ITS alumni win David Hensher Best Transport Demand Modelling Paper 2021

Members of the Choice Modelling Centre awarded the group prize at the Australasian Transport Research Forum.

A paper by ITS alumnus Panagiotis Tsoleridis and Thomas Hancock (now ITS staff), Stephane Hess, Charisma Choudhury, has been awarded the ‘David Hensher Best Transport Demand Modelling Paper Prize’ at the Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF) 2021. The paper titled ‘Decision field theory: an extension for real-world settings’ presents theoretical extensions of the decision field theory (DFT) model from mathematical psychology to make them better suited for real-world travel behaviour modelling. Thomas Hancock said:

Having read and then referenced David Hensher's work in much of my own, it is very inspirational to have been chosen for this award by the judging panel and Professor David Hensher. It is very humbling to know that the work we are doing is so well received and this gives us great motivation in pushing this line of work forward. We would like to use this opportunity to thank the judging panel, the organisers of ATRF and Professor David Hensher.

In particular, it shows that relaxing the assumptions around the normal error term within DFT can lead to improved performances which are demonstrated by two mode choice case studies. The prize will recognise both David’s outstanding global contribution to transport modelling and his ongoing support of ATRF. He continued:

For anyone hoping to submit a paper in the future, I'd suggest that key steps are to back up new theory with rigorous empirical applications and to really try and imagine you have never seen your work before when you proofread it - think about how the reviewer will see it.

Read more about this prestigious award and how you can submit a paper for the next call here.