Shinya Kikuchi, Ph.D. PE

Charles E.Via Jr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Director, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
National Capital Region,
Virginia Tech

7054 Haycock Rd. Falls Church, VA 22043 USA
Telephone: (703)538-8436, Fax: (703)538-8450
e-Mail: kikuchi@vt.edu

 

Profile

Education:

  • B.S. Civil Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan
  • M.S. Civil Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan
  • Ph.D. Civil Engineering (Transportation), University of Pennsylvania

Professional Registration:

  • Professional Engineer, State of Michigan (No.025685)

Experiences:

  • Transportation Development Associates, Seattle Washington (1974 – 1977)
  • General Motors Corporation, Transportation Systems Division and International Logistics (1977-1982)
  • University of Delaware, Assistant Professor (1982-88); Associate Professor (1988-1994); Professor (1994-2005)
  • Virginia Tech, Professor (2005-)

Honors:

  • Co-chair, the 13th Mini-Euro Conference, Treatment of Uncertainty in Transportation Analysis, Bari, Italy, 2002 and 2006.
  • International Board of Directions Recognition of Achievement award, Institute of Transportation Engineers, November 2002.
  • Recognition of Achievement, Mid-Atlantic Section Institute of Transportation Engineers, November 2002.
  • Slocomb Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Engineering, University of Delaware, May 2003.
  • Charles E. Via Jr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2005.

Areas of Interest:

Urban Transportation Systems and Planning, Public Transportation Planning and Operations, Traffic Engineering, Logistics, Uncertainty Treatment in Transportation Analysis, Fuzzy Set Theory Application, Operations Research Application to Transportation.

Courses Taught:

    University of Delaware
  • Urban Transportation Planning
  • Urban Transportation Systems Analysis
  • Treatment of Uncertainty in Transportation
  • Transportation Engineering
  • Transportation Facilities Design
  • Civil Engineering Systems
    Virginia Tech
  • Treatment of Uncertainty in Transportation Analysis
  • Civil Infrastructure Systems Analysis
  • Advanced Public Transportation Systems
  • Urban Mass Transit Systems

Professional Societies:

  • American Society of Civil Engineers, Member
  • Institute of transportation Engineers, Member
  • Transportation Research Board, Chair Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computation Committee (ABJ70)

 

Research Philosophy

I believe that transportation engineering provides us with an excellent platform to study how technology, science, humanity and social sciences interact. Mobility is one of the essential requirements for human activity. The present state of our cities and our way of life depend very much on the way that transportation systems were developed over the years. The shape and functions of the city are also changing dynamically with the transportation systems. The study of transportation helps us understand the complex phenomena that underlies between mobility and socio-economic activities of the people.

Because the study of transportation deals with complex phenomena, organizing the cause-effect relationships systematically is essential. My approach to transportation is to develop a sound reasoning base for proposed solutions by learning from the past phenomena combined with the principles of economics, physics, mathematics, social sciences, and the culture of the region. The aspect of dealing with incomplete knowledge and incomplete data when making inferences is my current research interest. In many instances, the answer can lie between yes and no, and the unknown must be recognized. In other words, how to express what we know and what we do not know in an honest and forthright manner and to measure the strength of reasoning is my general theme of research in transportation.

Within this framework, I study the relationship between information and decision when planning urban transportation systems, Intelligent Transportation Systems, logistics, and development of transportation policies. My current research topics include understanding the data needs for planning and operations of public transportation, development of simulation models for traffic flow both for automobiles and human activities, and measuring the quality and value of information. Further, most recently I am interested in the idea of the agent based system, in which individual elements which comprises of a system has desires and “life” of its own. The elements may be different stakeholders and interest groups. Instead of the top-down optimization, using the bottom-up approach in which the individuals play to maximize its own utility, one might be able to see an organized pattern of the behavior of the entire system. The use of this concept has allowed me to formulate the traditional optimization topics of transportation in the multi-objective context by considering the desires of individual system elements, which may yet be not completely certain.

Traditionally in transportation engineering, uncertainty is addressed in the probabilistic framework. In the past two decades, a significant advance has been made to systematize the approaches to uncertainty in Systems Science. Under this larger framework, different theories have emerged to deal with different types of uncertainties. Since transportation deals not only with the statistical information but also with perception, desires, incomplete data, natural language, visual images, etc., and since the nature of propositions is not always well defined, the truth of a proposition needs to be analyzed carefully, consistent with the type of data and the type of proposition. One of the important challenges facing civil engineers today is accountability. I want to advocate proper treatment of uncertainty in a scientifically credible manner in the process of prediction, diagnosis, and control/regulation.

 

Publications

Recent Publications:

  1. Hamad, K., and S. Kikuchi. Developing A Measure of Traffic Congestion: A Fuzzy Inference Approach. Transportation Research Record, No. 1802, pp.77-85, 2002.
  2. Kikuchi, S., J-H, Rhee, and D. Teodorovic, D. Applicability of an Agent-Based Modeling Concept to Modeling of Transportation Phenomena, Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research Vol. 12, Number 2, pp.141-156, 2002.
  3. Teodorovic, D., J. Popovic, G. Pavkovic, and S. Kikuchi. Intelligent Airline Seat Inventory Control System. Transportation Planning and Technology, Volume. 25, Number 3., pp.155-173, 2002.
  4. Kikuchi, S., and H. van Zuylen. Modeling of Traveler 's Uncertainty and Anxiety. Accepted for publication in INSTR publication. (July 2002).
  5. Van Zuylen, H., and S. Kikuchi. Traveler’s Behavior under Uncertain Conditions. Accepted for publication in INSTR publication (July 2002).
  6. Kikuchi, S. and J-H. Rhee. Adjustment of Trip Rates in the Cross-Classification Table Using Fuzzy Optimization Method. Transportation Research Record, No. 1836, pp.76-82, 2003.
  7. Khisty, J., and S. Kikuchi. Transportation Education and Training Revisited: Reading the Dials and Steering the Ship. Transportation Research Record, No. 1848, pp.57-62, 2003.
  8. Uno, Nobuhiro, S. Kikuchi, and M. Tanaka. A Study on Influence of Vehicular Reaction Time on Traffic Flow by Fuzzy Car Following Simulation. First ITS Symposium, Tokyo, Japan December, 2002.
  9. Chakroborty, P. and S. Kikuchi. Estimating Travel Times on Urban Corridors Using Bus Travel Time Data. Transportation Research Record, No. 1870, pp.18-25, 2004.
  10. Kikuchi, S., M. Kii, and P. Chakroborty. Length of Double Left Turn Lanes. Transportation Research Record, No. 1881, pp.72–78, 2004.
  11. Yager, R. and S. Kikuchi. On the Role of Anxiety in Decisions Under Possibilistic Uncertainty. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Part B-34, pp.1224-1234, 2004.
  12. Dell’Orco, M. and S. Kikuchi. An Alternative Approach for Choice Models in Transportation: Use of Possibility Theory for Comparison of Utilities. Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research, Vol.14, No.1. April 2005, pp.1-17.
  13. Kikuchi, S. and P. Chakroborty. Place of Possibility Theory in Transportation Analysis. Transportation Research-B 40, pp.595-615, 2006.
  14. Kikuchi, S. and P. Chakroborty. Frameworks to Represent the Uncertainty when Determining the Level of Service. Transportation Research Record No. 1968, pp.53-62, 2006.
  15. Kikuchi, S., S. Mangalpally, and A. Gupta. A Method to Balance the Observed Boarding and Alighting Counts for a Transit Line. Transportation Research Record No. 1971, pp.43-50, 2006.
  16. Kikuchi, S., N. Kronprasert, and M. Kii. Lengths of Turn Lanes on Intersection Approach: the Case of Three-Branch Fork Lanes (Left-Turn, Through and Right-Turn Lanes). Transportation Research Record No.2023, pp.92-101, 2007.
  17. Murat, S. and S. Kikuchi. The Fuzzy Optimization Approach: A Comparison with the Classical Optimization Method Using the Problem of Timing a Traffic Signal. Transportation Research Record No. 2024, pp.82-91, 2007.
  18. Transportation Research Circular E-C-113 Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Information for Application, Edited by ABJ70 Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing, Section on Fuzzy Set Theory, Transportation Research Board, pp.33-48, 2007.
  19. A Frame of Mind for Dealing with Uncertainty in Transportation Analysis, presented at ISTTT 17, London, UK, July 2007.
  20. Kikuchi, S. and N. Kronprasert. Constructing an Origin-Destination Trip Table under Incomplete Information. International Conference, Transportation and Logistics Integrated Systems, Cracow, Poland, October 2007.
  21. The Network Reliability of Transport, (Edited by Yasunon Iida and Michael G.H. Bell), Traveler's Behavior under Uncertain Conditions (with Henk van Zuylen), Pergamon Elsevier Science, 2003, ISBN 0-08-04109-2, pp.155-170.
  22. Applied Research in Uncertainty Modeling and Analysis Series: Treatment of Uncertainty in Transportation Analysis, The Kluwer International Series in Intelligent Technologies, Editors (Attoh-Okine, Nii and Ayyub, Gilal) ISBN 0-387-23535-3, Januray, 2005.
  23. Transportation and Traffic Theory Flow, Dynamics and Human Interaction Precision of Predicted Travel Time, the Responses of Travelers, and Satisfaction in the Travel Experience Edited by Hani S. Mahmassani), Elsevier Publications (ISBN: 0-08-044680-9) pp.447-465, 2005 (with S. Mangalpally and A. Gupta).
  24. Kikuchi, S., Urban Transportation Engineering and Planning: How About Setting Axioms?, Kirkasta Ja Summeaa, Edited by Tapio Luttinen, 2006, Espoo, Finland.
  25. Kikuchi, S. and Kronprasert, N., Determining Length of Right-Turn Lane at a Signalized Intersection. Transportation Research Record No. 2060, pp.19-28, 2008.
  26. Kikuchi, S. and Kronprasert, N., Constructing a Transit Origin-Destination Table from Boarding/Alighting Data and Limited Additional Data, Accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record, 2009.
  27. Easa, S.M. and Kikuchi, S., Generealized Method for Estimating Best-Fit Vertical Alignments for Profile Data. International Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology, 5(2), 67-75, 2009.
  28. Kikuchi, S. and Kronprasert, N., Constructing Transit Origin-Destination Tables from Fragmented Data, Submitted for publication review in Transportation Research Record, August 2009.
  29. Kikuchi, S. and Kronprasert, N., Determining the Lengths of the Left-Turn Lanes at Signalized Intersections under Different Left-Turn Signal Schemes, Submitted for publication review in Transportation Research Record, August 2009.

 

Recent Research Ideas, bits and pieces
Optimization
Fuzzy Dynamic Programming
Fuzzy Robust Optimization
Fuzzy Optimization Application to Transit Stop Spacing
Fuzzy Control
Fuzzy Linear Programming: Dispersing Points on a Line
Robust Regression Analysis
Kikuchi's Robust Regression Line
Kikuchi's Robust Represention of Data Points
Kikuchi's Robust Multivariate Regression
Traffic Flow
Mainline Metering at Multiple Points
Lengths of Turn Lanes at an Intersection
Three-Branch Fork Lanes
Right-Turn Lane
Left-Turn Lane
Uncertainty Theory Examination
Transforming Possibilistic Information to Probabilistic Information
Bayesian Probability: Understanding, Examples and Applications
Comparison of Dempster's Combination Rule and Bayesian Probability Update
Travel Demand Models
Constructing an Origin-Destination Trip Table Under Incomplete Information

 

Recent Activities
  • Co-organized (with Antti Talvitie) Helsinki Summer School of Urban Transportation at Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, May 23 - June 1, 2007 and June 2 - June 7, 2008, and June 1 - 6, 2009. http://civil.tkk.fi/en/research/transportation/helsinki_summer_school_in_transportation/index
  • 13th Euro Working Group on Transportation Meeting, Padua, Italy, Septermber 23-25, 2009. Title: Uncertainty in Transportation Analysis.
  • Editor of Special issue of Transportation Research C: Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Analysis: Approaches, methods, and Applications. This Special Issue will appear Fall 2009.

 

Current Students
Name
Asokan, Anand  
Kronprasert, Nopadon  
Lu, Yao  
Holmberg, Benjamin  
Pilko, Peter  
Rouse, Devin  
Shin, Sung Shik  
Sutthawassuntorn, Komsan  
Tignor, Samuel  
Tucker, Raymond  
Wesolek, Danielle  

(c) Shinya Kikuchi, Virginia Tech