Taskgroups

Task Groups

The following task groups are established to carry out the work of the subcommittee. Other task groups will be formed later in response to the desires of the subcommittee members.

Task Groups	Description
Annual Workshop	This task group is responsible for the organization and presentation of an annual workshop on traffic simulation, historically held on the Sunday afternoon of the TRB annual meeting. The workshop topic will be selected annually in July or August by the steering group. At that point, a task group will be appointed to organize the workshop. Chair: John Halkias and Jim Sturrock, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Liaison and Outreach	This task group monitors activities of other groups in the simulation community and reports to the subcommittee on the results of their efforts. The members include participants in other groups who are able to maintain two-way communication between SimSub and their respective organizations and groups. A liaison report will be produced for each newsletter issue. As a part of the liaison and outreach activity, a web site will be maintained for all subcommittee announcements and products. To ensure conformance with TRB policies and guidelines, the site will be operated at https://www.simsub.bagley.msstate.edu/ Chair: Pengfei(Taylor) Li, Mississippi State Univ.
Newsletter	The subcommittee will post a semi-annual newsletter to its web site to inform members and others of items of interest to the simulation community: A separate task group will be appointed for each edition of the newsletter. The newsletter contents will include: News and success stories Articles News and success stories NGSIM update Software product updates (unless TRB objects) Research results Task group reports The chair of this task group is responsible for soliciting material, monitoring deadlines, producing the newsletter and posting it to the Subcommittee web site. Chair: David Hale, Univ. of Florida
Research Needs and Resources	This task group compiles research problem statements from Subcommittee members and from other sources, including TRB committees, NCHRP, etc. It also compiles a list of potential resources for data that could be useful in the conduct of research on simulation models. Typically, such data would come from other research projects and ITS central data warehouses. Chair: Mohammad Hadi, FIU.
Simulation Calibration, Verification, and Validation	The purpose of the Calibration, Verification, and Validation (CVV) Task Group is identify the needs, concerns, steps to be taken, and issues involved in CVV for two main groups: Model users such as consulting firms and agencies involved in applying simulation to site-specific studies. Software developers such as business and academic developers of simulation software packages. The two user groups have some overlapping interests/issues that will be identified and addressed. More about proposed work activities of CVV Task Group can be found here. Chair: Rahim Benekohal, Univ. of Illinois - UC.
Mesoscopic Simulation	The mission of the Mesoscopic Simulation Task Group is to facilitate the understanding of mesoscopic traffic simulation methods and to promote future research and applications of mesoscopic traffic simulation models. The main activities include synthesizing past and present research outcomes and identifying future research topics, as well as communicating with TRB traffic simulation communities to better align mesoscopic traffic simulation approaches with pertinent applications. Chair: Yi-Chang Chiu, Univ. of Arizona.
Safety Modeling and Simulation	The mission of the Safety Modeling and Simulation Task Group is to improve the understanding of the crash process through integrated consideration of the traffic, driver, vehicle, road environment, and the general environment through simulation.This mission will be accomplished by providing a clearinghouse for research and development topics related to the modeling of traffic safety with simulation systems. Task group objectives are to generate research problem statements, coordinate workshops and synthesize state-of-the-practice. Chair: David Petrucci, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Agent-Based Simulation	Chair: Monty Abbas, Virginia Tech, VA.