University of Minnesota brings transportation research findings to 2026 TRB Annual Meeting

University of Minnesota sign on campus

University of Minnesota faculty, staff, and researchers will be presenting their work in 29 sessions at the 105th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 11–15, 2026, in Washington, DC.

CTS is also hosting Minnesota Night at TRB on Monday, January 12. The event welcomes professionals, academics, and students with Minnesota ties to gather for an evening of networking. Hope to see you there! 

Session Schedule

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Session Schedule

Monday, January 12, 2026

8:00–9:45 a.m. Eastern

Lectern Session 2011—Safer Winter Road Maintenance

  • In-Vehicle Auditory Alerts During Snow Removal Operations: Preliminary Analysis and Guidelines; A. K. M. Ashikuzzaman, Curtis Craig, Nichole Morris

10:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Eastern

Lectern Session 2049—Land Use, Accessibility, and Policy: Tools and Evidence for Smarter Transportation Decisions

  • Elements of Access Change: Travel Times and Land Use; Andrew Owen

Lectern Session 2051—Challenges and Solutions for Electric and Mixed Fleets

  • Barriers to Local Government Electric Vehicle Fleet Transitions: Insights from Minnesota; Nastaran Tork, Kwangho Baek, Alireza Khani
  • Planning Charging Infrastructure Network and Fleet Size for Mixed Fleets in Staged Electrification with Budget Constraints; Nastaran Tork, Behnam Davazdah Emami, Kwangho Baek, Alireza Khani

Poster Session 2074—Physics-Informed State Estimation for Traffic System Monitoring

  • PMA-diffusion: A Physics-guided Mask-aware Diffusion Framework for Traffic State Estimation from Sparse Observations; Lindong Liu, Seongjin Choi

Poster Session 2081—Research in Transit Facilities and Infrastructure

  • Multi-Fidelity Surrogate-Based Optimization for Passenger-Centric Bus Berth Allocation in Urban Transit Hubs; Seunghee Ryu, Seongjin Choi

Poster Session 2082—Research in Transit System Planning

  • Supporting High-Speed Rail with a Hub-and-Shuttle Approach: Transforming Long-Haul Conventional Rails into Shuttle Services; Kwangho Baek

1:30–3:15 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 2113—Sensing, Detection, and Perception for Intelligent Transportation

  • Video-Based Vehicle Surveillance in the Wild: License Plate Make and Model Recognition with Self Reflective Vision-Language Models; Pouya Parsa, Seongjin Choi

4:00–5:45 p.m. Eastern

Lectern Session 2137—Travel Behavior in Flux: Insight from Surveys, Ridership, and Forecasting

  • Longitudinal Analysis of Transit Rider Behavior Using AFC and Survey Data Fusion via Machine Learning: A COVID-19-Driven Commute Pattern Changes; Kwangho Baek, Alireza Khani

Poster Session 2158—AI and Machine Learning for Safer, Smarter Transportation

  • A Gentle Introduction to Deep Generative Models in Transportation Research; Seongjin Choi

6:15–7:45 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 2170—The Impact of Location, Infrastructure, Housing, and Social Factors on Community Travel Behavior and Access

  • Transportation Changes Land Use: How the St. Croix Bridge Shaped Accessibility, Housing Values, and Travel Behavior; Matthew Hockert, Eric Lind

Tuesday, January 13, 2025

8:00–9:45 a.m. Eastern

Lectern Session 3002—Human Considerations for Level 4 Automated Vehicle Interactions and Mixed Fleet Operations

  • Nichole Morris, presiding

Lectern Session 3003—Traffic Simulation: New Calibration Methods and Applications

  • Deep Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Origin-Destination Matrix Estimation in Microscopic Traffic Simulations Considering Credit Assignment; Seongjin Choi

Lectern Session 3007—AI and Machine Learning in Travel Demand Forecasting

  • Transformative Impacts of Machine Learning Applications in Land Use-Travel Research; Xinyu Cao

Poster Session 3027—Intelligent Transportation Platforms for Data-Driven Operational Insights

  • Comparative Performance Evaluation of Max Pressure Ramp Metering Algorithm with KAdaptive Algorithm on Real-World Freeway Networks in Minnesota; Arian Zare, Simanta Barman, Raphael Stern, Michael Levin

Poster Session 3029—Urban Accessibility and Infrastructure Resilience Frameworks for Assessment

  • From Network-wide Resilience Assessment to Link-level Grading: An Integrated Framework for Urban Road Transportation Systems under Minor Disturbances; Lexing Zhang

Poster Session 3030—Modeling Traffic Speed and Network Performance Under Disruptive Events

  • TrafficNetQA: Question Answering Benchmark for Evaluating LLM Performance on Traffic Network Files; Donghoon Kwon, Seongjin Choi
  • Accuracy Comparison of Traffic Flow Models Against High-Resolution Vehicle Trajectory; Maziar Zamanpour, Amirhossein Kiani, Michael Levin, Raphael Stern

Poster Session 3163—Last-Mile and Behavioral Logistics

  • Decoding Spatial Patterns, City Roles, and Community Structures in Intercity Express Delivery Network; Xinyu Cao

10:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 3068—Human Factors Research Medley 1

  • Where Rubber Meets the Road: Evaluating the Influence of Stop Line Position on Driver Stopping Distances at Rural Stop-Controlled Intersections; Nichole Morris, Bradley Drahos, Katelyn Schwieters

1:30–3:15 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 3116—Federated Spatiotemporal Prediction of Traffic Flow Patterns

  • TrajFlow: A Generative Framework for Occupancy Density Estimation Using Normalizing Flows; Mitch Kosieradzki, Seongjin Choi

Poster Session 3118—Trajectory-Based Simulation for Evaluating Traffic and Driving Dynamics

  • Human-Centric Reward Optimization for Reinforcement Learning-Based Automated Driving using Large Language Models; Yangfan He

Poster Session 3122—Eco-Driving and Energy Optimization Across Vehicle Technologies

  • A Link Transmission Model of Eco-Approach AVs in Mixed Platoons to Predict the Impacts on Energy Consumption in City Networks; Maziar Zamanpour, Michael Levin

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

8:00–9:45 a.m. Eastern

Lectern Session 4014—Surface and Layer Improvements on Low Volume Roads

  • Taconite Aggregate as an Enhanced Friction Surface Treatment (EFST) Alternative; Lawrence Zanko, Manik Barman, Mugurel Turos, Mihai Marasteanu, Matthew Aro

Poster Session 4027—Intersection Operations and Delay Reduction Using Advanced Signal Systems

  • Phase-Aware Modeling of Autonomous Vehicle Behavior at Urban Signalized Intersections; Hwapyeong Yu

Poster Session 4028—Emerging Methods in Network Modeling and Optimization

  • BO4Mob: Bayesian Optimization Benchmarks for High-Dimensional Urban Mobility Problem; Seunghee Ryu, Donghoon Kwon, Seongjin Choi, Aryan Deshwal
  • Bi-Level Optimization of Detour Signage Placement Under Road Closures; Michael Levin

10:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 4057—Electric Vehicle Charging and Adoption: Infrastructure, Behavior, Policy

  • Leveraging Time-of-Use Electricity Price to Manage Vehicle-to-Grid Activities of Electric Vehicles; Michael Levin
  • An Exact Solution Algorithm for the Bi-Level Optimization Problem of Electric Vehicles Charging Station Placement; Mobina Nankali, Michael Levin

4:00–5:45 p.m. Eastern

Poster Session 4077—Enhancing Construction Aspects of Pavement Foundation

  • Enhancing Aggregate Gradation of Base Layers to Mitigate Transverse Crack Tenting in Asphalt Pavements of Wet-Freeze Regions; Manik Chakraborty, Manik Barman, Chrysogonus Asante

Poster Session 4082—Accelerated Pavement Testing

  • Using Long-Term Embedded Temperature Data and Spectral Analysis to Evaluate Performance Trends for Rigid Pavement; Zifeng Zhao, Joao Gabriel Da Costa De Souza Duarte, Mihai Marasteanu, Ketson Dos Santos

Poster Session 4083—Pavement Preservation

  • Using Continuous Friction Measurement Technology to Measure Pavement Markings Friction Differential: A MnROAD Case Study; Mihai Marasteanu, Lawrence Zanko, Zifeng Zhao, Mugurel Turos

Poster Session 4086—Data-Driven Decision Support for Pavement Management

  • Using Performance Curves to Evaluate Pavement Damage from Detours: A Case Study on CSAH 5 in Minnesota; Zifeng Zhao, Mihai Marasteanu, Mugurel Turos

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