Dr. Travis Waller, assistant professor of civil engineering in The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Engineering, has been named to the 2003 list of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s Magazine of Innovation.
The TR100, chosen by the editors of Technology Review and an elite panel of judges, consists of 100 individuals under age 35 whose innovative work in technology has a profound impact on today’s world. Nominees are recognized for their contributions in transforming the nature of technology in industries such as biotechnology, computing, energy, medicine, manufacturing, nanotechnology, telecommunications and transportation.
Waller’s research focuses on developing highly efficient models and optimization techniques to improve transportation networks. Traditionally, transportation models account for steady-state traffic conditions—those that do not vary with time. They represent, for example, the number of vehicles on a roadway over a 24-hour period. Dynamic models, which can provide the number of vehicles per minute, or even second, on a roadway, are much more useful in evaluating traffic networks. Waller’s research developed highly efficient approaches to using these dynamic models.
Waller’s research also overturned the assumption of transportation network models that demand levels at certain facilities (such as roadways, or even the number of lanes on a roadway) are known. His work introduced models that treat the future demand level of those facilities as uncertain, and therefore provide a better, more realistic estimate of true expected system performance. In the course of this work, he also showed that current techniques are too optimistic about future performance.
“This is very important,” he says, “as it could impact virtually all of transportation planning.”
TR100’s panel of judges includes:
• Vinton Cerf, WorldCom Corporation
• David Tennenhouse, Intel
• Dr. Gordon Bell, Microsoft
• Christina Lampe-Onnerud, TIAX
• Stephen Quake, California Institute of Technology
• Rodney Brooks, MIT CSAIL
• George Whitesides, Harvard University
“Innovation and technological change are essential to worldwide economic growth. Now, more than ever, it’s important to recognize that there is no one technology driving the next wave of success, but rather several that, when fused together, will create another era of significant change for our society,” said Robert Buderi, editor-in-chief of Technology Review. “The members of this year’s TR100 hail from fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, wireless, energy, computing and medicine. Each is actively developing the emerging technologies that we feel will profoundly impact our world in the century ahead."
Waller will be honored Sept. 24 – 25 at The Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT. The event features keynotes, panels and breakout discussions on the transformative technological innovations that have the potential to fuel new economic growth and dramatically change the future. Speakers include Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computer Corporation; Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the Board and CEO of General Electric; Bob Metcalfe, founder of 3Com Corporation and General Partner at Polaris Venture Partners; and Nathan Myhrvold, Ph.D., managing director of Intellectual Ventures and former CTO of Microsoft Corporation. More information on ETC2003 can be found at www.etc2003.com.
Photographs of Waller are available at http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/facstaff/pages/waller.cfm
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