The paper written by Majid Rostami-Shahrbabaki, Simone Weikl, Tanja Niels, and Klaus Bogenberger deals with automated lane-free traffic. A realm in which vehicles have the freedom to select their positions dynamically, enabling a unique phenomenon known as flocking. Unlike traditional platooning, this approach allows vehicles to closely group together, not only in terms of following each other but also by occupying adjacent lateral spaces.

The significance in these vehicle flocks lies in their ability to enhance road capacity, save energy through reduced aerodynamic drag, and mitigate traffic disruptions. This paper introduces a sophisticated control framework designed to model and regulate vehicle flocks within the context of automated lane-free traffic.

At the core of this paper lies an algorithm, that leads to results which demonstrate rapid formation, synchronized speeds, and stability in vehicle flocks, adapting spatially to energy function and road boundary changes. Most importantly, the algorithm maintains stability and efficiently dampens shocks in the face of disturbances through subtle lateral adjustments which makes this paper outstanding.

The D. Grant Mickle Award, established in 1976, recognizes an outstanding annual paper in the operation, safety, and maintenance of transportation facilities. The award is granted to authors who received the Highway Research Board Award (1971–1973) and the Transportation Research Board Award (1975–1976) for papers in this field

Read the paper "Modelling Vehicle Flocking in Lane-free Automated Traffic" in the TRRjournal (https://doi.org/10.1177/036119812311594).

Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Kessler. She receives an award in recognition of outstanding scientific achievements for her dissertation "Strategies for Detection of Congestion Patterns Using Multiple Sensor Technologies".

Dr. Kessler's work in the field of traffic optimization and congestion research contains significant contributions to making the flow of traffic on freeways more efficient. The work is characterized by particularly profound methods and robust procedures, so that in addition to the high scientific contribution, it also has practical relevance with the potential for high economic benefits.

A few weeks ago, during the Department Day of the @Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering @School of Engineering and Design, we had the pleasure of receiving a teaching award of the BGU Student Council for the course Traffic Engineering. The award winners are determined annually by the teaching evaluations of the students at TUM. We are particularly pleased with this award, specifically because it is based on student feedback. Congratulations to Prof. Bogenberger and all chair staff who contributed to the successful lectures and exercises.

The feedback motivates us to continue to make teaching interactive and exciting in the future! 🎓

PS Next year, we will get the first place 😉

We are very pleased to announce that our employee Dr. Tanja Niels has won the Carl Pirath Award 2023 (Pressemitteilung "Carl-Pirath-Preis" 2023 - Bundesgeschäftsstelle DVWG). With this award, the DVWG honors outstanding engineering dissertations that contain a high degree of innovation, make a significant contribution to the further development of transportation in theory and practice, and are guided by the principles of sustainability in transportation development.

Huge congratulations from the whole team Tanja! 👏 🏆

At the annual SUMO User Conference of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), attendees vote on the best conference contributions from the point of view of the SUMO community. This year, Mario Ilic's contribution entitled "Open-Source Framework for Modeling Emission Concentrations in Urban Areas" was awarded the "Best Poster Award".

Our former master's student and current employee Johannes Lindner was recently awarded the 2022 "Henry Lampke" Transport Science Promotion Prize of the German Transport Science Association (Deutsche Verkehrswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, DVWG) for his master's thesis.

The thesis presents an implementation concept that interconnects a simulator of a bicycle and an automated vehicle (AV) for valid data collection in urban traffic environment. Furthermore, a concept of a mobile application is demonstrated, which can make the interaction between AV's and bicyclists safer and more efficient.

After 25 years, the 'Joseph Ströbl Prize 2022' will again go to the Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control!

Johannes Lindner received this year's scientific prize for his master's thesis on "Implementation and execution of a coupled driving simulator study for valid data collection in urban traffic space" and thus joins the group of prize winners Andrea David (1996) and Werner Huber (1993). The prize has been awarded since 1991 by the 'Joseph and Sonja Ströbl Foundation' of the Technical University of Munich to journalists and scientists for special contributions to road safety. The journalistic main prize was awarded to Martin Kunz (Head of "Communication" of the ADAC) and the second scientific prize was to Dr. Stefanie Weber (Project Manager of the Road Accident Research Project AARU).

Read the official press release here:

Joseph-Ströbl-Preis 2022: Besondere Verdienste um die Verkehrssicherheit - Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern, für Sport und Integration (bayern.de)