Gentle Reminder : Invitation | To attend the webinar edition of the Public Systems Planning and Optimization (PSPO) Symposium on “Operating strategies of buses for mass evacuation” by Prof. Lakshay Taneja on March 14, 2022 at 5 PM

We cordially invite you to attend the next webinar of the Public Systems Planning and Optimization (PSPO) Symposium on “Operating strategies of buses for mass evacuation” by Prof. Lakshay Taneja from the  Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi on March 14, 2022 at 5 PM.

The WebEx link to attend the webinar series: https://tinyurl.com/pss-manthan

The registration link for the symposium is: https://tinyurl.com/Reg-PSPO

Speaker Biodata:
Dr. Lakshay is working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi. He has a keen research interest in the area of applied mathematical modelling and simulation. In particular, he has been focusing on problems around transportation for emergency evacuation and has recently initiated work on problems around smart mobility. Prior to joining IIT, he worked as Research Scientist at Robert Bosch (Singapore). His research team at Bosch has worked on developing city-wide traffic simulation models to implement control strategies for reducing traffic congestion in cities. During his PhD at IIT Delhi, he has worked in the area of emergency management that involves transportation network and routing problems.

Paper details:
TITLE: Operating strategies of buses for mass evacuation
Author: Lakshay, Nomesh B.Bolia
Paper Abstract:
Appropriate bus operating strategies are essential for mass bus dependent evacuation after a disaster strikes. Due to limited availability of buses, buses need to be run continuously, i.e., making multiple trips. It is important to find the efficient operating strategies of buses, including the number and sequence of trips. In order to find the optimal operating strategies, mathematical models have been developed. These models help the emergency manager in determining: (i) the minimum number of buses that must be available at respective depots in order to carry out the evacuation within the available time (ii) the optimal operating strategies of buses in order to minimize the overall evacuation time and (iii) perturbations required in these strategies on account of changes in the evacuation ecosystem due to uncertainties. To test the efficacy of these developed models, a case of a radiological accident is presented.

About Public Systems & PSPO Symposium:
The PSPO Symposium is chaired by Prof. S. G. Deshmukh and Prof. Nomesh Bolia at IIT Delhi and was launched online on December 6, 2021. The objective of the symposium is to train, empower young researchers as well as connect all relevant stakeholders (from government and academia) to create a vibrant community that constantly strives for better public systems.

Public Systems (also known as social welfare systems) are established to provide basic levels of wellbeing to the citizens. These systems include programs such as food and cash assistance, employment schemes and systems for law & order, public health, and transport. There is immense scope of conducting practice driven & inspired research on such systems in the framework of Operations Research & Analytics. A combination of government stakeholders and OR researchers/professionals can work wonders for the performance of public systems and lead to a tremendous impact on citizens’ lives.

Examples of such research abound globally, with several leading to a tremendous impact on citizens’ lives and system performance. The Government Operational Research Service, which employs 600+ trained Operations Research (OR) professionals in practically every department of the UK government is another shining example of the possible collaboration and impact.

The symposium is consist of monthly webinar presentations and discussion on research articles/papers by various researchers broadly working on Public Systems, as well as 3-4 (in a year) plenary sessions delivered by practitioners (primarily those in the government) and nationally / internationally renowned researchers. We are confident that this symposium would enable knowledge sharing between key stakeholders working on Public Systems across the country as well as globally.