Prof. Joseph Sussman to speak

at China Planning Network's First Urban Transportation Congress

July 31, 2007

Dr. Joseph Sussman, JR East Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems, is scheduled to speak at the China Planning Network's First Urban Transportation Congress, to be held August 2-4 2008 in Beijing, China. The event is co-sponsored by MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Ximbus News Agency.

Professor Sussman's presentation is entitled "The Role of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in Contemporary and Future Transportation Systems: A Multidimensional View." He will discuss ITS as a change agent for the current transportation system and how ITS will be shaped by the transportation system as it develops in the future. His presentation will focus on both aspects-how transportation is being changed by ITS and the potential for ITS to further change the transportation system in the future. He will introduce the concept of "transportation as a CLIOS System" (a "complex, large-scale, interconnected, open, socio-technical" system), then explore the implications for ITS.