Transportation-related research was the focus for two graduate students who gave “lightning talks” for Doors Open Toronto visitors at the Myhal Centre May 25-26. Both volunteered their time and said that it was a positive experience.
Jason Hawkins (CivMin PhD) presented “Where to Live? Where to Work? Where to Play?” He had this to say about the experience:
My research focuses on capturing the tradeoffs people make between spending time or spending money in their daily lives. I hope this work helps us to better capture these tradeoffs in our models of transportation and location choice decisions. Presenting at Doors Open was a great experience. I was able to show people some of the research we are doing in our group and, most importantly, connect with the next generation of engineers.
Nazli Kaya (MIE MASc) presented “Where do we look at busy intersections?: An on-road study examining driver attention mechanisms.” Her research and analysis show that while drivers have limited attentional capabilities, infrastructure design and vehicle technologies can be used to make up for drivers’ attentional deficits.
Nazli was glad she volunteered for a lightning talk at Doors Open Toronto:
“It was a great opportunity for me to share my research with the public and draw attention to certain emerging road safety issues. Organizing information in a simple pattern was also very beneficial for me to better understand the important components of my own work.”