Education of Location-based Services for Intelligent Transport Services as the Basis for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Transportation

Abstract

Automation and digitisation are two major trends in transport that both rely on high-precision positioning and navigation. Automated vehicles in the air, on the ground and on the water and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) need precise information with minimal latencies on their own position and other moving objects‘ and subjects‘ trajectories. Innovative mobility services such as sharing, demand responsive transport (DRT) or MaaS-solutions (Mobility as a Service) rely on digital platforms that gather data from various sources and provide digital information and solutions to service providers and users in order to optimise services from both perspectives. Location-based services are of particular importance, they can be defined as mobile computer applications (e.g. using smartphones or PDAs) that deliver information tailored to the location and context of a user and their surroundings and beyond, and that are already today the core basis e.g. for ITS-solutions, emergency service management or DRT-services. These emerging trends require completely new concepts in higher education. In transport engineering, competencies in data science, computer science, geodesy and navigation are only taught to a limited extent so far. In geodesy and geomatics, transport plays a minor role in higher education. This is a gap seeing that on the one hand, innovative transport solutions rely on precise positioning and navigation and that on the other hand, solutions for positioning and navigation can only be successful if these are developed considering the specific requirements of the use case transport. The Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education funded project LBS2ITS (Location-based Services to Intelligent Transport Systems) addresses this gap, it aims at the curricula enrichment in both transport, geodesy and computer science delivered through the application of LBS to ITS for four Sri Lankan partner universities. The consortium consists of three European Union (EU) universities: Technische Universität Wien (TUW), Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA); and four Sri Lankan universities: Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL), University of Moratuwa (UoM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ) and General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU). Specifically, the project aims at establishing regional cooperation networks in LBS to ITS education, to modernize the study programs and to strengthen their interdisciplinarity, to train the teachers, to introduce problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy, to enhance outreach and to implement quality assurance procedures. This paper gives first a systematic overview of LBS-applications in ITS. Second, the LBS2ITS approach is explained and linked to the LBS-applications and use cases. The current status of education in the partner universities is presented. Gaps are identified between the current study contents and the competencies needed to advance LBS-applications in transport. Finally, the newly developed teaching concepts and contents are presented. These should address the current gaps in education and finally produce professionals who are well equipped to improve the efficiency of transport, to provide mobility services that are tailored to transport users‘ needs and that at the same time meet societal ambitions such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced livability of public space in the LBS2ITS-partner countries and beyond.