ABSTRACT
Megatrends worldwide, such as rural to city migration, increase in the number of megacities, increase in mobility and wealth, increase in freedom of expression, the rise of social media, and the loss of interpersonal contact and experience due to internet addiction have led to a rapid increase in mass gatherings. Sport events, concerts, demonstrations, large political events, congresses, city fetes and fairs, amusements parks, large transportation hubs and pilgrimage sites routinely gather from tens of thousands to millions of pedestrians in a small area. The safety and comfort, as well as the user experience in these events is of prime importance to organizers and authorities. Once densities exceed a certain threshold (typically 4p/sqm), dangerous situations can occur. Some of these have led to considerable loss of life and injuries in the past. Thus far, many of these gatherings have been managed via a combination of historial data, CCTV camera coverage and ‘feet on the ground’. Recent advances in automated multisensory input (from CCTV, cell-phones, RFID tags, or any other means), fast and accurate agent-based simulation tools, artificial neural nets and deep learning lead us propose a new management concept: the Digital Twin Enhanced Command and Control Center for Crowds (DTEC4). DTEC4 should allow to move from managing ‘what is’ to managing ‘what will be’, thus greatly improving safety and comfort for mass gatherings.
The talk will focus on the DTEC4 concept and recent progress in achieving it.
BIOSKETCH
He received a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technische Universit¨at Braunschweig, Germany, as well as a PhD and DSc in Civil Engineering from the University College of Swansea, Wales, where he studied under Profs. Ken Morgan and Olgierd Zienkiewicz. His areas of interest include numerical methods, solvers, grid generation, parallel computing, visualization, pre-processing, fluid-structure interaction as well as shape and process optimization. His codes and methods have been applied in many fields, including aerodynamics or airplanes, cars and trains, hydrodynamics of ships, submarines and UAVs, shock-structure interaction, dispersion analysis in urban areas, haemodynamics of vascular diseases, fundamental studies on chaotic, turbulent flows, as well as evacuation and management of mass events.
He is the author of more than 750 scientific publications covering the fields enumerated above, as well as a textbook on Applied CFD Techniques. He has given numerous invited lectures at international conferences, universities, research institutes and private companies worldwide, received many awards, and co-organized several international Conferences.