This seminar will be implemented as a block seminar.

Location and schedule:

• first meeting (introduction and paper assignment): April 09, 13:00-14:00, ZIB (Takustr. 7), Seminar room 2006 (ground floor)
• second meeting (short talks): TBA in the middle of the term, probably at the WiWi faculty, one hour
• final meeting (seminar talks): TBA on one or two days at the end of the semester, probably at IVU Traffic Technologies AG, Bundesallee 88, 12161 Berlin

Students should have some background in mathematical optimization including basic graph theory and basic linear programming.

In the middle of the term, you are supposed to give a short, introductory talk (at most 5 minutes) on your topic.

To obtain the credit points, you are also required to hand in a short summary of your talk (use LaTeX, 5-8 pages). The summary should be sent by e-mail to your advisor. The summary will be graded and then handed back to you. We hope that this feedback will enable you to give a better presentation.

The seminar itself will take place on one or two days in the last weeks of the semester. Talks should be prepared for 45 minutes, so that a duration of 60 minutes including questions is not exceeded. Having submitted the summary is a requirement for participation.

Your final grade will be composed of 60% and 40% from the evaluation of your talk and paper, respectively.

Content:

The design and operation of public transport services is a complex topic  – both from a planning perspective as well as from a mathematical and computer science point of view. For this reason, traffic planning is supported by optimization tools in order to improve the service, to reduce costs, and/or to improve working conditions. Application areas range from the design of the network infrastructure to the dispatching of specific resources design in every day operation and passenger information. Due to the steady increase of the mobility demand, such systems become more and more important. This seminar discusses current trends in traffic optimization.