ITS Canada Awards Celebration 2025

Mr. Roger Browne, City of Toronto

Roger Browne A professional engineer with over 25 years of service at the City, MTO, industry and academia, Roger Browne and his strategic vision is transforming the traffic landscape and organizational design at the City. Specifically, through his work on Congestion Management and Road Safety Plan he is modernizing how the City Traffic Management Section is organized, structured and operated, launching new platforms such as RoDards Central and ITS Central, modernizing RESCU Traffic Operations Centre, introducing new systems to improve traffic safety, mobility, and traffic related investigations, creating new teams/measures/ and standards in construction zones and construction hubs, scaling up City’s Traffic Agents and school guard crossing programs, building strategic alliances with construction and telecom companies, forging new relationships with OVIN and Canadian academic institutions in piloting and evaluating new AI based technology systems, and introducing new ways to leverage technology and technology solutions to break systemic and mobility barriers to Diversity Equity and Inclusion in the City. Since 2021, Roger was elected to the board of directors for Intelligent Transportation Systems Canada and has continued in this role to date. A self-proclaimed “lover of technology – Technophile,” he is a force of nature, a trail blazer and a visionary that is constantly evolving, improving and breaking down multiple diversity barriers (race, gender, inclusion, culture) and by frequently lecturing at Ontario Universities and Colleges he is educating and inspiring the next generation of transportation professionals in the ITS field. 

Omar Choudhry, City of Ottawa

Omar Choudhry has established himself as one the ITS industry’s true champions.  I have personally watched Omar progress from a young student to a national leader over the decades (1995 to present).  His enthusiasm and passion for ITS and its promise for making life safer and more effective for ALL stakeholders is not only admirable, but noble.  Omar has worked on ITS projects in both Canada and in the United States equally.  His reputation as an ITS pioneer and enthusiast is solid on both sides of the border.
Omar has worked in the private sector in ITS consultant roles for many years and his clients have come to trust his experience and have been willing to support his innovative ITS solutions based solely on their knowledge of how much he cares about his clients.  Omar has impressed his public sector clients so much that they quickly realize that his contributions to the transportation industry and the challenges faced by public agencies warrant having a professional like Mr. Choudhry on staff full-time!  Presently, Omar has taken his passion and his international ITS experience addressing transportation challenges and accepted employment as a Senior ITS Specialist at the City of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada.  Omar has excelled in his career in both the public and private sectors of the ITS industry.
Mr. Choudhry’s commitment to ITS and his passion for developing improved transportation related solutions through ITS have earned him acclaim on an international scale.  At the recently convened 30th ITS World Congress held in the City of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Omar was awarded the “Best Technical Paper Award”.  This paper chronicled the work he has done for the City of Ottawa.  The paper was titled “Unlocking the Promise of CAV Technology in Ottawa”.  Omar proudly accepted this paper award in front of an audience of ITS peers at the Congress which attracted attendees from 78 countries from around the world.

Alaska DOT&PF School Bus Audio Alert Pilot Program: A Data-Driven ITS Innovation Enhancing Safety, Arcadis

The Alaska DOT&PF School Bus Audio Alert Pilot Program: A Data-Driven ITS Innovation Enhancing Safety project is the winner of the 2025 Mobility Award for Data Driven Transport Outcomes. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF), in collaboration with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, and Arcadis, has launched an innovative School Bus Audio Alert Pilot Program that utilizes Intelligent Transportation Systems to improve road safety for schoolchildren. This program integrates real-time data, GPS technology, and the 511 Alaska mobile app to deliver timely audio alerts to drivers when they approach a school bus, fostering safer driving behavior and reducing risks to children boarding or exiting buses.

This pilot program represents a significant advancement in ITS by leveraging existing GPS data from school buses to create a dynamic, location-based alert system. The system connects the GPS devices already installed on school buses to the 511 Alaska traffic alert platform, enabling real-time tracking of bus locations. When a driver approaches a school bus, they receive an audio alert through the 511 Alaska mobile app that states:  “School bus. Caution. School bus ahead.”. The award was accepted by Geoff Knapp, Arcadis.

Implementation of public charging stations and electric bike-sharing stations, City of Montreal

The Implementation of public charging stations and electric bike-sharing stations project is the winner of the 2025 Mobility Award for Green Transportation/Climate Action. Context and objectives: According to its 2020-2030 Climate Plan, the City of Montréal commits to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Road transport, a sector responsible for approximately 30% of GHGs in Montréal, is a priority. To achieve its objectives, the City is proposing several actions, including the promotion of electric vehicles and active transportation. The 2016-2020 Transportation Electrification Strategy paved the way for reducing GHG emissions by targeting transportation. Implementation of electric vehicle charging stations: Since 2014, Montréal has been innovating in the field of electric vehicle charging. The first on-street charging station installations began with 20 experimental stations. The City then spread the stations throughout its territory, primarily in tourist and commercial locations. The number of stations increased from 95 in 2014 to nearly 1,000 in 2020. To date, more than 1,708 charging stations have been installed, with priority now given to residential areas. Charging stations are showing consistent and evolving usage. The average usage rate increased from 23.2% in January 2023 to 49.3% in January 2025, representing nearly twelve (12) hours of usage per day. This increase was made possible by a network of stations that is available and resilient for Montréalers. This award was accepted by Jonathan Hamel-Nunes and Georgiana Marinus, City of Montreal.

Genetec Smart Locks, Ramudden Digital

DriveNWT, A road information system for the Government of Northwest Territories, Ramudden Digital

City of Toronto & Volkswagen Group Connected Vehicle Applications - From Signal Phasing and Timing (SPaT) Open Data to SPMs, Miovision

The City of Toronto & Volkswagen Group Connected Vehicle Applications - From Signal Phasing and Timing (SPaT) Open Data to SPMs project is the winner of the 2025 Mobility Award for Smart Mobility - Connected Infrastructure. The City of Toronto has taken a major step in advancing smart mobility and connected vehicle technology by establishing a Signal Phasing and Timing SPAT Open Data system. To bring this initiative to life, the city partnered with Miovision, through its subsidiary Traffic Technology Services Inc. TTS, to develop an industry-leading solution that transforms raw signal timing data into actionable insights from connected vehicles. The City of Toronto provides third-party access to real-time traffic signal status from Toronto?s TransCore TransSuite ATMS via an Open Data REST Service. This service follows the Indiana Traffic Signal High-Resolution Data Logger Enumerations, a widely recognized standard in Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures ?ATSPM?. By making this data accessible, the City of Toronto is pioneering a new era of intelligent transportation infrastructure, setting a benchmark for cities worldwide. Leveraging this data, Miovision has developed a proprietary process to convert Toronto?s Open Data into automotive-grade SAE J2735 SPAT messages—a critical component of connected vehicle applications. These processes translate the high-resolution signal timing data, track historical performance, and integrate real-time inputs with predictive modeling to forecast upcoming signal changes up to five minutes in advance. This groundbreaking capability powers the V2X service, Personal Signal Assistant®, making real-time traffic signal insights available to drivers for the first time.  Thomas Bauer accepted this award on behalf Miovision. 

eMARLIN-Transformer: State of the Art AI-Based Urban Traffic Control, University of Toronto

The 2025 Excellence in R&D Award recipient is eMARLIN-Transformer: State of the Art AI-Based Urban Traffic Control . Part of the solution to urban congestion challenges in harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Reinforcement Learning (RL) and, most recently, Transformers for real time traffic control at signalized intersections and freeway on ramps. Traditional Signal Control (TSC) systems rely on rigid time-of-day plans that struggle to adapt to real-time fluctuations, while adaptive systems that use traffic models often react too slowly. To address these issues, in 2024, the University of Toronto released eMARLIN-T —a cutting-edge, decentralized, reinforcement learning (RL) and transformers-based multi-agent adaptive TSC system designed to revolutionize urban mobility. At the core of eMARLINx is a decentralized RL algorithm enhanced by a distributed communication mechanism. Traffic data gathered from edge-cameras are compressed into a latent space, and the resulting embedded information is broadcast to neighboring intersections to support coordinated decision-making. The transformer network integrated into the observation abstraction module captures contextual traffic trends for better precision. With transformers at its core, eMARLIN-T in traffic is akin to what ChatGPT is to Large Language Models (LLM). In collaboration with the City of Toronto, eMARLIN-T is being deployed at four intersections that feature complex layouts, oversaturated traffic, and proximity to highway ramps and transit hubs. Pre-deployment simulation evaluations have demonstrated remarkable performance. Unlike the current fine-tuned actuated TSC system—which relies on multiple, pre-defined plans—eMARLINx employs a single adaptive policy capable of seamlessly reacting to live traffic conditions across all periods of the day. Results indicate that eMARLINx-T achieves an average reduction of 30% in vehicle delay time compared to the existing system, even when facing traffic perturbations and unforeseen demand patterns. eMARLIN-T also implements Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI) in compliance with the City’s Vision Zero requirements.  Field trials are scheduled to commence in June 2025, which will be the first of its kind worldwide. The award was accepted by Prof. Baher Abdulhai, University of Toronto, Xiaoyu Wang, University of Toronto, Roger Browne, City of Toronto and Dr. Ilia Smirnov, City of Toronto.

Manoela R. Tozzi, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure of BC

Manoela R. Tozzi is the inaugural recipient of the Young Innovators and Leaders in Transportation Award. This new award is made possible through the support of Scott Stewart & Associates.

Manoela writes: "Since graduating from university in 2022 I didn’t know what I wanted to do for work. I always enjoyed school and learning but at some point, I had to analyze my finances and realized that the next logical step was to stop my learning journey and get a job. Little did I know that working in the transportation industry would be the start to my current learning journey. When I started as an electrical design EIT, I didn’t know how much technology went into a traffic system, or an intersection. Since then, I have designed full intersections from scratch learning about different actuation systems and detection methods. I then moved into ITS Design, where I got to review massive projects with hundreds of cascading components, and dipped my toes into design with smaller systems. Now in traffic operations, I understand how to operate these systems after implementation, use the data they collect and study the consequences of their installations. I would say that my greatest work success in the Ministry of Transportation was keeping an open mind and never stop learning new things. My general knowledge of all systems has makes me a well-rounded designer and decision maker, that can confidently criticize design choices from different angles. Even though I don’t have any one major accomplishment to share in this application, I believe all my bite sized accomplishments are just as valuable. This passion of mine also translates into my volunteering career in transportation. In my roles as Secretary for the IMSA BC and member of the DEI Committee at ITS Canada I have deepened and developed my connections with seasoned professionals I have met at such conferences. I have never been one to shy away from a volunteering opportunity and I hope it demonstrates my deepened commitment to connection and learning in our industry".

This award provides up to $5,000 to a young professional who demonstrates leadership and innovation in the field of transportation. The funds can be used to participate, in person, in the ITS Canada Annual Conference & Expo and or attend a related event that supports  the objectives and vision of ITS Canada. The award includes one year of personal coaching.