CATTS-TAL Symposium, In-Person, Dec 2-3

Please note that registration is required for each day separately. If you plan to attend both days, complete two registrations (one for each day).

CATTS-TAL Symposium

CATTS was established in 2017 with the purpose of quantifying and guiding the transformation of transportation systems in the era of rapid innovations in vehicular technologies and in provisioning of transportation as a service. The centre’s mission is to guide societal transformation into a positive and sustainable direction, avoid the emergence of counterproductive travel trends, and emboldens Ontario cities as leaders in North America and the world.

TAL, established in 2020, brings together transportation and technology researchers from across the University of Toronto, transit service providers in the Golden Horseshoe area, and private sector technology providers and consultants. Among its objectives are to foster innovation in transit data-driven tools (analytics) using advanced methods of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, simulation and statistics; expose the professional community through knowledge transfer activities to advanced analytics; build collaborations with public and private organizations; and establish U of T as a national and international leader in transit data analytics.

Every year, both centres hold their own research day/symposium to showcase their recent research advances and discuss emerging transportation problems/topics. This year, the CATTS and TAL research days are held jointly on December 2-3, 2025, providing a platform to share the latest research findings. The event will also feature guest speakers addressing critical transportation and transit topics.

Room GB202, Galbraith Building

35 St. George Street, 2nd floor, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4

DAY 1: December 2nd, 2025

9:00-9:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks,

9:15-10:45 Traffic Artificial Intelligence (AI)

· “eMARLINx – Taking to the streets: robust AI agent Training for field deployment”, Xiaoyu Wang

· “eMARLINx - Taking to the streets: hardware, communications, system integration and field installation”, Ilia Smirnov

· “SECRMx - Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for Concurrent Microscopic Safe, Efficient, and Comfortable Autonomous Driving and Macroscopic Congestion Management on Freeways”, Tianyu Shi

· “Environmental impact of adaptive traffic control”, Xiaoyu Wang and Omar Elsamadisy

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-11:45 From Taylor Swift to World Cup, Lessons learned and the Plan ahead

· Roger S. Browne, M.A.Sc., P.Eng. Director, Traffic Management Section, Transportation Services, City of Toronto

11:45-12:30 Major Event Preparation and Crowd Safety

· Marc Younan, Manager, Special Events Management, Metrolinx

12:30-1:30 Lunch Break

1:30-2:30 Guest Speaker's Session: “Intelligent Autonomous Mobility: An Overview of Waterloo MVSLab’s Research Work”

· WATonoBus team (Keqi Shu and Minghao Ning)

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-4:45 Environmental and Behavioural Implications of Emerging Technologies

· “Exploring Methods for Modeling Carpooling with Limited Data”, Ya Gao

· “Spatiotemporal Insights into Ride-Hailing: What Happens When We Restrict Driver Supply?”, Shuoyan Xu

· “Assessing truck driver hazard anticipation training”, Alia Galal

· “Bridging the gap between data reproduction and prediction: The impact of feature selection and cross-validation strategies on the prediction of ambient ultrafine particles collected with mobile monitoring”, Milad Saeedi

· “Who Will Subscribe? Unpacking the Market for MaaS in the Toronto Area”, Felita Ong

4:45 Program End

DAY 2: December 3rd, 2025

9:00-9:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks,

9:15-10:45 Propelling Transit into the AI Future

· “iROAM: Integrated Route Operation and Anomaly Monitor – v 0.2”, , Jiahao Wang

· “ELSSA: Experience Learning-based System for Supervisor Assistance”, Jiahao Wang

· “Data Architecture for AI-ready Public Transit Ecosystem”, Diego Da Silva

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 On-Demand Transit and Bus Fleet Electrification – New Insights and Tools

· “From Fixed Routes to Flexible Rides: Feasibility of On-Demand Transit Alternatives for Suburban Networks”, Shahrin Islam

· “Driving the Transition: Decision Making Tools for Electric Bus Deployment”, Kareem Othman

· “Doing More with Less: Leveraging Interlining for Efficient Deployment of Electric Bus Fleets”, Kareem Othman

12:30-1:30 Lunch Break

1:30-2:30 Guest Speaker's Session: “Charging Forward: Successes, Setbacks, and the Future of TTC’s Zero-Emission Bus Program”

· Bem Case, MBA, PMP. Executive Director of Innovation and Sustainability, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)

· Session Description: An evidence-based look at TTC’s transition to eBuses, highlighting operational wins, technical and organizational challenges, and the strategic decisions required to get from pilot to a fully zero-emissions fleet.

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-4:45 Transit Performance, Resilience and Wayfinding

· “T-SPARK: Transit Service Performance Analysis and Redesign Kit”, Reza Mahmoudi

· “Real-time assignment of spareboard transit operators”, Jilin Song

· “Metro transit system vulnerability: Understanding factors affecting the severity of disruptive events”, Mohammad Ansari Esfeh

· “Modeling the Toronto PATH with GTFS-Pathways for Wayfinding and Pedestrian Flow Analysis”, Jilin Song

4:45 Program End

For inquiries, please E-mail: [email protected]

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Host or Publisher UTTRI University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute