17 Dec 2025 (Wed) 17:00-18:00 | Seminar by Dr. Beatriz Martinez-Pastor

Designing Smart and Resilient Transport Systems

20251217 Dr Beatriz Martinez-Pastor Transport networks_HKU.pdf

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(The lecture slides can be downloaded here)

Speaker:

Dr. Beatriz Martinez-Pastor

School of Civil Engineering

University College Dublin

Date:    Dec 17, 2025 (Wednesday)

Time:   5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Venue: Room 612B, 6/F Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong

Abstract

This presentation introduces the core principles of designing smart and resilient transport systems, emphasising how data-driven methods, user-centred approaches, and climate-adaptive strategies can enhance the robustness and inclusivity of future mobility networks. It then highlights three key initiatives. The SETO project advances the smart enforcement of transport operations across the EU, creating a digital platform that integrates data from diverse sources and provides seamless access to regulation-related information. The platform ensures high levels of data security by adopting state-of-the-art industry standards and blockchain technology, enabling an innovative, efficient, consistent, and resilient enforcement support system for multimodal and cross-border contexts. The CAPABLE national project develops a digital platform to assess community capability-based resilience, placing communities at the centre of infrastructure system decision-making and supporting more inclusive and adaptive planning. The NBSINFRA European project applies nature-based solutions to enhance the resilience, sustainability, and social value of transport infrastructure, safeguarding critical urban assets against both natural and human-induced hazards. Together, these projects demonstrate how technological innovation, community-centred methods, and nature-based strategies can be combined to create transport systems that are intelligent, inclusive, and highly adaptable.

About the speaker

Dr. Beatriz Martinez-Pastor is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD), and the Director of the Centre for Critical Infrastructures Research. Between 2021 and 2025, she was the Director of the Civil Engineering Infrastructure programme at Chang’an-Dublin International College, CDIC, UCD. She completed her Ph.D. at Trinity College Dublin, and her MSc. at the University of Cantabria. Since then, she has specialized in the evaluation of transportation resilience, digital transformation of transport systems, intelligent transport systems, and analysis of complex systems. Dr. Martinez-Pastor has coordinated two Horizon Europe projects, SETO (Smart Enforcement of Transport Operations, €4 million and 14 partners), and the CSA for organising TRA2024 (€1.5 million and 15 partners). Dr. Martinez-Pastor is the PI of a Horizon Europe project, NBSINFRA (€5 million and 17 partners), the PI and Academic leader of STRADA and STRADA2, a European project to develop a Leadership programme for women in engineering, the Co-PI of a SFI project, CAPABLE (Resilience Challenge) and is the co-leader of the transport strand in a large national project, NEXSYS. Dr. Martinez-Pastor has managed over 7 million in research funds and published over 50 papers in peer-review journals and conferences.

19 Dec 2025 (Fri) 14:00-15:00 | Seminar by Prof. Dongfang Ma

Dynamic Ice Field Perception and Panoramic Map Generation for Polar Navigation

Speaker:

Prof. Dongfang Ma

Ocean college, Zhejiang University

Date:    Dec 19, 2025 (Friday)

Time:   2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Venue: Room 612B, 6/F Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Safe and efficient polar navigation requires high-precision, real-time panoramic ice maps across long voyages. Yet conventional visual mapping techniques struggle in this environment due to sparse surface textures, severe six-degree-of-freedom ship motion during icebreaking, and long-term accumulated drift. To address these challenges, we present a two-stage visual mapping framework designed for the dynamics of polar ice fields.

First, we introduce a single-epoch construction method based on motion-compensated inverse projection. Initial inverse projection uses INS pose estimation to support feature registration, followed by a refined inverse projection optimized through bundle adjustment to mitigate view distortion induced by violent ship motion. Building upon this foundation, we then propose a multi-epoch incremental mapping strategy that integrates hybrid feature matching with a sliding window filter. Embedding GPS constraints within the sliding window effectively suppresses accumulated drift and ensures global pose consistency throughout extended navigation sequences.

From single-frame correction to globally consistent map generation, this work delivers a complete solution for robust visual perception in highly dynamic polar environments.

About the speaker

Ma Dongfang, male, Ph.D., Professor, Ocean college, Zhejiang University, and a reserve leader in the construction industry in Zhoushan. He is mainly engaged in the research and practice of marine data mining, intelligent control theory and methods, and internet of things. He graduated from Jilin University in June 2012 with a Ph.D. degree in traffic information engineering and control. He joined the postdoctoral research station of civil engineering at Zhejiang University in the same year as a postdoctoral researcher. In July 2015, he joined Ocean University of Zhejiang University as a teacher. As project leader, he has presided over the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, the China Postdoctoral Science Fund Project, and the China National Postdoctoral Fund Special Funding Project, Zhejiang Province key science and technology innovation team project, the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Fund project. Published about 20 SCI journal papers (the first and correspondent authors).

19 Dec 2025 (Fri) 11:00-12:00 | Seminar by Prof. Patrick Stokkink

Optimizing integrated passenger and freight transportation – what, why, and how?

Speaker:

Prof. Patrick Stokkink

Department of Engineering Systems and Services,

TU Delft

Date:    Dec 19, 2025 (Friday)

Time:   11:00 am – 12:00 nn

Venue: Room 612B, 6/F Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Passenger and freight transportation are typically operated in isolation. Both systems face challenges, among which are understaffing, underutilized capacity, and entry restrictions to urban areas. Many of these challenges can be addressed by integrating passenger and freight transportation. In this presentation, we first share insights from users and practitioners on challenges and opportunities in Integrated Passenger-Freight Transport (IPFT) systems. We then consider systems with varying levels of integration (from shared infrastructure to integrated services) and the optimization challenges that arise in those systems. We look into (1) how these systems can be modelled, (2) how these models can be solved, (3) what insights can be obtained from their solutions.

About the speaker

Patrick Stokkink is an Assistant Professor of Transport and Logistics at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands).  Dr. Stokkink received his PhD degree in Civil Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and a master’s degree in Operations Research from Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands). His research interests range from integrated and multi-modal passenger-freight transportation to resilient supply chain logistics. In his work, Dr. Stokkink applies exact and heuristic methods grounded in Operations Research, combined with game theoretic and choice modelling concepts.