New program aims to increase engagement with external organizations

bus driver
Photo: Metro Transit

Public universities play a well-known role in creating new knowledge, but they must also bring that knowledge beyond the ivory tower and into the community. A new pilot program at the University of Minnesota focuses on working with partners outside the U to create new knowledge and put it into play to benefit the community.

One of the pilot projects builds on a study of bus operator optimization completed earlier this year by Professor Diwakar Gupta of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. In that project, Gupta’s team created and tested a new, improved algorithm to help Metro Transit schedule operators as efficiently as possible. “Choosing between reserve operators or regular operators receiving overtime pay is a challenging decision for transit agencies,” he says.

In new work, two Metro Transit staffers—Scott Cady, business analyst, and Christine Kuennen, assistant director, Bus Administration—will spend a portion of their time during the next two years on campus with Gupta’s research team. U of M students will spend time at five Metro Transit garages to gain an understanding of current processes and issues.

bus
Photo: Metro Transit

“Jointly, we will develop methods that Metro Transit’s operations personnel can use to optimally size their workforce, assign contingent work to reserve drivers, and determine when to use planned and unplanned overtime,” Gupta says.

“This project is grounded in math and optimizing our work, but its importance lies in helping our dispatchers and operators better understand the work and the effects its stresses have on them,” Cady says. “As we examine that stress and develop opportunities for improvement, we can truly help take care of the people behind Metro Transit.”

Improvements in Metro Transit’s operations can benefit the transportation needs of residents and visitors in the metropolitan area. Researchers will also make the project’s key takeaways available to other transit providers to expand the number of people who benefit from this research.

The project is one of three under way as part of the External Stakeholder Engagement program, launched earlier this year by the Office of the Vice President for Research. The program combines University research talent with one or more partners from community organizations, government agencies, industry, and nonprofits to promote innovation across a range of disciplines.

Claudia Neuhauser, associate vice president for research and program leader, says the partnerships are designed to catalyze and sustain research between the University and external partners to accelerate the transfer of new knowledge for the public good—a cornerstone of the U’s research strategic plan, Five Years Forward.

Neuhauser says the pilot program will expand to include projects based at all U of M system campuses.

CTS facilitated the collaboration between Gupta and Metro Transit and spearheaded the application process to the program. Metro Transit is cosponsoring the project.

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Media Contact

Michael McCarthy
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