts of connected and automated transport systems are expected to be disruptional and transformative so conventional approaches to forecast impacts, based on a continuation of existing trends, may not be effective. Authorities in particular face two main challenges: How should they respond to the deployment of connected and automated transport systems (CATS)? And how can they take advantage of these systems to achieve broader policy objectives?

“While automated vehicles may bring some benefits, there is also the possibility that their widespread introduction in urban areas could lead to increased congestion, negative environmental impacts and negative health impacts, if walking and cycling are discouraged”, says Suzanne Hoadley of the European city network Polis.“Therefore, it is of utmost urgency to bring professionals together beyond their own sectors and exchange about use cases and risks of CATs. Today’s workshop in Gothenburg takes an important step on that matter.”

Workshop participants include local, regional and national authorities, agencies, services providers, OEMs, researchers and networks representing user groups such as cities, pedestrians, automotive or road research.

A self-driving minibus with space for 11 passengers is currently being tested in Gothenburg that connects the parking facilities Polstjärnegatan and the workshop venue in Lindholmen Science Park. Participants have the possibility to test the shuttle and take the eight minutes trip.

The LEVITATE Stakeholder group facilitates a continuous and purposeful dialogue with experts, users and the consortium about the impacts of connected and automated transport (CAT). Through the SRG, LEVITATE provides a European platform for knowledge sharing and discussion about automation in transport. The group meets several times until the completion of the project in 2021.

About LEVITATE
Launched in December 2018, LEVITATE is a 3-year project led by Loughborough University whose main output will be a policy support tool (PST) to help local authorities forecast the impacts of automated vehicles over the short, medium and long-term. The PST will also contain a back-casting tool providing guidance to local authorities on the measures to implement to achieve desired outcomes against a backdrop of increasing vehicle automation.