Algorithms for improving bus timetables in Copenhagen

Faglige nøgleord: Public transport, Timetabling, Optimization, Algorithms

Oplæg tilgængeligt på: Engelsk og fransk

PROJECT
Have you ever waited a long time at a bus station before your bus arrived?
To reach their destination, travellers may have to change from one bus to another at a station. And if they are unlucky, they might wait a long time at the station before getting on the second bus.
What if bus lines could be better coordinated so that one can transfer smoothly from one line to another? Well, this is not that easy! In metropolitan areas, up to hundreds of bus lines operate. Performant algorithms are necessary to produce good timetables for such complex networks.
This is all my PhD is about! I design novel algorithms to improve timetables. The outcomes will be applied to the Copenhagen bus network, in cooperation with the transport authority Movia.
My main focus is on algorithms called heuristics. Contrary to exact optimization algorithms, heuristics do not aim at necessarily providing the best solution. Instead, they try to produce a high-quality solution (not necessarily the best) in a reasonable computation time. To do so, they start with an initial solution and iteratively try to improve it.
 
CONTENT OF THE PRESENTATION
I will start the session by briefly sharing my academic and professional experience:


High school in France
Engineering school in France with a double degree at KTH, Stockholm (Master of Science in Transport)
2 years working in transport consulting companies in France: traffic forecast and socio-economic evaluation of transport project
Currently PhD student in Transport/Optimization at DTU, near Copenhagen

I will then present my PhD project. I will emphasize how this subject relates to the everyday life of the students, with relevant examples when possible. I will also present the societal relevance of the project (increasing accessibility and supporting the modal shift from car transport to public transport). 
The presentation will be based on PowerPoint slides. To make the session more engaging for the students I will make some quizzes and polls over the presentation (with Menti for example).

 

Fag og faglige nøgleord

Dette oplæg passer for eksempel godt til:

 

Matematik

 

Nøgleord:

  • Public transport
  • Timetabling 
  • Optimization 
  • Algorithms

Sprog og form på besøget

Klassebesøg eller foredrag?

Dette oplæg kan tilpasses enten til en klasse (op til ca. 28 elever), hvor den ph.d.-studerende har mulighed for at have dialog med eleverne.

 

Sprog?

Dette oplæg er tilgængeligt på engelsk og fransk.

 

Digitalt eller fysisk besøg?

Den ph.d.-studerende kommer gerne ud på jeres skole til et fysisk besøg.

Øvrig information

 Dette oplæg er ikke tilgængeligt i november og december 2023. Deruover er det ikke tilgængeligt fra juli 2024 og frem til starten af 2025.

Er du interesseret i dette oplæg?

Kontakt

Taja Andersen Brenneche
Kommunikationsmedarbejder
AKM
45 25 10 57
https://bookphd.dtu.dk/find-foredrag/alle-foredrag-liste/algorithms-for-improving-bus-timetables-in-copenhagen
3 MARTS 2025