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TSYS School Faculty Trailblazers

Going Up?

As pointed out by TSYS School associate professor of computer science Anastasia Angelopoulou and her colleagues Konstantinos Mykoniatis of Auburn University and Tianqi Gao Smith of the Mayo Clinic in their 2021 study appearing in the International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, pedestrian behavior in urban spaces has abruptly changed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic due to government-issued restrictions such as social distancing.  Although it is unclear whether pedestrian behavior will remain altered and/or urban spaces will be changed accordingly post-pandemic, these researchers take these changes and uncertainties, and the unique characteristics of pedestrian traffic (as opposed to vehicle traffic), into consideration in creating a hybrid simulation model that is capable of examining the efficiency of several types of escalator pedestrian behaviors in various non-crowded scenarios.  According to Angelopoulou, “our generic simulation model allows future users to evaluate the efficiency of the escalator operation scenarios they would like to simulate by providing output measures such as time spent in system and throughput and allowing customizations of escalator dimensions and pedestrian-related parameters based on user-specific requirements.”  The researchers’ simulation, which employs the AnyLogic simulation software, is useful for a number of scenarios, such as emergent/evacuation vs. regular operation, capacity and number of available escalators, escalator's dimensions (e.g., height and length) and speed, and pedestrian preference (e.g., standing vs. walking).

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