Simona Mihaita

Tell us about yourself

Dr. Mihaita obtained her PhD from the University of Grenoble, France in 2012 and worked as a Lecturer in the University of Lorraine before moving to Australia in 2015 and working as a Research Scientist in Data61|CSIRO. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney, founder and leader of the Future Mobility Lab (fmlab.org). She is an industry-focused academic delivering value for people living in smarts cities via her strong engagement with the government and several industry partners.

Her research focus is to improve people's movement via Artificial Intelligence in a smart city context. Dr Mihaita holds several leadership roles in initiatives such as the Australian-Singapore Strategic Collaboration via a joint NRF-ARC Linkage Project, the "Premiere's Innovation Initiative" for easing congestion, the "On-Demand Mobility" trials in Northern Beaches with Keolis Downer, the impact of Electric Vehicles with AEMO, Automatic Road Star Rating with TomTom, the positioning accuracy of connected trucks with TfNSW, etc. She is the winner of the 2018 ITS Australia National Awards for Research Excellence, awarded Monash Business School Scholarship for Women in Leadership 2018, nominated for the 2019 Prime Minister's Science Awards, and interviewed by Channel 7 News and The Guardian.

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What are the top 3 trends in your transport/smart city niche that everyone should look out for in the next 5 years?

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, Electric Vehicles and energy consumption, flying cars

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How do you/your company innovate?

The research scientists in the FMLab are using advanced machine learning and smart algorithms to model and improve transport networks and their safety while maximising the operational performance for both public transport and regular traffic movement. For future smart city planning purposes, the group builds 3D and 2D simulation models to analyse the impact of traffic disruptions, the best signal control methods, etc.

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Why is encouraging innovation, new ideas, and tech important?

Without innovation and new ideas, we can't make our cities a better place to live for neither us nor our children.