Prof Charisma Choudhury: Next Generation Travel Behaviour Models Leveraging Emerging Data Sources

Speaker: Prof Charisma Choudhury, University of Leeds,

Title: Developing Next Generation Travel Behaviour Models Leveraging Emerging Data Sources

Abstract:

Recent advances in data science and ubiquitous computing have led to the availability of a wide range of new inputs for travel behaviour modelling. These range from passively generated traces from mobile phones, smart phone apps etc. to physiological sensor data (e.g.  skin conductance, heart rate recordings etc.) which provide insights regarding the traveller's state of mind. The presentation will focus on the promises offered by such emerging data sources, the opportunities offered and frameworks to utilise them. Case studies on passively generated big data sources will include residential relocation choice models developed by combining public transport smart card data and modelling the evolution of public perception towards autonomous vehicles using sentiment analyses of X (Twitter) data . The case study on utilising physiological sensor data will focus on developing mode choice models involving autonomous vehicles, hyperloops and air taxis in Virtuocity and capturing the effect of experience on choices by using skin-conductance measurements as indicators of stress levels.

Biography:

Charisma Choudhury is a Professor of Behaviour Modelling and an UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds (UoL). She leads the Choice Modelling Research Group within her school and serves as the Deputy-Director of the interdisciplinary Choice Modelling Centre, UoL.

Charisma received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining UoL, she has worked at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, MIT, RAND Europe and Cambridge Systematics. Her current research focuses on travel behaviour modelling using emerging data sources, particularly in the context of the Global South.

Charisma is the current Chair of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research. More on her work can be found here: https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/staff/924/dr-charisma-choudhury