PDEng Urban Mobility Observatory at University iof Twente

Are you passionate about technology and the fast pacing technological advances in the field of mobility and open data? Do you want to continue developing your skills with a combination of education and work? The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at the University of Twente. The educational programme will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development. The design project will be part of the Urban Mobility Observatory (UMO) project that will combine and integrate state-of-the-art techniques in data collection, data storage and data processing for applications within the mobility domain. As part of the UMO project, you will collaborate with a broad team of researchers and technicians from eight universities and research institutes in the Netherlands.

In UMO you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues. In this project specific attention will be given to portable sensors, namely overview cameras, Starlight (HD) cameras, radars, iBeacons, Bluetooth stations and Wi-Fi sensors. In this PDEng project, the sensor data will consist of 1500 Wi-Fi access points from the UT campus. The objective of this PDEng project is twofold: (i) collect, process and store the Wi-Fi data according to the Open Access requirements of UMO; (ii) integrate the Wi-Fi data with other mobility data sources, such as the time schedules of public transport lines, to improve the planning of mobility services.

THE CHALLENGE

Fast pacing technological advances have resulted in an influx of sensor data. The potential of such data is, however, not exploited in full. Current issues include the development of algorithms that can anonymize the data and make it GDPR-compliant and the design of new applications that can use the anonymized data to provide better services. Designing new mobility applications or improving the operations of existing ones with the use of newly available data poses a specific technical challenge that will be addressed in this PDEng project.

Technical challenges include the development of algorithms that will anonymize user-specific Wi-Fi data, the development of data processing tools, and the design of planning tools that can improve the operations of existing mobility services. Specific design challenges that arise from this problem are:

Processing and analysis of Wi-Fi data
Anonymization of personal data (following GDPR standards)
Fusion of data from multiple sensors to enable its use to mobility applications
Design of improved services with added value (e.g., new public transport plans)

Further details:
PDEng Urban Mobility Observatory at University iof Twente