Three Técnico alumni are among the winners of the 1st edition of the ULisboa-redeMOV 2021 Award. Rosa Félix was the winner in the “Final Doctoral Work” category. Francisco Neves and Ana Filipa Reis were the winners (ex aequo) in the “Final Master’s Work” category.
“Barriers and motivators to bicycle in cities with low cycling maturity: Lisbon case study”, is the title of the award-winning work (€2500 euros) by Rosa Félix, a former PhD student in Transport Systems. According to the alumna, “this award is an important recognition of my work”. “It is also a recognition of the important role of cycling mobility. At a time when the focus seems to be mainly on the creation of futuristic and technological solutions – the reinvention of the wheel, in a way – the humble and democratic bicycle and its clear advantages deserve to be revisited and taken seriously as a mobility solution of the future”, says Rosa Félix.
The research carried out by Rosa Félix focused on changing people’s habits to start using the bicycle more often, “namely the existing obstacles and the potential incentives that can influence this transition”, explains the Técnico alumna.
Through a survey of more than a thousand people – bicycle users and non-users – the young researcher tried to understand what distinguished them and what they had in common, in view of the possibility of using the bicycle more often in their daily lives. “This analysis allowed us to understand that before starting to use the bicycle, everyone has common barriers – for example, everyone is afraid. Those who overcome these barriers, through motivators, become cyclists. The identification of those motivators that helped them overcome their barriers also allowed us to understand which ones were most related to public policies in the last 10 years”, highlights Rosa Félix.
Based on these results and with some mathematical modelling, it was possible to structure a Pyramid of Needs – similar to Maslow’s Pyramid – to adopt the use of bicycle. “Factors such as knowing how to ride a bike and safety appear in the bottom layers of the pyramid, followed by practical issues such as having a place to store a bike at night, or a GIRA docking station nearby, or being able to take a bike on public transport, and finally the issues related with the individual’s social sphere, such as having friends or colleagues who encourage this activity, or having a health problem that requires more physical activity and routine changes”, explains Rosa Félix.
The results of the work suggest that “hard” measures to encourage cycling, such as bike-sharing networks and systems, can have considerable impacts on increasing levels of cycling modal share in a city with low cycling maturity.
One category, two Técnico winners
“I am very honoured and proud”, says Francisco Neves, Computer Science and Engineering alumnus, author of the work titled “Discovery of Patterns in Urban Traffic”, carried out under the supervision of professor Rui Henriques (Department of Computer Science and Engineering – DEI), and researcher Anna Finamore Couto (INESC-ID). The work proposes two methods for finding patterns from heterogeneous sources of road traffic data, “identifying bottlenecks in urban infrastructure that can be improved to achieve a more sustainable mobility”, the alumnus explains.
The author of the work highlights “road traffic data present several challenges for pattern discovery due to several factors, such as its spatial and temporal nature, its massive size, and the influence of unexpected events on traffic variability”. The two proposed methods face these same challenges differently – “the first method explores the use of biclustering and the second method uses data transformations and time series differentiation to find emerging patterns”, highlights Francisco Neves. “Both methods were able to identify relevant, interpretable and statistically significant patterns, which can then support the renovation of current urban infrastructures”, he stresses.
“This award means a lot to me”, says Ana Filipa Reis, Civil Engineering alumna. “I am very proud that my work is recognised by ULisboa’s redeMov, which aims to approach new perspectives on smart urban mobility”, stresses the alumna. “I would like to thank professor Filipe Moura (Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources – DECivil) and professor Patrícia Baptista (Department of Mechanical Engineering – DEM) for their enormous support and supervision”.
The work titled “Assessment of environmental impacts of electric scooter through life cycle analysis”, aimed to perform a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) in order to account the environmental impacts for all life stages of an e-scooter, from its production, use and end-of-life. “To this end, several scenarios were assumed taking into account different assumptions, such as: the life span – 1 month to 6 months; the kilometres performed per day -1 km to 5 km; frequency of collection – daily and 3 in 3 days; recycling and no recycling at the end of life of materials”, explains Ana Filipa Reis.
According to the Técnico alumna, the results suggest that “although e-scooters can be an effective solution to the first-mile/last-mile problem and traffic jam, they do not necessarily reduce the environmental impacts”. “These high values are mainly justified by the low use of scooters and their short lifespan. In fact, we are producing large quantities for low use,” she adds.
Francisco Neves and Ana Filipa Reis will share a €1500 cash prize.
The jury was chaired by the rector of Universidade de Lisboa, professor Luís Ferreira, and was composed of professors Rosário Macário, Teresa Vazão, Nuno Marques da Costa, Vítor Escária and David Vale.
The Técnico alumni will present these works at the 2021 ULisboa-redeMOV Award Ceremony, next Friday, February 11, at ULisboa conference room (rectorate building).
