S Travis Waller

Honorary Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering  

Research interest

Mathematical representations of transport systems to support the planning and management of mobility and infrastructure. Key domain interests include new models for transport network performance that account for emerging applications spanning information, uncertainty and dynamics. Specific research methodological contributions have included dynamic traffic assignment, stochastic routing, network design, planning for ITS, mobility as a service, adaptive equilibrium, network behaviour under information and bi-level optimisation of mobility networks.

Bio

Professor S. “Travis” Waller is the Honorary Professor, and the former Head of Schoo of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Prof. Waller received his BS in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University and his MS/PhD degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University.  Prior to joining UNSW, Prof. Waller was on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering. Prior to UT-Austin, he was in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earlier worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northwestern University.

At UT-Austin, Prof. Waller led the successful effort to establish (and served as the founding director of) an U.S. National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Transportation and Electricity Convergence (focusing on electric vehicles).  He also secured substantial funding to establish, as founding director, the Network Modeling Center.

In 2003, Prof. Waller was named one of the top 100 innovators in science and engineering in the world under 35 years of age by MIT’s Technology Review magazine for his work on dynamic traffic analysis.  In 2004, he received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award for his proposed research and teaching plan on adaptive network equilibrium. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Annual New Faculty Award sponsored by the Council of University Transportation Centers and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (noting both research and teaching accomplishments).  In 2007, he was named a Fellow of the Clyde E. Lee Endowed Professorship in Transportation Engineering.  In 2008, he was named to the Phil M. Ferguson Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering. In addition, he received the U.S. Transportation Research Board’s Fred Burggraf Award in 2009 and the Hojjat Adeli Award for Innovations in Computing in 2012. Further, he gave the invited C.C. Mei Distinguished Lecture at MIT in 2016 and received the Pyke Johnson Award from the Transportation Research Board (a division of the U.S. National Academies) in 2019.

In the past 20 years, Prof. Waller has secured over $36m in total research funding. He has published more than 300 peer reviewed papers, supervised 35 completed PhD students and conducted over 60 funded research projects for 30 distinct sponsors worldwide.

Research Associates

Number currently in lab:

• 2 Research Associates

Research Students

Number currently in lab:

• 15 PhD Students
• 1 Master's Students
• Number Ph.D. graduated: 35

Student Projects Current and Looking to Continue:

• Real-time travel time prediction for motorways and motor way corridors
• Accounting for reliability in ridership modelling
• Regional dynamic transport network planning
• Environmental impact of real-time traffic management

Professional Organisations and Consulting positions

Organisations

• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), member
• Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), member
• Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), member
• Transportation Research Board (TRB), member
• American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), member
• Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM), member

Editorial Boards

• Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 2012 - Present
• Transportation Research Part B: Methodological - 2018 - Present
• Journal of Transportation Letters, 2009 - Present
• Journal of Modern Transportation, 2010 – Present
• Journal of ITS, 2011 – Present
• Transportation Science - Associate Editor - 2015 - Present
• Transportmetrica B: Transport Dynamics - Editor - 2013 - Present

Service Roles (selected)

• Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), National Executive Committee     2015 – Present
• Connected and Automated Vehicle Stakeholder Reference Group, Transport for NSW     2017 – Present
• Transport Specialist Advisory Group for Transport for NSW, Invited Member         2012 – 2014
• Modelling Panel for Transport for NSW, Member (competitive selection)        2013 – 2015
• Technical Advisory Panel, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)         2003 – 2011
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committees (a division of the U.S. National Academies)
  • Section-level Senior Research Committee (ADB00)                2016 – Present
  • Special Committee for Travel Forecasting Resources (ADB45)         2013 – Present
  • Standing Committee on International Cooperation (A0010)             2012 – 2018
  • Committee on Innovations in Travel Demand Forecasting (ADB99B)        2011 – 2012
  • Transportation Demand Forecasting Committee (ADB40)            2006 – 2015
  • Network Modeling Committee (ADB30)                               2001–12, 2018+
  • Traffic Flow Properties and Characteristics Committee (AHB45)        2001 – 2011
• International Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Society of Transportation Studies International Conference Series     2017 – Present
• Transportation Science and Logistics Society Dissertation Prize Committee - Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, multiple years
• Multiple conference organising and scientific panels for IEEE, ATRF, AATT, DTA, TRB, and WCTR.

Awards/Honours

• Pyke Johnson Award (U.S. Transportation Research Board) - 2019
• C.C. Mei Distinguished Lecture at MIT - 2016
• Advisian Chair of Transport Innovation (UNSW) - 2015 - Present
• Evans & Peck Chair of Transport Innovation (UNSW) – 2011 – 2015
• 2011 Hojjat Adeli Award for Innovation in Computing (awarded in 2012)
• Certificate of Appreciation, Network Committee, Transportation Research Board – 2012
• Endowed Warren Lecture Series (invited speaker), University of Minnesota – 2009
• Fred Burggraf Award (based on published research paper) at the Transportation Research Board Annual Conference –2009
• Phil M. Ferguson Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering (UT) 2008-2011
• Annual New Faculty Award sponsored by the Council of University Transportation Centres and the
• American Road and Transportation Builders Association, 2006
• Fellow of Clyde E. Lee Endowed Professorship in Transportation Engineering (UT), 2006-2008
• National Sciences Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, 2004
• Selected by MIT’s Technology Review Magazine as one of the Top 100 Young (under 35) Innovators in Science and Engineering in the World (TR100), 2003
• List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent at UIUC, 2002
• Northwestern University Transportation Center Fellowship, 2000

Grants (sub-set of 60+)

• S.T. Waller; "Identification and Evaluation of Transformative Environmental Applications and Strategies"; U.S. Dept. of Transportation (sub-contract from Booze Allen Hamilton); 2012-2014; approx. $1.3M (joint project total) $270k (sub-contract)
• S. T. Waller, V. Dixit, M. Bliemer (USyd), and D. Del Favero; TRAvel Choice Simulation LABoratory (TRACSLab): "A visualisation laboratory to study travel behaviour and drivers’ interactions"; Australian Research Council (ARC) LIEF Grant; 2013-2014; approx. $690,000
• S.T. Waller; "A Collaboration to Develop and Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to Enhance the NSW Transport System"; Transport for New South Wales; 2013 – 2016; approx. $1.5M
• S.T. Waller, V. Dixit, L. Gardner, B. Jeffreys (GoGet), T. Hossein Rashidi; Integrating Network Modelling with Observed Choice Data for Multi-Criteria Optimization of Complex Carshare Systems: "Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage"; Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant; 2013 – 2016; approx. $540,000
• S.T. Waller, M. Bliemer (USyd), V. Dixit, M. Bell (USyd), A. Torday (TSS); "Methodologies for the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and System Reliability into Transport Network Models for Consistent Multi-Scale Planning"; Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant; 2013 – 2016; approx. $720,000
• T. Hossein Rashidi, S.T Waller, V. Dixit, W. Liu, M. Gharsi, K. Wijayaratna, D. Rey, M. Saberi, M. Lee, S. Brohl, “Integrated Smart Parking System: Emerging Economic and Shared Approach”, Smart Cities and Suburbs Program; 2019/2021, $400,000
• M. Saberi, V. Dixit, S.T. Waller, “People crowd flow prediction”; 2020, MHI $67,500
• S.T. Waller, T.H, Rashidi , D. Rey, D. Nair, S. Jian, “Quantifying Ethics-related Metrics for Transport Network Systems” Australian Research Council Discovery; 2020-2023,  $516,000

Education

• Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences, Northwestern University, 2000

• MSc., Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences, Northwestern University, 1999

• BSc. Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University 1997