Category: News

Master’s student Homa Naeini presented her poster, “Data‑Driven Analysis of Driver Interactions with Advance Warning Signals at High‑Speed Signalized Intersections,” co‑authored with Dr. Babak Mehran, Dr. Jonathan Regehr, and Dr. Phani Kumar Patnala, at the 2026 CARSP/ACIP Conference, held June 14–17, 2026, in Halifax, NS.
Her research explores how drivers respond to advance warning signals, with the goal of improving safety at high‑speed signalized intersections.
At the conference’s awards banquet, Homa earned First Place in the Student Poster Competition for her presentation.

Congratulations to Janak Kharel, Phani Kumar Patnala, Alex Rogers, Dr. Jonathan Regehr, and Dr. Babak Mehran on winning first place in the 2026 CTRF Ron Rice Award Paper Competition for their paper, “Performance evaluation of an AI‑based vehicle classification camera under varying illumination and weather conditions.”  This is an outstanding achievement—especially among 91 papers submitted.

Janak Kharel and Nasim Deljouy attended the 2026 ITE Canada Annual Conference in Victoria, BC, from May 31 to June 3.
The conference provided an excellent opportunity to connect with students and professionals from across Canada, attend engaging technical sessions, and gain valuable insights into the transportation industry. From learning about innovative transportation solutions to building new professional connections, the experience broadened perspectives and knowledge in transportation engineering.
Janak and Nasim are members of the Executive Committee of the University of Manitoba ITE Student Chapter, contributing to the chapter’s initiatives and student engagement activities.

The 61st Annual Conference of the Canadian Transportation Research Forum (CTRF)—“Mobilizing Our Future: Transport Innovations for a Stronger Canada”—was held from May 24 to 27, 2026, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Each year, CTRF brings together transportation researchers, policymakers, and industry practitioners from across the country to showcase new research and exchange insights that will shape the future of transportation in Canada. This year’s conference took place on the iconic shores of Halifax, drawing academic and industry leaders to discuss and guide the economic and competitive transformation of Canada’s transportation sector.
UMTIG was represented by Babak Mehran, Musharraf Khan, Janak Kharel, Matthew Adaman, Jack Hykaway, and Caelum McConnell. The team contributed three presentations to the program:

• Oral presentation:
  • “Performance evaluation of an AI based vehicle classification camera under varying illumination and weather conditions.”

• Poster presentations:
  • “Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) on Road Networks: Routes, Regulations, and Risks.”
  • “Simulation of Segment Level Delay for Freight Trains Subject to Successive Slow Orders.”

Jack Hykaway attended the inaugural University of Manitoba Postdoctoral and Graduate Research Showcase (October 23-24), where he had the opportunity to present his research poster about the issues and options for the transportation of small modular reactor pressure vessels by road and rail. 

This work identifies potential shortest-path overland transportation routes and catchment areas from key port facilities to destinations throughout the prairie region. The identification of shortest paths provides an initial route-screening tool for oversize/overweight shipments and highlights important entry/exit points for reactor shipments at the provincial level.

This event was a valuable opportunity to present research in an accessible format to various academic and industry judges from several professional backgrounds.

In October, the 4^th Heavy Vehicle and Equipment Technology Conference was hosted by Vehicle Technology Centre (VTC) and RRC Polytech in Winnipeg. The conference highlighted the innovative Canada-based projects that are working towards advancing battery technologies, charging infrastructure and applying battery-electric systems in locomotives, fire trucks, and even agriculture. Phani Patnala, Jyoti Mandhani, and Naveen Balla represented UMTIG at the conference. They got valuable insights from industry and academia on battery technology, wireless charging technology, and advances in the development of zero-emission trucks and specialised vehicles.

In addition, they got a chance to check out a Class-8 electric truck from Peterbilt that was on display at the venue.

Nasim Deljouyi attended the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Conference and Exhibition 2025 in Quebec City, Canada (October 5–8), where she presented part of her research on AI-based methods for freight Origin–Destination (OD) estimation. Her presentation, titled “A Simulation-Based Methodology for Road Freight Network Extraction: Case Study in the Canadian Prairie Region,” showcased a multi-model traffic assignment approach for simplifying complex road networks while preserving key freight flow characteristics. Nasim received valuable feedback and questions on the real-world applicability of her proposed method and the data challenges involved in modeling freight movements. Beyond her presentation, Nasim enjoyed connecting with professionals and researchers across diverse areas of transportation. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge exchange and networking within Canada’s transportation community, and an inspiring setting in the historic city of Quebec.

Tara Saeidi attended the Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport and TransitData 2025 in Kyoto, Japan (July 1–5), where she had the incredible opportunity to present her research on data-driven approaches to optimizing Demand-Responsive Transit (DRT) systems for equitable and efficient service planning.
Tara made an oral presentation on “Estimating Elderly Transit Demand Using Boarding Count Data with Policy Implications for DRT Zoning”.  This work focuses on elderly travel patterns in Winnipeg’s bus-only network. By generating monthly OD matrices using boarding data and symmetry-based alighting estimation, she analyzed seasonal trends to guide adaptive DRT zone design.  

Tara also presented her poster “RL-Guided Genetic Algorithm for Zoning a DRT Service”. This study introduced a novel zoning framework combining Reinforcement Learning and Genetic Algorithms to adapt to travel demand changes. The model learns to generate optimal service zones aligned with operational cost goals—showing promising results in grid-based simulations.
Beyond the academic exchange, Tara had a truly memorable time exploring Kyoto-Osaka and joining the conference’s cultural tour to Arashiyama—including a ride on a historic steam train, which was a truly unique transportation experience!

In June, Dr. Mehran travelled to Japan where he attended the 12th Triennial Symposium on Transportation Analysis conference (TRISTAN XII) from June 22-27, 2025, at the Bankoku Shinryokan in Okinawa, Japan.  Following the conference Dr. Mehran travelled to Nagoyo where he had research meetings with Prof. Asano at Nagoya University. From June 26-27, Dr. Mehran was hosted in Tokyo to have research meetings with Prof. Oguchi and his research team at the University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science. While there, he gave a seminar titled “Highway Transportation Safety and Resilience in the Canadian Prairies and Northern Regions: Driver Behaviour Perspectives”

Dr. Babak Mehran and Tara Saeidi were speakers on the CUTRIC Academic Committee for Transit Innovation held on June 11, 2025, where they hosted a virtual session focused on AI and Machine Learning applications in public transit.   This is a critical and rapidly evolving area that promises to revolutionize how we operate, maintain and experience transit systems – from improving operational efficiency, enhancing the passenger experience and increasing safety and security.  Dr. Mehran and Tara were joined by Igor Zaslavsky (York Region) and Dr. Saeid Saidi (University of Calgary).