About
Dr Ben Waterson is an Associate Professor in Transportation within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
He has been a member of the Transportation Research Group since 1997, with both teaching and research responsibilities.
With a background in statistics and operational research methods much of his early research focused on issues related to quantifying behavioural responses to traveller information and representing these within existing simulation models, real-time urban journey time estimation, the development of incident detection algorithms and enabling research into the fusion of disparate sources of traffic and environmental data to generate more comprehensive views of current network conditions.
His more recent projects have focused on improving urban traffic control, air quality monitoring and wider aspects of traveller behaviour, especially understanding behavioural reactions and interactions through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Road transport
- Artificial Intelligence
- Traveller Behaviour
- Virtual Reality
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Teaching
Most of Dr Waterson's teaching is related to the modelling and simulation of road transport systems (including both the travellers and infrastructure) and/or the use of statistical methods in a transport context.
The modules that he teaches are mainly intended for students taking either the postgraduate MSc Transportation Planning and Engineering degree programme or one of the group of undergraduate Civil Engineering degree programmes, but are also available as options on other degree courses.
Specifically he regularly teaches, coordinates and/or supervises students on the following modules:
'Lecture Style' Modules
- CENV6153 Transport Modelling
This module covers a range of different transport modelling approaches and packages ranging from macroscopic models to predict overall travel demand, to microscopic models of individual vehicle-vehicle interactions.
- CENV3060/CENV6171 Highway and Traffic Engineering
These modules introduce students to the principles of designing road systems (including junction design and sub-surface pavement structures) and traffic flow dynamics and analysis.
- CENV6168 Transport Management and Safety
This module explores ways in which road transport systems can be made efficient, safer and more sustainable, often through the use of new technologies such as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
'Project Style' Modules
- FEEG3003 Individual Project
This is the individual project module undertaken by BEng and MEng Civil Engineering students in their third year. Examples of topics supervised include....
Global pedestrian positioning systems; Privacy impacts of future Intelligent Transport Systems; Self-calibrating traffic lights; Virtual reality train stations; Gender equity in transport; Bridge Design and Construction; Unopposed road traffic flows; and Pedestrian discharge rates
- FEEG6013 Group Design Project
This is large-scale group project for final year undergraduate students. Recnetly supervised topics have included Wireless traffic control systems and the creation of a virtual cycling simulator
- FEEG6012 MSc Research Project
This is the summer dissertation project module for MSc students studying Transportation Planning and Engineering. Examples of topics supervised include....
Activity based travel models; Impacts of social media on travel patterns; Park and ride; Consequences of model non-convergence; Microscopic motorway and junction modelling; Parking search behaviour; Tourist shopping trip generation patterns; Virtual worlds; Perceptions of safety; and Accident trends
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Dr Ben Waterson is an Associate Professor in Transportation within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Ben graduated with a BSc (1st Class Honours) in Statistics from the University of Reading in 1996, before obtaining an MSc in 1997 (with Distinction) in Operational Research. He joined the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton in 1997 and has held a range of research and teaching posts, including obtaining his Ph.D. in data fusion for real time traffic monitoring in 2005. His research takes a holistic view of transport, seeking to understand how the component parts of the transport system, infrastructure, vehicles and travellers interact to impact on efficiency, safety and sustainability, especially understanding behavioural reactions and interactions through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches. He has been responsible for over £2m of research projects and published over 100 journal articles and conference papers, alongside teaching on postgraduate courses in Transportation Planning and Engineering and undergraduate courses in Civil Engineering.
Prizes
- William W. Millar prize. (2017)