The late Professor Emeritus Alan Clayton founded UMTIG in the early 1990s. The group, known then as the University of Manitoba Transport Information Group, principally comprised transportation engineering graduate students in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba. The formation of UMTIG coincided with the establishment of a unique research partnership with the Government of Manitoba to deliver its traffic monitoring program, the Manitoba Highway Traffic Information System (MHTIS). Through this partnership and other research initiatives, students had the unique opportunity to work with data to produce real-world products while pursuing their degrees. In addition to extensive traffic engineering expertise, UMTIG was highly-regarded for its contributions to freight transportation systems—especially trucking.
In 2003, Dr. Jeannette Montufar joined the Department of Civil Engineering and became UMTIG’s co-director until Professor Clayton’s retirement in 2009. She then led the group as its sole director until 2011. During this period, UMTIG expanded its research expertise to include active transportation and road safety, while maintaining its leadership of MHTIS. Dr. Montufar also founded the University of Manitoba’s Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter in 2004.
Dr. Jonathan Regehr became UMTIG’s co-director in 2011 and continued working alongside Dr. Montufar until her resignation in 2016. Dr. Regehr strengthened UMTIG’s expertise in traffic engineering and freight transport systems, and initiated a railway engineering research program. He continued to direct UMTIG’s research programs from 2016 through 2022.
In 2021, a new chapter in UMTIG’s history commenced with the award of major research funding from the National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Babak Mehran joined Dr. Regehr as Co-Director of UMTIG, adding expertise in public transportation systems, traffic engineering, transportation modelling, and statistical and machine learning applications within transportation engineering. To better reflect its current research strengths while acknowledging its rich legacy, UMTIG was re-branded as the Urban Mobility and Transportation Informatics Group.
Throughout its history, UMTIG’s true strength has been the many people—students, research associates, staff, and collaborating partners—that make it a truly unique transportation engineering research and educational environment.
