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October 2007
Evacuation research nets additional federal funds
Shashi Shekhar
Shashi Shekhar, a McKnight Distinguished University Professor of computer science and CTS Faculty Scholar, in collaboration with Henry Liu, a civil engineering assistant professor, recently received a grant titled “Spatio-temporal Network Databases for Transportation Science” from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant is to further research into scalable computational methods for determining routes, schedules, and traffic management plans for evacuating metropolitan areas.
Two years ago Shekhar’s research team completed a system to coordinate local emergency evacuation plans in multiple communities. The system is designed to minimize potential congestion on major roadways, speed up the evacuation process, and maximize safety for citizens.
The goal was to create a tool that would run more efficiently than the standard linear programming approach and allow users—such as transportation professionals and first responders—to quickly find the best escape routes, even for large scenarios. The result was a capacity-constrained route planning system with a simple, Webbased user interface.
Mn/DOT used the software to develop a metro evacuation traffic management plan for the Twin Cities area. Seventy public and private agencies in the nine-county metro area were invited to create the plan. Their effort was honored with the CTS Research Partnership Award in 2006.
Since then Shekhar has been refining his capacity-constrained routing software to make it more accessible and easy to use for the private sector. To learn more about his research, visit the CTS Research page.