UTM Mobility Network presents 2023 Graduate Student Research Showcase

The University of Toronto Mississauga Mobility Network (UTM-MN) invites you to its 2^nd Annual Student Research Showcase.  The showcase celebrates the research achievements of the 2022-2023 UTM-MN Graduate Student Award recipients and aims to inspire graduate students to engage with the UTM-MN.

Join us to learn about the latest mobility-related research of three award-winning graduate students: Kerstyn Lutz, Gonen Steinberg, and Devin Yongzhao Wu.

Hear directly from the researchers about their work.

Following the presentations, all are invited to take part in a Q & A, moderated by Dr Gaurav Mittal.

Program

Introductory remarks

• Professor Eric Miller, Director, Mobility Network

Presentation

• Active School Travel Interventions & Children’s Mobility – Kerstyn Lutz
• How Urban Power Relations Shape, and are Shaped by Robotic and Autonomous Systems in Transportation & Delivery Logistics – Gonen Steinberg
• Exposures to Severe Noise Pollution & its Effects on Human Mobility – Devin Yongzhao Wu

Discussant

• Dr Gaurav Mittal, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTM Mobility Network

Concluding remarks

• Professor Shauna Brail, Associate Director, UTM Mobility Network

Speakers

Eric Miller is Director, University of Toronto Mobility Network; Professor, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering; Research Director, Data Management Group; and Research Director, Travel Modelling Group. His research focuses on the areas of transportation modelling and sustainable urban design, and is a pioneer in the development and application of agent-based microsimulation model systems in large urban contexts.

Shauna Brail is Associate Director, UTM, Mobility Network; Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga; and Senior Associate, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. As an economic geographer and urban planner, her research focuses on the transformation of cities as a result of economic, social, and cultural change. Brail’s research encompasses studies of broad urban economic challenges and transformations associated with 21st century cities – including the impacts of COVID-19 on cities; the relationship between cities and the digital platform economy, with a particular emphasis on ride-hailing; and shifts in urban governance, policy and planning in connection to innovation and technological change.

Moderator

Gaurav Mittal is a Mobility Network Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Management & Innovation at UTM. His academic interests include urban governance, public transport, political economy, and southern theory. Gaurav’s current research focuses on regulation of micromobility interventions and political economy of low-carbon transitions in informal transport.

Graduate Student Presenters

Kerstyn Lutz is a PhD student supervised by Professor Matthew Adams in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at UTM. Her research interests include children's environmental exposures and their health impacts at schools and during school travel. Lutz's research project for the Mobility Network focuses on whether active school travel interventions can increase children's mobility and reduce school air pollution.

Gonen Steinberg is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, supervised by Professor Beth Coleman in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at UTM. Steinberg's research employs critical theory to explore the intersection between digital media and urban space and life. His research project for the Mobility Network focuses on how urban power relations shape, and are shaped by, robotic and autonomous systems in transportation and delivery logistics.

Devin Yongzhao Wu is a first-year Master student in Physical Geography in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at UTM. Wu’s research interests are in applying GIS and CS techniques or data to human activities and noise pollution. His research project for the Mobility Network focuses on investigating exposures to severe noise pollution & its effects on human mobility.

About UTM-Mobility Network funding support for graduate student research

The University of Toronto Mississauga Mobility Network (UTM-MN) announced the second round of Graduate Student Research Awards in September 2022. The awards are designed to support University of Toronto Mississauga graduate students in research that contributes to the Mobility Network’s mission to support interdisciplinary mobility research that addresses equity and promotes resilient, sustainable and just urban growth and prosperity.

Winning proposals met the criteria of academic excellence, future research and professional promise, and support of Mobility Network’s mission.

Register to attend

This online event is free, and all are welcome to attend. Register to receive the login details.

If any specific accommodations are needed, please contact mobilitynetwork@utoronto.ca. Requests should be made as early as possible.

Zoom login details

To access this online event, join through the provided link and passcode.

Meeting URL:        https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86982415287?from=addon

Meeting ID:            869 8241 5287

Passcode:               913238