TOMORROW TODAY
EMISSIONS-FREE URBAN LOGISTICS // Award for lighthouse project „EMILIA“ PROTECTION FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION // „COMPACT“ significantly increases cyber security
DR.IN CLAUDIA JONAK
INNOVATIVE CONSTRUCTION SITE MANAGEMENT // AIT provides greater quality and safety
PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST IN THE FIELD OF PLANT STRESS BIOLOGY
Andreas Vrabl, Head of Center for Vision, Automation & Control, Nicole Brosch, Junior Scientist und Petra Thanner, Research Engineer (r.).
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ANALYSIS OF MECHANISMS OF ACTION
MAKING PLANTS MORE RESILIENT
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UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANISMS OF SUCCESSFUL PLANTS
Top-Story
Plants are a primary resource of g reat economic and ecological value: Their production systems are the basis for the „4 Fs“ – Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel. Under the direction of Claudia Jonak, AIT develops innovative, sustainable technologies that increase the yield potential and the resilience of plants to environmental stress. Corn, rice, wheat, and soybean today account for nearly twothirds of total agricultural production worldwide. Several studies have shown that global crop production needs to double by 2050 to meet the challenges of rising populations, dietary changes and increasing biofuel consumption. But current growth rates are far from covering future needs. On the contrary: Factors such as climate change, the increase of extreme heat or cold spells, drought or other extrinsic influences are strongly affecting the growth and development of plants – and therefore their potential and agricultural benefits, respectively. „In recent decades, we have been able to successfully increase crop yields. But these growth rates do not keep pace with the anticipated need for plant products,” says Claudia Jonak, Principal Scientist in the Field of Plant Stress Biology.
Photos and Coverphoto: PicturePeople
INCREASING YIELD POTENTIALS The average yield loss for corn is two-thirds of the total potential, for wheat it is almost 80 percent, for potatoes and sugar beets about 50 percent. Humanity simply will no longer be able to afford such losses caused by suboptimal or adverse growth conditions in the future: „We must find new solutions to sustainably increase crop production without opening up more land for arable farming. To do so, we must increase the yield potential and resilience of crops to environmental stress.“ In order to develop the corresponding innovative and sustainable technologies, it is important to understand the methodology of successful plants. „They use a combination of different strategies at very different organizational levels,“
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The AIT research team pursues two interdisciplinary, complementary technological approaches to increase the vitality, robustness and thus yield reliability of plants under adverse environmental conditions.
Hansjörg Stampfl, Maria-Amparo Asensi- Fabado, Florentina Freynschlag, Claudia Jonak, Natalie Freiberger, Bikram Pandey, Zoltán Takács (from left to right)
Top-Story
mental conditions.“ Metabolism is closely linked to plant growth and development, and thus plant performance. Adverse environmental conditions have a major impact on metabolism. In order to successfully adapt to environmental stress, it is important that the metabolism adapts to the prevailing conditions. While being embedded in an excellent research environment, development synergies are created with the research group led by Angela Sessitsch which deals with the interaction between plants and beneficial microorganisms. In some areas, AIT is conducting frontier research and enters new technological territory. Projects already rolled out and contract research show enormous potential from which both industry and society will benefit in the long term.
PROLONGED STORAGE OF APPLES
Among other things, the communication structures of the various organizational units are analysed.
says Jonak. The AIT expert previously researched at the University of Vienna and the Gregor Mendel Institute for Molecular Plant Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and carried out analyses at all organizational levels. „I now contribute this knowledge to AIT and I want to use the know-how on molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance to further develop and increase the vitality and resistance of plants to adverse environmental conditions,“ says Claudia Jonak, who has been able to obtain more than 1,000 citations and four patents through her research work since 2014. AIT is one of the leading RTOs in her field of research „To improve biomass and seed yield in fluctuating environments“.
Photos: PicturePeople
INTERDISCIPLINARY AND COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES Based on her knowledge of stress signal transduction and metabolic regulation which complements and expands the existing expertise at AIT, Claudia Jonak is developing a new research topic at AIT: „As part of the new AIT Strategy (2018– 21), we are pursuing two interdisciplinary, complementary technological approaches to increase the vitality, robustness and thus the yield reliability of plants under adverse environ-
A practical example of Claudia Jonak‘s team‘s research is the „Hot Apple“ project, which researches environmentally sound treatments to reduce the storage rot of apples and thereby increase their storage capability. „As part of this contract research, we are analyzing fundamental mechanisms to develop solutions that support both fruit producers and retailers,“ says Jonak. „Hot Apple“ is a good example of how the AIT does systematic research to understand and use mechanisms of action.
SWEET IMMUNITY OF PLANTS
The global importance of plant research is demonstrated by the project „Sweet Immunity“, a bilateral project between Belgium and Austria. Here, Jonak‘s team is researching how plants can quickly adapt their metabolism to prevailing conditions: „We are working to develop cellular energy sensors that rapidly coordinate the metabolism with the current energy status in order to enable a rapid adaptation of plant growth to prevailing environmental conditions.“ Among other things, the communication structures of the various organizational units are analysed for this. „Timing is everything in intracellular communication,“ says Jonak. „We clarify which mechanisms of action and modes of functioning underlie this and how they can be influenced,“ emphasizes the internationally recognized expert with regards to stress signal transduction in plants.
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In the research area Smart and Resilient Cities, AIT focuses on bundling different competencies. Artificial intelligence is to help derive concrete planning projects from the complex network of relationships in cities. An own Urban Intelligence Lab is soon to contribute to this.
The city is undoubtedly the living space of the future. At just two percent of the world‘s surface, cities are home to about half of the world‘s population – and probably more than twothirds by 2050. This global development raises many questions: How do we want to live in the future? How do we want to build our homes, move and provide ourselves with energy? How do we want to feed ourselves? How will we organize our cities? How should urban and extra-urban mobility be designed? The constant interplay of growth, societal visions and real urban development therefore requires continuous innovations to shape the future of the city and to meet the most diverse needs. These topics are causing the importance of sus-
Photo: CC David Leo Veksler
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR THE URBAN PLANNING OF THE FUTURE
Smart City
At just two percent of the world‘s surface, cities are home to about half of the world‘s population, and probably more than twothirds by 2050.
tainable urban development to grow worldwide. At AIT, special accents are set for this.
SYSTEMIC APPROACH In order to advance the holistic orientation of urban research at AIT, Reinhard König – an experienced expert in sustainable urban and spatial planning – was recently appointed as the „Principal Scientist“ for Cognitive Urban Design Computing. „It must be the goal of Austrian research and industry to develop knowledge and technologies for planning and operating smart cities and thus to generate an innovative edge and com-
petitive advantage for cities and companies,“ says Reinhard König. “We thus support the associated transformation processes for sustainable urban development against the background of digitisation and decarbonisation.“ In Cognitive Computing, no computer system is programmed in advance for all possible problem solutions as has been the practice up to now, but it independently learns more and more. In principle, it works like the human brain and, just like it, it can respond to unknown problems by autonomously seeking solutions. „The best-known example of cognitive computing is the IBM-developed program called ‚Watson‘ that beat the ‚Jeopardy‘ champion six years ago,“ explains Reinhard König. „To be able to perform in this way, the computer needs to understand the context of the questions.“ This had been reserved for humans until then. Since this spectacular breakthrough, artificial intelligence has already been deployed in many areas. At AIT, the aim is to now use artificial intelligence for sustainable urban planning that is designed with the people in mind. „In order to get a grip on the complex problems of a city, we are looking for solutions in collaboration with the computer, as it were,“ says König. The graduate architect and urban planner has been working at AIT since 2016. König‘s expertise in the field of artificial intelligence and urban development will come to use in the Future Cities Lab of the ETH Zurich in Singapore. „This cooperation with Singapore enables us to test the latest methods for semi-automated urban planning,“ says the AIT Principal Scientist. As a junior professor of Computational Architecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar, he also teaches and researches computer-based methods for sustainable urban and spatial planning and the development of algorithmic design methods.
GAINING INSIGHTS FROM DATA Innovative urban planning which takes all aspects relevant to the city‘s inhabitants into account is a highly complex matter. After all, many aspects interact and influence each other. In this confusing network of dependencies, Cognitive Computing helps to arrive at clear insights by means of algorithms. However, simple solutions cannot be obtained through artificial intelligence either: „Generally, people have to work for compromise solutions in urban planning,“ says Reinhard König,
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to automatically analyse and contrast new or proven planning proposals with regard to many aspects. In addition, Cognitive Urban Design Computing allows for automatically generating any number of planning variants. At the same time, one can filter out groups from all variants and bring similar ideas together as part of a „map“. Planning decisions can be made on the basis of well-founded data and a comprehensive selection of alternatives in this way. „Predictions about how planning is likely to work – and how those who are affected by it will react to the proposals can be made in this way. This then also allows targeted feedback to all participants. The last point is particularly important,“ says König.
A LABORATORY FOR THE URBAN PLANNING OF TOMORROW
planning. We want to enable a new quality of life in the urban space.”
„because things that are good for car traffic, e.g., may be a hassle for pedestrians.“ How things are judged is ultimately the result of a social discourse. And this political dimension can be optimally integrated into urban planning by means of Cognitive Computing. „Through the new media, citizens will be able to play a much more active role in shaping their city in the future,“ knows König. New tools are required, however, in order to enable a co-design by citizens. That‘s why AIT works on several levels to develop appropriate solutions. In this way, urban planning processes can be redesigned through co-design. One possibility is to ask users where something is to be positioned, where they wish to have trees, or how „parklets“ could be designed. These small island solutions which are to be used more frequently in the future instead of parking lots are becoming increasingly popular in major cities such as Vienna. „An app can make it easier to implement such projects,“ says König. An app could also embed corresponding documents associated with the project: „The idea is to start small, to initiate projects so that larger urban planning activities can arise later.“ For ultimately the question is how to integrate several opinions into a project. This is where artificial intelligence is to help in the analysis. One should thereby be able
Photo: AIT
Reinhard König: „Urban planning is not just energy or housing space
In order to integrate all these possibilities, a dedicated AIT Urban Intelligence Lab is being implemented. It is intended to serve as a meeting point for various stakeholders, to provide space for the exchange of concepts and ideas, and to expand the existing labs that already exist in Zurich or Singapore in some areas. In a next step, it will also be possible to integrate physical models into the lab – an important aspect in planning large urban projects, for example. In addition, anyone interested can use VR glasses to three-dimensionally immerse themselves in the plans. Here too, the systematic approach practiced at AIT is the decisive factor. „Urban planning is not just energy or housing space planning. We want to enable a new quality of life in urban areas,“ says König, „while taking into account all aspects that have an impact on other topics. The current approach is far too simple: We are developing technologies that reduce our energy consumption. But the city as a whole is still not being sufficiently reflected.“ As cities grow, they need to provide more people with living space and jobs, save more resources than they do today, seek a densification of areas or offer new forms of mobility. „We also have to ask ourselves where the food we need in the city will be produced in the future,“ König quotes another example. For Reinhard König, this also means that today‘s dominance of the economic perspective must be changed in favour of an ecological, sustainable viewpoint. This, in turn, means „breaking up the existing system logic,“ as König puts it – offering new solutions that are not presented to people as a limitation, but as a positive alternative instead.
Performance & Success
FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE & SUCCESS Brigitte Bach: „A great opportunity for all participating companies and the business location Austria.“
EBE SMART.BASE
INNOVATIVE CONSTRUCTION SITE MANAGEMENT For traffic management systems, the automatic data collection and processing around construction sites and traffic events is often problematic: the early start and end of a construction site or assembly and disassembly of the traffic guidance systems are usually documented by hand, the data is not up to date nor is it available in digital form. In addition, the entries in the construction journal are not always complete and the information cannot be transmitted to the traffic management systems
INNOVATIONSCLUSTER
Photos: AIT, Asfinag
ENERGY TRANSITION IN INDUSTRY „NEFI – New Energy for Industry“ won the 2nd call for a thematic model region for energy innovations. The innovation cluster has set itself the goal of significantly reducing CO2 emissions in the industry, using up to 100% renewable energy while at the same time increasing its competitiveness. NEFI was selected as one of three model regions to advance energy innovation in Austria. The Austrian consortium intends to demonstrate over the next 8 years that a complete decarbonisation and the use of up to 100% renewable energy in industry with innovations from Austria are feasible, economically viable, and ecologically beneficial. „We are delighted that our consortium of over 80 companies, 14 research institutes and 5 public institutions can now prove that the Austrian industry can make a significant contribution to energy transition with innovative technologies ‚Made in Austria‘,“ says Brigitte Bach, Head of Center for Energy and Head of the NEFI Innovation Cluster. More on this at www.nefi.at and at www.vorzeigeregion-energie.at
AIT know-how for better traffic management on construction sites.
on time. All this leads to repeated misinformation and a reduction of service quality. That‘s why AIT, together with EBE Solutions GmbH and heimbuchner consulting GmbH, has developed the new Internet of Things (IoT) foot plate „EBE Smart.Base“ for the detection and transmission of traffic quality and congestion in construction sites. It basically works as an on-off switch for a construction site and transmits the activation status to a traffic management system in real time. The installation does not cause additional work for the construction site personnel and thus seamlessly integrates into the normal construction site operation. On behalf of ASFINAG and together with EBE Solutions GmbH and Franz Janschitz Ges.m.b.H, the experts of the AIT Center for Mobility Systems are developing the so-called IMIS Trailer – an intelligent pre-warning trailer equipped with appropriate sensors to help design a safer road traffic network in Austria. Project Manager Michael Aleksa from the AIT Center for Mobility Systems explains: „Our main task in the project is to ensure adequate data processing and to implement those interfaces that make a smooth transfer between trailer and traffic control centre possible.
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HORIZON 2020
FINAL CONFERENCE FRESHER PROJECT
AWARD
BEST PAPER AWARD FOR BERNHARD DACHS Bernhard Dachs of the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy received the Best Paper Award at the CONCORDi conference of the European Commission in Seville, Spain. The paper investigates backshoring of production activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A main conclusion from the paper is that Industry 4.0 technologies are positively related to backshoring. We explain this relationship with the need of many firms to increase flexibility of their production processes. Industrie 4.0 and backshoring help firms to achieve this goal. Thus, we expect more backshoring in the future than we observe today.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer, obesity or cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death among people in the EU and the biggest health expenditure driver. How can we limit these diseases and their causes, and what is the role of politics in this context? These questions were posed by the project FRESHER „Foresight and Modelling for European Health Policy and Regulation“. On 7 December, the final conference took place in Brussels following a successful 3-year research project of the AIT Centers for Innovation Systems & Policy and Energy. The results were, among other things, different scenarios for the development of NCDs. These differed, for example, in terms of population growth forecasts, emission characteristics, built environments of cities, or nutritional balance. These factors have a strong impact on public health and should be regulated at policy level. Possible measures were developed in the project in a microsimulation procedure, with the participation of the OECD. The researchers identified of social equality and a better and more equitable access to health care as the most important points of leverage. Info: www.fresher-project.eu.
BATTERY RESEARCH
BEST STUDENT ORAL PRESENTATION AWARD FOR KATJA FRÖHLICH Katja Fröhlich, Junior Scientist of the Battery Research Team at the Center for Low-Emission Transport, was awarded the “Best Student Oral Presentation Award“ at the E-MRS Fall MEETING (European Materials Research Society) in Warsaw for her talk on „Materials for e nergy storage, production & harvesting applications“.
Bernhard Dachs has worked
The entire research team is happy about Katja Fröhlich‘s outstanding success.
Photos: AIT, AIT/Krischanz Zeiler
on production facility relocations.
MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT
FUTURE CITY TBILISI: IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PUBLIC TRANSPORT NODE On behalf of the Asian Development Bank, the researchers from the Center for Mobility Systems contributed to the transformation and modernization of the public transport hub around the Didube metro station in the north of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Using IMPACT and SIMULATE, the introduction of a Bus Rapid Transit system, the consolidation of the currently very distributed regional bus stations into a central bus station and
Vienna City Councillor Ulli Sima, EMILIA Project Leader Boschidar Ganev, VCÖ spokesman Christian Gratzer and Peter Ullrich from ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG (from left to right).
URBAN LOGISTICS
Photos: Wimmer/AMP, AIT
VCÖ AWARD FOR “EMILIA“ The lighthouse project EMILIA won the VCÖ Mobility Award 2017 for Vienna. Boschidar Ganev, AIT expert and project coordinator of EMILIA, received the award from Vienna‘s City Councillor for Environmental matters, Ulli Sima, on behalf of 14 Austrian project partners. EMILIA („Electric Mobility for Innovative Freight Logistics In Austria“) is developing solutions for CO2-free urban logistics. With innovative logistics concepts and technological optimizations, the delivery in cities is to become environmentally friendly, flexible and efficient through the use of e-vehicles. EMILIA allows express food delivery within 60 minutes by means of the electric cargo bike and improves parcel delivery in the Vienna neighbourhood of „Seestadt Aspern“ through a local parcel shop and the use of electric vehicles. At the same time, EMILIA increases the vehicle range by 15% with a new type of engine and drive inverter. More at: www.emilia-project.at.
AIT analysed various models in the public transport offer around the Didube node in Tbilisi.
various types of pedestrian connection between the individual stops were examined in different scenarios. For this purpose, a microscopic traffic simulation was implemented, the multimodal traffic conditions in the station environment were simulated with PTV VISSIM and the passenger flows inside the station were simulated with the pedestrian simulation framework developed by AIT and subjected to an impact analysis. „The result was the delivery of an assessment of the different scenarios and measures that should serve as decision support for city council stakeholders regarding what actions should be taken and in which sequence they should be implemented,“ emphasises Gernot Lenz, Research Engineer at the AIT Center for Mobility Systems. EVENT
10. RANSHOFENER LIGHT METAL DAYS The Ranshofener Light Metal Days celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, inviting materials scientists and experts from the light metal industry to an exchange of expertise. From 13 through 14 June 2018, Linz will be all about „High performance metals and processes for the lightweight construction of the future“. On the occasion of this milestone, the LKR will surprise its participants with some innovations in the conference concept: new presentation formats, digital conference tools, moderator Andreas Jäger (ORF III), and the traditional evening reception at the ARS ELECTRONICA. Early bird tickets are available until 17 January 2018 at: www.lmt.ait.ac.at.
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EU-PROJECT
SI-DRIVE STRENGTHENS SOCIAL INNOVATION Social innovation is considered a key mechanism to respond to societal challenges and solve burning structural problems. „For us, the focus is on social innovation deliberately trying to address and solve a social problem,“ says Doris Schartinger of the AIT Center for Innovation Systems & Policy. With numerous international partners, the EU project SI-Drive has aimed at improving theoretical and empirical foundations for this and to develop recommendations for future policy strategies. A worldwide database where more than 1,000 initiatives of social innovation have been collected provided the foundation. In late October, the results were presented in Brussels, and policy recommendations were discussed.
Stephanie Schwarz develops innovative training concepts within the framework of KURAGE.
KURAGE
PERSUASIVE PLAY PROMOTES CIVIC COURAGE IN DAILY LIFE
The crowds at this year‘s Smart City Expo World Congress were huge.
CONGRESS
ONE-STOP-SHOP FOR THE SMART CITY AIT Austrian Institute of Technology presented its comprehensive city planning and mobility services at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. The spectrum ranges from architecture and urban planning to energy and mobility through to ICT, combining scientific expertise and long-term implementation expertise for urban innovation. AIT experts analyse the relationships and interactions between the various levels and dimensions of the urban network, including people, buildings, mobility, and infrastructure, as well as processes, climate, data and information. AIT has developed a wide range of tools to create a sustainable, affordable, and efficient mobility system for the cities of the future. AIT uses smartphones, among other things, to automatically record the distances covered and the means of transport used by people.
Photos: Rita Skof, Fira de Barcelona
„Should I intervene or not?“ In daily life, there are often situations that require civic courage or assistance. Passers-by have to weigh the need for intervention without jeopardizing their own safety. The KURAGE project investigates factors influencing pro-social behaviour, such as personality factors or general attitudes toward the economic future. „Based on the results of two field experiments, we are developing a concept for an interactive, persuasive game to simulate situations in which intervention by virtue of civic courage is desired,“ explains Stephanie Schwarz, Scientist at the AIT Center for Technology Experience. This game concept is intended to overcome limitations of currently used training concepts and thus effectively promote pro-social behaviour in situations requiring civic courage.
INNOVATION CALENDAR
Thanks to AIT technologies, public administrations are to be better protected in the future.
COMPACT
CYBER SECURITY FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Cyber attacks are an ever-increasing risk to public administration. The COMPACT project therefore researches, develops, and evaluates innovative, effective, and playful cyber security awareness methods. The aim is to make the local administration units and their employees impervious to cyber attacks. In addition, the project links up already existing EU initiatives and promotes the exchange of information between European public enterprises. The Center for Technology Experience leads two tasks on the topics of Psychological Factors and Awareness Methods. „Where the Awareness Methods are concerned, we develop intervention methods based on gamification in order to increase the knowledge and awareness of employees about information security in public companies,“ says Project Leader Cornelia Gerdenitsch. The EU project will still run through the end of 2019. More on this at: www.compact-project.eu.
IKT-MASTERPIECE AWARD
Photo: Freepik/ by xb100
RED CROSS SCORES WITH AIT TECHNOLOGY The Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK) took second place at the IKT Masterpiece Award 2017. Thus, an innovative ICT project with AIT technology has received an award in this competition for the second time since 2015. In close cooperation with AIT, the ÖRK developed a multi-stakeholder platform for crowd tasking with the aim of optimizing the deployment of volunteers and increasing the resilience of the population in times of crisis and disaster. The special approach which in this context is unique in the world concerns linking hierarchically oriented structures and IT systems with today‘s omnipresent smartphones and social media. The crowd idea supported in this way benefits all citizens in the event of a disaster. „We have contributed our expertise in the field of agile software and IT system development in the context of our research focus in crisis and disaster management,“ says Helmut Leopold, Head of Center for Digital Safety & Security at AIT, happy about the jury‘s recognition.
16–18 January 2018 // EUROGUSS 2018 With around 600 exhibitors and more than 12,000 expected trade visitors, EUROGUSS is regarded as the leading trade fair for the entire die-casting value chain. Location: Nuremberg AIT contact: Andreas Kraly Info: euroguss.de/ // 26 January 2018 // CRESSI FINAL CONFERENCE Final conference of the EU project “CRESSI – Creating an Economic Space for Social Innovation”. Location: Oxford AIT contact: Susanne Giesecke Info: www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ // 29 January – 2 February 2018 // VIENNA CYBER SECURITY WEEK 2018 The international expert conference presents innovative approaches and solutions for security research. Info: energypact.org/2018viennacybersecurityweek/ // 30–31 January 2018 // RISIS WEEK International workshop as part of the RISIS project for building a research infrastructure for Europe. Location: Paris AIT contact: Thomas Scherngell Info: risis.eu/events //
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MOBILITY SURVEYS WITH SMARTPHONES AIT Smart Survey offers an efficient, high-quality and cost-effective service for gathering mobility information by means of smartphones. The distances covered and the means of transport used are automatically collected by means of a smartphone and stored in a digital mobility diary – far more accurately than in a written record. By Markus Ray, Head of Business Unit Dynamic Transportation Systems and Peter Widhalm, Scientist, AIT Center for Mobility Systems
Efficient planning and designing of a mobility offer requires collecting comprehensive data on multimodal personal mobility behaviour. In this context, modelling and forecasting transport demand places particularly high demands on the data base. In terms of level of detail and scope, the following requirements must be taken into account in the context of mobility surveys: • the ideally complete coverage of all routes and stages of the intermodal pathway, regardless of their length and mode of travel (e.g. also short distances covered on foot); • detailed information on route and transport mode selection as well as all multimodal transfer points and times; • long-term survey of mobility behaviour during at least one week, as multimodality and mobility within and outside the daily routine only manifest themselves over a longer period of time: the number of used means of transport does not signi-
ficantly increase any more only after about 7 days (Beckmann et al., 2006), and the typical rhythm in which many activities and paths repeat cyclically also only becomes apparent after at least one week; • continuous updating of data for the analysis of trends and adaptations of mobility behaviour to new offers. There is still only a very small amount of validated empirical data available on these aspects of personal mobility, since they are difficult to capture due to the particularly high demands on survey details and duration of observation.
TRADITIONAL SURVEYS Established survey methods as currently used in Germany and Austria include written and postal mailings of questionnaires and mobility diaries to be filled in by the test per-
Scientific Paper
sons, telephone interviews and web-based surveys. These methods involve a great deal of time and money as well as a large burden on the test persons. Traditional surveys are therefore limited to a few specific dates and are only rarely repeated to update the data collected. The selected route, trip stages and intermodal transfer points are not captured. Multimodal routes are assigned to one main mode of transport or represented only in a very simplified fashion. Particularly active forms of movement such as walking and cycling are often poorly displayed. When test persons reconstruct their routes from memory, there is also the danger that the trip chain reports are inaccurate and fragmentary. As part of the BRAWISIMO survey (BRAtislava Wien region: Study on MObility behaviour) and the recently completed household survey „Österreich unterwegs“ [Austria on the go], only two days were used for surveying. Already the second day showed a clear decrease in the willingness of the test persons to participate which manifested itself in a systematic reduction of the number of reported paths that cannot be explained by other factors. In order to counteract the resulting distortion, a separate weighting must therefore be added to the further survey days for the correction of the daily route frequency. The collected route data includes the source of the journey and the destination but no information about route stages and the chosen route. Only the main mode of transport and YES/NO-information on other modes of transport used were surveyed, but neither sequence nor length per mode nor data on transfer points or times were checked.
vices and neither the shipping and return shipping of devices, nor training in the basic handling are required. Smartphones also have numerous sensors such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetic field compass which can provide valuable additional information for the automated reconstruction of the route, trip stages and modes of transport used. In the previous projects NEMO-PHONE and PROVAMO, both funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit) within the framework of the mobility research programme of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), methods have already been developed that use smartphones to create multimodal travel routes and automatically capture the modes of transport used, logging these in a detailed digital roadmap. The results of these projects led to an integration with AIT Smart Survey, a survey system developed by AIT consisting of a smartphone app, a backend server for storing and processing the collected data and a web application for insight, control and correction of the collected route data. In the ULTIMO project, the technology-based process has been extended to include the automatic recognition of the route purposes. In order to avoid user interaction for the manual starting and stopping of the route recording, ULTIMO has also developed an automatic detection of the beginning and end of the route which automatically enables GPS reception only for the duration of the route, then switching it off again.
TECHNOLOGY-BASED SURVEYS In order to improve the quality and level of detail of the data collected, the use of GPS loggers in prompted recall surveys has been intensively studied in recent years. In the course of these procedures, the collected GPS data is presented to the subjects in a subsequent survey as a reminder in order to ask for more details on the routes and activities. To reduce the survey burden on the test persons in the collection of multimodal paths, algorithms for an automated means of transport detection have already been developed in the MODE project. Data from passive GPS loggers collected in the predecessor project MobiFIT were used for this. The use of GPS loggers, however, entails expenditures and costs for the purchase and the return shipping of the devices as well as for training the test persons. When designing „Österreich unterwegs“ [Austria on the go], the use of GPS loggers was therefore considered to be too expensive.
Photo: AIT
SMARTPHONES INSTEAD OF GPS LOGGERS The advantage of using smartphones instead of GPS loggers is that a large part of the population already owns these de-
More recently, Smart Survey has been used in three other projects: - The DISCOVER study examined the added value that can be gained from technology-based mobility surveys. - As part of the MultiMo project, Wiener Stadtwerke [Vienna Public Services] carried out a survey of the multimodal traffic behaviour of the users of the W ienMobil-Lab application. - Together with bmvit, the provinces of Styria and Carinthia, and the ÖBB, the project Smart Journey – an app for all public transport modes – was carried out. The aim was to investigate how accurately and reliably the trip recognition by means of a smartphone app works.
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“BRIDGING” IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
IMPACT ON NOISE BARRIERS
ACCIDENT ANALYSIS AT ROAD JUNCTIONS
This article introduces a new approach to social network analysis to describe the positioning of actors in R&D networks. In light of the growing interest in indicators for the positioning of actors in R&D networks, Bridging Centrality (BC) is being proposed as a new indicator. This is based on the concept of ‚bridging paths‘, i.e. two links that connect three actors (e.g., research organizations) to one another. ‚Bridging‘ is considered a central element for expanding the knowledge base of an organization, especially with regard to non-redundant knowledge. Since ‚bridges‘ are often unobservable at the level of research teams, we propose an approximate measure describing BC as a function of a node‘s participation intensity, its openness, and the diversification of connections to other nodes. An illustrative example of co-publication networks in nanotechnology shows the characteristics of the new indicator and illustrates the possible interpretations going beyond the current state described in literature.
The determination of aerodynamic pressure/suction loads occurring at noise barriers along high-speed railway lines during train passage is governed by different standards and guidelines. The paper deals with currently applicable standards and regulations and explains the theoretical background of the current calculation methods. It demonstrates, for instance, the differences in the determination of the aerodynamic pressure/suction loads for a general and a specifically executed case of a noise barrier along an open track. It subsequently discusses the differences in the results. In the case of one noise barrier, permanent monitoring was conducted from 2012 to 2014. In addition to the loads occurring during train passage (impact side), the structural reaction of the noise barrier (resistance side) was also measured. Noise barriers posts were equipped with strain gauges and the cyclic stresses were thus determined. The results of the permanent monitoring are compared with the results arising according to the different standards and regulations, and discussed.
Given recent advances in autonomous driving functions, there is a need for comprehensive testing in virtual simulation environments as well as on real test tracks. This article presents a novel data analysis methodology that includes the preparation, analysis and visualization of accident data to identify critical pre-crash scenarios at road-junctions as the basis for testing the safety of automated driving systems. The method uses the k-medoids method to cluster historical accident data at road junctions according to various factors and applies association rules to each cluster to specify driving scenarios in more detail. The study revealed 13 crash clusters for T-junctions and six clusters for four-way junctions. The association rules yielded common crash characteristics, which formed the basis for the scenario descriptions. The results support existing road accident results and provide benchmark safety testing situations.
Laurent Bergé, Thomas Scherngell , Iris Wanzenböck: “Bridging centrality as an indicator to measure the ‘bridging role’ of actors in networks: An application to the European Nanotechnology co-publication network.”; Journal of Informetrics, Volume 11, Issue 4, November 2017, Pages 1031-1042
S. Lachinger, M. Reiterer, H. Kari: „Lärmschutzwände entlang von Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecken: Normung - Berechnung – Messung“ („Noise protection walls along high-speed lines: Standardization – Calculation – Measurement “); Bauingenieur, vol 92 (2017), 92; S. 39 - 49.
P. Nitsche, R. Stütz, R. Welsh, P. Thomas: „Pre-crash scenarios at road junctions: A clustering method for car crash data“; Accident Analysis and Prevention, Elsevier (2017), 107; S. 137 - 151.
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