Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Dr. Cathy Liu (co-PI), partnering with Dr. Jeff Phillips (PI), at Kahlert School of Computing, was awarded a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation on June 14, 2023, for their project titled Integrating and Learning on Spatial Data via Multi-Agent Simulation.

The project builds metro-scale foundation models for studying human mobility. It will integrate varied data including socio-demographics and movement from recorded routes and loop detectors.  The core model will be a learned simulation engine that can explore scenarios and adheres to both global and local data properties.

Phillips and Liu’s work will allow social-technical spatial scientists to compare against and study human mobility in aggregate and at scale.  Exemplar studies will address EV charging, and fair traffic policing, and it will also train next-generation spatial scientists at the interface of civil engineering and data science.

The John and Marcia Price College of Engineering congratulates Dr. Phillips and Dr. Liu on receiving such a prestigious grant for their exceptional interdisciplinary research.