Engineering

IE's Friesz convenes NSF workshop

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. --  Harold and Inge Marcus Chaired Professor Terry L. Friesz recently organized InfraPlex 2012, a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded workshop on complexity science applied to coupled infrastructure systems. The workshop, held in June, was established to substantially energize research activity related to the interface of infrastructure engineering and complexity science.

The meeting explored alternative notions of the sustainability and resilience of infrastructure networks; new modeling and computational innovations that make possible the qualitative and numerical study of very large scale infrastructure networks; the couplings among transportation networks, telecommunication networks, financial networks, energy distribution networks and water resource networks; and integration of modern social network models with traditional network flow models. Attendees discussed their infrastructure-related research and the role of complexity science therein.

Following the workshop, the fourth International Symposium on Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA2012) was held. The symposium brought together international scholars from diverse disciplines to discuss and challenge the emerging notions of dynamic traffic assignment and its role in the related problems of network design, network traffic control, urban logistics, sustainability and the co-evolution of social networks. Much like the NSF workshop, DTA2012 focused on complexity and sustainability and presenters included information on how their research can be affected by complexity science and used to address issues in sustainability.

"The InfraPlex 2012 workshop and DTA2012 symposium brought together the best researchers from around the world," said Paul Griffin, head of the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. "The output will help to define the research agenda for the next several years to develop improved and sustainable infrastructure in the areas of transportation, telecommunications and energy."

More on InfraPlex 2012 may be found at: http://www2.ie.psu.edu/dta2012/Announcement/2012%2006%2001%20Final%20Workshop%20Program.pdf.

More on DTA2012 may be found at: http://www2.ie.psu.edu/dta2012/ online.

Last Updated July 25, 2012

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