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ITS
CANADA UPDATES INDUSTRY FLYER
Under
the direction of the Chair of ITS Canada’s Export
Committee, Scott Stewart, the four-page flyer that
advertises the Canadian ITS industry is now being
updated. All members were contacted requesting submissions
for this brochure that was originally developed by
the Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade. The latest version provided by DFAIT was dated
October 2005, so it is timely to undertake an update.
In
the past, this brochure has been shared with Trade
Commissioners around the world in order to promote
ITS exports in their markets, and it has been translated
into several languages, including French and Chinese.
This opportunity is available to paid ITS Canada Corporate
and Sustaining Corporate members only. Thanks to IBI
Group for donating significant resources to complete
the graphics work in time for ITS Canada’s mission
to New York, in conjunction with the ITS World Congress
in November.
WOULD
YOU LIKE TO EXPAND YOUR ORGANIZATION’S OPPORTUNITIES
FOR EXPORT?
During
a recent member survey, almost one in three members
reported that they were unaware of opportunities to
participate in missions. Each year, ITS Canada undertakes
a number of missions that help promote Canadian ITS
expertise, products and services. In this regard,
members are encouraged to suggest potential target
markets, events and opportunities that can be pursued.
ITS Canada’s Export Committee also works to
identify opportunities and to organize missions; members
are welcome to join this committee. Upcoming missions
are advertised by emails sent to all members. For
information, see the Export Committee’s web
page or contact ITS Canada via email at askus@itscanada.ca.
ITS
CANADA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS
CORPORATE
Continental Public Transit Solutions
ESRI Canada
MISSION
TO MALAYSIA
For many years, ITS
Canada and the ITS Committee of the Road Engineering
Association of Malaysia (REAM) have worked in partnership
to further ITS initiatives in both countries. This
Committee has since become independent as ITS Malaysia
and representatives from the new Society felt it was
important to continue working closely with ITS Canada.
An
official inauguration ceremony for the newly-formed
Society was held on Monday, November 3, in Kuala Lumpur,
as part of their first-ever ITS seminar. The event
was very well attended by over 450 delegates, including
Dato’Ir Mohd. Zin Bin Mohamad, the Malaysian
Minister of Works.
ITS
Canada’s Chairman Joseph Lam was invited to
the event to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding
between the two Societies and to provide a keynote
address on building public-private partnerships. Signing
on behalf of ITS Malaysia was inaugural President,
Dato’Ir Mohamad Husin. Witnessing the signing
were the Malaysian Minister of Works and Canada’s
High Commissioner to Malaysia, David Collins.
ITS
officials noted that, by personally inaugurating the
seminar and witnessing the signing of the MOU, the
Minister has demonstrated a significant emphasis on
ITS and on the value of the relationship with Canada.
They hope this will signal a surge in ITS activity
in Malaysia, which will benefit ITS Canada members.
The signing also generated significant media coverage
in Malaysia.
After
the signing ceremony, Mr. Lam personally invited the
Minister to attend ITS Canada’s Annual Conference
and noted that, while visiting Edmonton next spring,
his delegation can also tour various ITS installations
in both Alberta and BC. A delegation is expected to
travel along with the Minister.
While
in Malaysia, Mr. Lam also met with the High Commissioner,
briefing him on ITS Canada, our members, mission and
objectives, etc. The High Commissioner pledged the
support of his office to help develop closer ties
with suppliers and clients in Malaysia.
“Malaysia
continues to have a strong market in freeway traffic
management systems, as the country continues to push
for more privatized toll routes”, notes Mr.
Lam. “At the same time, they are considering
standardizing their toll systems to achieve interoperability.
Some of the local suppliers and consultants have developed
to a stage where they feel they are capable of exporting
their expertise or products to neighbouring countries
such as India and Thailand, while some are already
active in the Middle East. In this regard, they would
welcome cooperation with Canadian companies.”
News clipping from Malaysian media
ITS
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA – A summary
of projects planned or in progress for 2008-2009
Information included below was submitted to ITS Canada
in response to our queries. In addition to this data,
a report has also been compiled by Transport Canada.
Available this month, it is entitled “Inventory
of Transportation-Related Research Institutes and
Programs at Canadian Universities” and covers
a wider array of transportation initiatives. For a
copy, please contact ITS Canada via email at askus@itscanada.ca.
More
profiles of university research will be included in
the next newsletter issue.
CARLETON
UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Engineering and Design, Department of Civil
& Environmental Engineering, Transportation Program
ITS
Focus
Urban, intercity, transborder, and rural
Road traffic and public transportation
Safety, mobility, efficiency, energy and environment.
Current
and Recent ITS-Related Projects
Optimizing the efficiency and equity of traffic
flow: development of an integrated traffic control
strategy for freeway-arterial corridors (in progress)
Adaptive management of multimodal traffic network
under saturated and over-saturated conditions (in
progress)
Risk analysis of ITS investments (in progress)
Bayesian artificial intelligence-based collision
avoidance system (completed)
Border crossing delay prediction system (completed)
Priority crossing programs at land border crossings
(completed)
Emergency vehicle prioritization (completed)
Bus arrival prediction system based on statistical
pattern recognition (completed)
Advanced traffic and traveller information system
(completed)
Control of HOT lanes (completed)
Smart work zones (completed).
Current
Researchers
Ata Khan, Jennifer Armstrong, Kornel Mucsi
Project
Partners/Funding Agencies
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
(NSERC)
Ministry of Transportation, Ontario (MTO)
AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence
ITS-Related
Course Offerings
Directed Studies on Advanced ITS
ITS Coverage in Traffic Engineering (graduate course)
ITS Coverage in Urban Transportation (graduate course)
Contact
Information
Professor Ata M. Khan
Telephone: (613) 520 2600, Ext. 5786
Email: ata_khan@carleton.ca
UNIVERSITY
OF CALGARY
Department of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering
Program
ITS
Focus
Urban Traffic Control and Management
ITS and Safety
Advanced Public Transportation Systems
Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (prospective).
Current
ITS-Related Projects
Traffic-responsive signals
Aadaptive ramp metering
Real-time bus location
Passenger information and scheduling for public
transportation in Calgary
Current
Researchers
Lina Kattan, Richard Tay, Fred Hall, Chan Wirasinghe,
Ahmad Radmanesh (Adjunct Professor)
Project
Partners
City of Calgary
Alberta Transportation
ITS-Related
Course Offerings
Fundamentals of ITS & Transportation System
Performance
Contact
Information
Lina Kattan, Ph.D, P.Eng.
Telephone: (403) 220-3010
Email: lkattan@ucalgary.ca
UNIVERSITY
OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Faculty of Applied Science, Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering
ITS
Focus
Vehicle-to-vehicle communications
Vehicle-to-roadside communications
Vehicle-infrastructure integration
ITS-Related
Projects
Vehicular Telematics over WiFi and WiMax Multihop
Networks (current, funded by AUTO21 NCE)
Reliable and trusted networking for data-centric
wireless access with applications to vehicular telematics
(current, funded by BC-China ICSD program).
Researchers
Victor Leung (Principal Investigator), Vincent Wong,
Garland Chow (University of British Columbia’s
Sauder School of Business), Oliver Yang (University
of Ottawa), Jelena Misic (University of Manitoba),
Ekram Hossain (University of Manitoba), Bob McLeod
(University of Manitoba), Sathish Gopalakrishnan,
Matei Ripeanu, Vincent Wong
Project Partners
Transport Canada ITS Office
Nokia
Telus
Communications Research Centre
TRLabs
Novax Industries
Methusala Microcells Inc.
Vansco Electronics
University of British Columbia’s Bureau of
Intelligent Transportation Systems and Freight Security
Jilin University, China.
Contact
Information
Victor C.M. Leung
Telephone: (604) 822-6932
Email: vleung@ece.ubc.ca
UNIVERSITY
OF NEW BRUNSWICK
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
– Transportation Group
ITS
Focus
Rural ITS
Rail safety
Highway safety
Wireless
ITS-Related
Projects
UNB-led
Research
Conducted
under the Canada-New Brunswick Contribution Agreement
for Rural ITS Research (except for (*), funded by
Transport Canada)
Using a radar display to manage vehicle speeds
in highway work zones (completed)
Testing a cost-effective electronic device to
identify railway track switch position from a
train (completed)
A low-cost alternative to railway level crossing
warning systems for high consequence traffic unprotected
level crossings (completed)
Review of remote emissions sensing technology
(completed)
Research platform for spring weight restriction
technology (completed)
Applicability of Vehicle Infrastructure Cooperation
to Low-Density and Rural Rail Grade Crossing Safety(*)
(completed)
Intelligence Gathering and Requirements Development
for the Establishment of a Vehicle-Infrastructure-Cooperation
Testbed for Rural and Low-Density Transportation
Applications at the University of New Brunswick
(*) (in progress)
NB DOT-led Research
Developing a plan to coordinate the deployment
of ITS technology to help Commercial Vehicle Operations
(CVO) efficiency in the province (completed)
New Brunswick traveller information needs assessment
(completed)
Collecting and analysing pavement condition information
using digital video and Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) (completed)
Phase 2: New Brunswick traveller information needs
assessment (completed)
In-Vehicle Technology Assessment (Winter Road
Conditions) (completed).
Researchers
Dr. Eric Hildebrand, Trevor Hanson, Dr. Eldo Hildebrand,
Dr. Ming Zhong
Project
Partners
Transport Canada
New Brunswick Department of Transportation
NB Southern Railway
Maritime Road Development Corporation
Global Rail Systems
Ontrack Systems
ITS-Related
Course Offerings
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Road Safety Engineering
Geographic Information Systems
Traffic Engineering
Contact
Information
Dr. Eric Hildebrand
Telephone: (506) 453-4521
Email:
edh@unb.ca
CANADIAN
ITS CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE - The first in a series of
profiles
UNIVERSITY
OF TORONTO ITS TESTBED
By Baher Abduhai, University of Toronto
Funded
by a consortium of public, academic and private-sector
partners, the University of Toronto founded a unique-to-Canada
$5 million ITS research centre in 2001 (www.torontoitscentre.ca).
The centre houses scientific research equipment
connected to the physical transportation network
in Toronto via dedicated fibre optic links to the
two major traffic operations centers in the city.
Researchers in the centre use the city of Toronto
as a live ‘testbed’ to develop advanced
ITS solutions and decision support tools, including
large-scale simulations; visualization, data reduction
and data summarization capabilities; and diagnostic,
estimation, prediction, and real-time traffic control
software tools.
The
establishment of the ITS Centre and Testbed (ICAT)
seeded a fertile environment for collaborative,
multi-disciplinary research. It also led to the
creation of a Canada Research Chair (CRC) dedicated
to ITS (Prof. Baher Abdulhai). However, the ITS
Centre, as it stands today, has several limitations.
It is limited to the University of Toronto and the
geographical city of Toronto. Although it is the
only such facility in Canada and one of only a few
worldwide, it is still limited in size to less than
10 professors and some 40 graduate student researchers
at steady state. It lacks the diversity and critical
mass that a pan-Canadian research cluster would
have. All the above limitations further limit the
centre’s capacity for international collaboration.
ONE-ITS:
Canadian ITS Without Borders
As
transportation problems continue to soar, Transport
Canada envisions a comprehensive strategy for mainstreaming
ITS across the country. “En Route to Intelligent
Mobility”, a strategic direction for Canada,
promotes stakeholder participation and ITS technology
integration.
With
this national strategy in mind, ONE-ITS was born
in 2008. Funded by CANARIE, this project creates
an unprecedented pan-Canadian, internationally-reaching
Online Network-Enabled ITS (ONE-ITS) Platform.
ONE-ITS
will use the proven principles of IT production,
namely, collaborative web 2.0 and SOA technologies,
to build such participatory and integrative environments.
Harnessing the true power of the web, ONE-ITS will
democratize innovation in transportation in Canada,
creating a “socio-technical” Virtual
Organization (VO) that brings together stakeholders
from the academic, private, and public sectors.
ONE-ITS
has international membership that includes Canada,
the U.S., North Africa and Asia. Using open portals
and interfaces allows member stakeholders to exchange
and share ITS information, knowledge, resources,
expertise and services.
Combining
SOA and VO is the height of what IT promises in
terms of flexible application integration in response
to changes in requirements. The collaborative efforts
of communities of practices and interests will help
build and maintain the development of ITS services,
and business and data models. This comprehensive,
participatory and integrative research requires
the usage of national communication infrastructure
and computational resources.
Successful
deployment of comprehensive ITS requires computationally-intensive
applications applied to massive amounts of traffic
information in real time. ONE-ITS will rely on using
the computational resources provided by Compute
Canada Inc. and CANARIE’s high bandwidth optical
networks to support such research.
The
National ONE-ITS Vision
The vision is to create an unprecedented pan-Canadian,
internationally-linked, multi-disciplinary research
cluster in ITS by establishing an Online Network
Enabled ITS (ONE-ITS) Platform. ONE-ITS is a double-sided
coin, having a service-oriented technological side
and a Virtual Organization side.
ONE-ITS
will amalgamate experts from various branches of
science and engineering. It will bring together
stakeholders from the academic, private and public
sectors, and from physically dispersed geographic
regions using modern web technologies. ONE-ITS will
also revolutionize the state of the art of ITS while
emphasizing near-term deployment in the field, and
will establish Canadian universities and their international
collaborators as unified leaders in ITS research
that collectively transform into a premier virtual
centre for ITS research worldwide, the focal point
for public, private, and academic research in the
growing and vital ITS sector.
From
the Toronto ITS Centre to ONE-ITS
ONE-ITS
builds on the strength of, and the experience gained
from, the Toronto ITS Centre and Testbed. It also
learns from the limitations of the ITS Centre. The
Toronto ITS Centre is arguably Canada’s largest
such centre. However, while the ITS Centre created
a cluster of multi-disciplinary ITS researchers
under “one roof” (i.e., a central hub),
ONE-ITS casts the net much wider, crossing provincial
and national geographical boundaries.
Summary
The
success of the ITS Centre to date reinforces the
importance and potential of multidisciplinary research
in ITS. The limitations clearly point to the need
for re-thinking the future of ITS innovation. It
is becoming clearly evident that the Canadian ITS
community needs to unite to have a substantial presence
in the global ITS market. It is, therefore, our
objective to establish a pan-Canadian Online Network
Enabled ITS virtual research organization (ONE-ITS)
using next generation Internet technology to directly
capture and harness ITS expertise across the nation
and potentially the globe.
Each
participating organization brings an established
excellence and presence in ITS research. Each organization
is a beneficiary and a contributor of expertise,
data, systems, computing resources and services.
In
the development phase of ONE-ITS, participants will
assist the development team throughout the system
requirements, development, evaluation and roll-out
phases of the project. The development team will
provide participants with adequate documentation
and training to facilitate roll-out at their sites.
On
behalf of the ONE-ITS team (see map), your organization
is welcome to participate. It is a two-way street
model, i.e., we all give and take, share risk and
benefits, and we each retain our individual intellectual
property (IP) that we bring to the pot.
Although
the project is officially less than two months old,
the vision has been crystallized, the road map has
been defined, and development is underway.
For
More Information
Please
contact:
Baher
Abdulhai, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Canada Research Chair in ITS
Chair, University of Toronto Transportation Research
and Advancement Centre (UTRAC)
Director, Toronto ITS Centre and Testbed
Department of Civil Engineering, University of
Toronto
Telephone: (416) 946-5036
Email: baher.abdulhai@utoronto.ca
NEWS
bITS
Transportation Demand Management
Transportation
demand management (TDM) is the use of policies,
programs, services and products to influence whether,
why, when, where and how people travel. Intelligent
transport systems can impact on TDM in a variety
of ways, including providing travel information
that is easy for travellers to access, understand
and use. The benefits are wide and varied, including
reduced traffic congestion and cleaner air, a greater
return on investments in transit, cycling and carpooling
facilities, and more.
A
new resource is now available from the Federation
of Canadian Municipalities: Improving Travel Options
with Transportation Demand Management (TDM), which
includes:
a publication with profiles of Canadian communities
that have benefited from TDM, discussions of four
key areas of municipal action (commitment, planning,
services and promotion), and additional information
sources
a customizable PowerPoint presentation, complete
with speaking notes, to introduce TDM to your
council, staff or peers.
To
access this publication, as well as a library of
other valuable resources, please visit:
http://sustainablecommunities.fcm.ca/Capacity_Building/Sustainable_Transportation/default.asp
Electric Vehicle Road Map for Canada
There
is an aggressive but achievable vision for the use
of electric vehicles in Canada by 2018. In support
of the Canadian Electric Vehicle Technology Road
Map (evTRM), a new website is now available. Led
by industry and coordinated by a federal government
secretariat, the evTRM is identifying critical energy
technology requirements, gaps and milestones needed
to advance electric vehicles in Canada. The website
will facilitate communication and information sharing
for the evTRM consultative process. For more information,
visit http://www.evtrm.gc.ca/index_e.html.
The user name for participants is ev_user and the
password is evTRM.
UPCOMING
EVENTS
| For
all upcoming events, please visit the online
Events
Calendar |
|
ITS
CANADA ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND GENERAL MEETING
2009
May
10 to 13, 2009
Edmonton ~ Alberta ~ Canada
www.itscanada.ca/edmonton2009
CALL
FOR ABSTRACTS NOW AVAILABLE
Deadline:
January 16, 2009 |
Newsletter
published by ITS Canada.
Submissions
or comments can be emailed to askus@itscanada.ca.
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