The project is funded by the I3FOR Institute. In this project titled “Smart Cities” we are collaborating with the Ministry of Urban Transportation and Mobility in Fortaleza, Brazil. In the first phase of this research project, initiated in July 2015, we are conducting analyses of the public transportation systems in the city of Fortaleza to understand their usage with the specific goals of addressing the challenges of overcrowding, delays, and public safety.

To accomplish this, our research is collecting, linking, and analyzing many different datasets from the City of Fortaleza. These include operational databases that track using GPS sensors the locational and time details of public buses every 30 seconds; Passenger demographics from their smartcard or Billete Unico; datasets of congestion levels based on traffic volumes generated from sensors at traffic intersections and enforcement radars; databases of crimes in the city including those that take place at bus stops and holdups in buses; accidents on the streets related to motorcycles, bicycles and other vehicles; and also the databases related to a newly initiated Bike share program.

We are currently examining the impact of “Dedicated Bus Lanes” on overcrowding and delays in transportation and their impact on congestion. We are working closely with transportation engineers and computer science researchers at the City of Fortaleza and the University of Fortaleza to create visualizations and conduct a statistical analysis to understand the differences before and after the introduction of dedicated lanes. We are also developing scalable machine learning techniques and spatial-temporal models to predict “hot spots” where crimes, overcrowding, and/or delays are likely to occur. These will be used to identify the bottlenecks in the transportation system, and propose intelligent solutions for urban mobility. We are also helping Fortaleza city in designing and implementing a “performance management dashboard” to track and analyze their urban transportation systems and proactively identify problem areas with a view to strategically designing innovative solutions for a sustainable smart city. Our next phase of the project will be to work on a similar analysis and solution design for their public health system, waste management, and also for energy and air quality management

• View interactive illustration of Smart Cities Project.