Research | THE ISRAELI SMART TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER

Aiming to promote an ongoing research in the Smart Transportation domain towards world class achievements, the center defined a mechanism, designed to address the rapidly evolving challenges due to emerging technologies and other influential forces in the field.

Hence, we fund two main annual activities:

KNOWLEDGE GAP RESEARCH – Conducted by each of the center’s Professional Committees. All reviews include recommendations for research topics within each committee's domain.
The Knowledge Gap Research Reviews can be found HERE.
ISTRC Annual CALL FOR RESEARCH – Topics recommendations defined by the center’s Professional Committees, based on the Knowledge Gap Research and the results of the surveys conducted by the center.
Please find below the winning proposals for each Call for Research.

Call for Research 2022-23 Call for Research 2021-22 Call for Research 2020-21 CoroNa RESEARCH 2020

Call for Research 2022-23

The ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2022-2023 Evaluation Committee has completed its assessment process.
The committee, consisting of 7 members from 5 Israeli academic institutions, managed a review process of 29 proposals conducted by 53 academic experts from Israel and abroad.
Based on the evaluation committee’s recommendation, ISTRC decided to fund 11 proposals, with a total budget of 2,500,000 NIS.

ISTRC would like to thank the members of the Call for Research 2022-2023 Evaluation Committee and to congratulate the winners. Notifications were sent to all Principal Investigators (PIs) who submitted a proposal.

The funding goes to the academic institution of the proposal’s Principal Investigator (PI).

WINNING PROPOSALS

Call for Research 2022-23 WINNERS.xlsx
Research Title	Researchers	PI's Academic Institution	PI's Faculty/Department
A Two Stage Dynamic Delivery Problem	Michal Tzur and Marlin Ulmer	Tel Aviv University	Department of Industrial Engineering
Big Data Analytics to Evaluate and Improve Policies of Shared E-scooters and Micromobility	Hillel Bar-Gera	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Does Road Pricing Reduce Congestion, and How?	Itai Ater, Adi Shany and Shoshana Vasserman	Tel Aviv University	School of Management
Erythrocyte-based Characterization of Automotive Radars’ Radiation Exposure on Human Health	Yuri Feldman and Gregory Barshtein	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Department of Applied Physics
Estimating the Incidence and Severity of Mobility Problems Across a Population	Karel Martens and Matan Singer	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning
Estimating the Safety Level of Urban Sites Based on the Analyses of Road-user Behaviours Using Automatically-generated Data: an Exploratory Study	Wafa Elias, Victoria Gitelman, Etti Doveh and Jonathan Abir	Shamoon College of Engineering	Civil Engineering Department
Optimizing Route Controls for Public and Private Vehicles	Nathan Gartner, Sunbola Zatmeh-Kanj, Mark Eklin, Chronis Stamatiadis and Yuanchang Xie	Ariel University	Department of Civil Engineering
Personalized and Automated Transportation	Bat-Hen Nahmias Biran and Francisco Pereira	Ariel University	Department of Civil Engineering
Practical Legal and Ethical Policy for CATE (Connected and Automated Transportation Externalities)	Tal Zarsky and Yoram Shiftan	University of Haifa	Faculty of Law
Queueing-Based and Data-Driven Design of Emergency Transportation Services	Yossi Luzon, Ohad Eizenhendler and Erel Avineri	Afeka Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv	School of Industrial Engineering and Management
Semantic Perception and Planning for Reliable and Safe Online Autonomous Navigation and Decision Making	Vadim Indelman	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Department of Aerospace Engineering and Technion Autonomous Systems Program

Call for Research 2021-22

The Grant Evaluation Committee of the ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2021-2022 consisting of 8 members (from 5 Israeli academic institutions) completed the assessment process and sent notifications to all Principal Investigators (PIs).

In total, during the assessment process 72 reviews were conducted by 67 academic experts from Israel and abroad.

34 proposals were submitted to this Call, out of which 7 will be funded.
The original budget of the Call was NIS 2,500,000. The ISTRC Steering Committee has approved a total amount of NIS 2,800,000 as the final funding of this Call based on the recommendation of the Grant Evaluation Committee.
The funding goes to the academic institution of the Principal Investigator (PI).

WINNING PROPOSALS

ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2021-2022 - WINNERS.xlsx
Research Title	Researchers	PI's Academic Institution	PI's Faculty/Department
Affordable Fuel Cells for Zero-Emission Transportation Applications	Prof. Dario Dekel and Prof. Lior Elbaz	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Department of Chemical Engineering
RUBICON - Road Users Behavior In advanced CONtexts during the era of shared road space of autonomous, connected vehicles and human drivers	Prof. Tal Oron-Gilad and Dr. Ilit Oppenheim	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Bridging a Gap between Regular and Demand-Responsive Public Transport	Prof. Itzhak Benenson, Dr. Aleksey Ogulenko and Mr. Nir Sharav	Tel Aviv University	Department of Geophysics
Adaptive Travel-time based Max-Pressure Traffic Signal Control using Deep Reinforcement Learning	Prof. Jack Haddad and Dr. Kouvelas Anastasios	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Civil and Environmental Engineering
Highly efficient power electronics wireless charging interface with reduced hardware requirements	Prof. Alon Kuperman	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
'More walking' as a means of optimized movement and mobility in multimodal transportation: Increasing walking among users of trip planning apps	Prof. Jonathan Rabinowitz, Dr. Yuval Hadas, Mr. Ben Galon and Ms. Inbal Friedlander	Bar-Ilan University	School of Social Work
Teleoperation Interfaces for Last-Mile Delivery Robots	Prof. Joel Lanir	University of Haifa	Department of Information Systems

Call for Research 2020-21

The Grant Evaluation Committee of the ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2020-2021 consisted of 8 members (5 from Israeli academic institutions and 3 from academic institutions from abroad), completed the assessment process and sent notifications to all Principal Investigators (PIs).

Proposals have been reviewed by experts from over 25 countries, among them 10 Editors and Associate Editors of high impact factor journals in the field. A total of 193 reviews were conducted by the reviewers.

The Call includes 3 types of research proposals: Small, Medium and Large.

The original budget of the Call was NIS 3,500,000. However, the Grant Evaluation Committee highly recommended the funding of 4 additional proposals (3 Medium and 1 Large) for an additional amount of NIS 1,400,000. The ISTRC Steering Committee has approved a total amount of NIS 4,900,000 as the final funding of this Call. The funding goes to the academic institution of the Principal Investigator (PI).

ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2020-2021-SuccessRate.xlsx
Research Type	No. of Submitted Proposals	No. of Funded Proposals	Success Rate %
Small	25	9	36.00%
Medium	28	10	35.70%
Large	10	2	20.00%
Total	63	21	33.30%

WINNING PROPOSALS

ISTRC Annual Call for Research 2020-2021_Winners_FINAL_ForWeb.xlsx
Research Size	Research Title	Researchers	PI's Academic Institution	PI's Faculty/Department
S	Adopting automated vehicles to create equitable transport markets	Prof. Nicole Adler, Mr. Amir Brudner	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	The School of Business Administration
L	Studies of Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles: Modification of Li, Mn-rich Cathode Materials with Surface Coatings via Atomic Layer Deposition	Prof. Doron Aurbach, Prof. Yair Ein-Eli, Dr. Hadar Sclar, Dr. Sandipan Maiti, Prof. Boris Markovsky, Dr. Alexander Kraytsberg	Bar-Ilan University	Chemistry
M	Bats-Inspired Spectrum Allocation in Cognitive Radars	Dr. Igal Bilik, Prof. Yossi Yovel, Mr. Menahem Oren	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Electrical and Computer Engineering
S	AirBay – a Distributed Ledger Platform for Trading UAVs' Air Rights	Dr. Rami Puzis	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Software and Information Systems Engineering
L	Smart Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Stress and Load in Driving Tasks	Prof. Gil Luria, Prof. Hossam Haick, Dr. Hadas Marciano, Mr. Erez Kita	University of Haifa	Human Services Department, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences
S	Peer Effects and Workers Preferences Regarding Working from Home	Prof. Eyal Winter, Dr. Yevgeny Mugerman, Dr. Rinat Merkovich	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Social Sciences/Economics
M	Evaluating the safety of signalized intersections by methods of video analytics	Prof. Hillel Bar-Gera, Mr. Or Sela	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Industrial Engineering and Management
S	Public Transportation Literacy and the Accessibility of Elderly travelers under MaaS	Dr. Eran Ben-Elia, Dr. Svetlana Daichman, Prof. Hillel Bar-Gera	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Geography
S	Dynamic routing to achieve efficient and fair distribution	Prof. Michal Tzur	Tel Aviv University	Engineering/Industrial Engineering
M	Law and Ethics by Design in the Vision of the Zero Transportation Externalities	Prof. Tal Zarsky, Prof. Yoram Shiftan, Prof. Amnon Reichman, Dr. Nathan Pinhas, Dr. Dalit Ken-Dror Feldman, Dr. Karni Chagal-Feferkorn	University of Haifa	Faculty of Law
S	An examination of safety impacts of high-occupancy vehicle lanes	Prof. Tomer Toledo , Dr. Victoria Gitelman, Prof. Shalom Hakkert	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Transportation Research Institute
S	Road tests of fuel savings by passive and active reduction of aerodynamic drag on the rear of a trailer	Prof. Avraham Seifert	Tel Aviv University	Engineering/Mechanical Engineering
S	An integrated model for shared mobility systems that considers endogenous demand and travel times	Prof. Shlomo Bekhor	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Civil and Environmental Engineering
M	Using gamification as a tool for promoting sustainable use of Mobility-as-a-Service	Prof. Sigal Kaplan, Prof. Shlomo Bekhor	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Department of Geography
M	Driving pattern mining and speed-limit sign compliance using probe vehicle data	Dr. Ayelet Gal-Tzur, Dr. Zohar Barnett-Itzhaki, Prof. Sagi Dalyot, Prof. Tomer Toledo, Prof. Silvio Nocera,	Ruppin Academic Center	Industrial and Management Engineering
M	Designing pricing strategies for sustainable urban mobility futures via high-fidelity simulation of large scale cities	Dr. Bat-Hen Nahmias-Biran, Prof. YoramShiftan, Dr.Israel Feldman, Mr. Sami Edri	Ariel University	Department of Civil Engineering
M	Autonomous Robotic Charging System for Electric vehicles	Prof. Amir Shapiro	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Mechanical Engineering Department
M	Dynamic capacity management for sustainable public transportation service	Prof. Tal Raviv, Dr. Yuval Hadas, Dr. Illit Oppenheim, Dr. Avi Tillman, Mr. Israel Rom, Mr. Or Asher	Tel Aviv University	Industrial Engineering
M	Hybrid Planning for Last Mile Logistics Using Trucks and Drones	Dr. Erez Karpas, Prof. Per-Olof Gutman	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	Industrial Engineering and Management
M	Guiding and Guarding Deep Learning for Autonomous Vehicles using Scenario-Based Programming	Dr. Guy Katz, Dr. Achiya Elyasaf	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Computer Science
S	Legal liability for the actions of Level 3 autonomous vehicles	Prof. Yuval Shany, Dr. Omri Rachum, Mr. Gadi Perl	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Faculty of Law

CoroNa RESEARCH 2020

"CoroNa" RESEARCH 2020

Upon the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Israeli Smart Transportation Research Center initiated a Call for Research named "CoroNa" for research proposals targeting transportation and coronavirus.

A total of 38 proposals were submitted from 13 academic institutions, of which 6 proposals won a total of ILS 550,000, involving 14 researchers from 5 academic institutions in Israel.

WINNING PROPOSALS


Research Title	Researchers	Academic Institution
“Passenger behavior in a Level 3 autonomous vehicle used to transport Corona patients” Research overview	Prof. Eyal Yaniv, Eng. Webkobinik and Eng. Salomonov	Bar-Ilan University
“Examining travel behavior changes among users of car-sharing services in times of COVID-19 outbreak” Research overview	Prof. Tomer Toledo and Dr. Einat Tenenboim	Technion
“Autonomous Refueling System” Research overview	Prof. Amir Shapiro and Mr. Shmulik Edelman	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
“Transportation preferences during COVID19 epidemic” Research overview	Prof. Gil Luria and Dr. Hadas Marciano	University of Haifa
“Spatially-explicit modeling of SARS-CoV-2 spread by public transport” Research overview	Prof. Itzhak Benenson, Prof. Yehuda Carmeli and Dr. Liz Temkin	Tel Aviv University
“Pedestrian walking patterns and traffic in Tel-Aviv, Israel, during COVID-19 quarantine and exit-quarantine policies, using BT sensor technology” Research overview	Prof. Pnina Plaut and Dr. Sagi Dalyot	Technion