MIPS Project Detail:
Company
Company Description:
Information Technologies Curves, or IT Curves®, develops state-of-the-art transportation and logistics management software serving enterprises in over 30 cities in the U.S. IT Curves’ software allows enterprises to monitor and manage mobile resources (which operate outside of the office) with the same level of accuracy as inoffice staff and resources. IT Curves’ system allows enterprises such as taxi, limousine, shuttle, campus bus systems, trucking, and other logistics management enterprises to accurately monitor, assign tasks, verify completion of the task, and process payments for these resources while on the road. IT Curves uses standard, off-the-shelf cellular phones and tablets, wireless data communication, accurate GPS positioning, and built-in navigation to enable mobile resources to be managed as an integral part of the company at all times.
MIPS Project
Next-Gen Algorithms for Ridesharing Services
Project #
5015.22
|
MIPS Round
52
|
Starting Date:
Aug 2013
MIPS Project Challenge:
One of the most complex problems in managing transportation and logistics is Efficient Ride-Sharing, which applies both to transporting people as well as packages. It involves combining multiple pickup and drop-off locations and time-windows requirements. It is a mathematical optimization problem, which exponentially grows when it involves several hundreds or thousands of pickups or drop offs, far exceeding the computing capability of manual routing, and even using computers may take hours of computing. This MIPS project was slated to produce a computer program and practical mathematical algorithm that is now offered as a part of IT Curves’ suite of solutions as the Efficient Ride Sharing Algorithm (ERSA). This solution is offered to shuttle and paratransit service providers in a number of markets within the U.S.
Project Scope:
Through this MIPS project, University of Maryland researchers and IT Curves’ design and development engineers worked together to: study relevant academic literature; devise an innovative mathematical algorithm and to ensure the practicality with simulations using actual field-data from IT Curves’ transportation customers; combine the results with the Google Maps API to further improve the accuracy by including predicted and real-time traffic data; dynamically compute efficient ride-share in realtime; save businesses’ capital and operating resources by increasing the efficiency of operation while improving the services with improved time management; and develop a solution that led to the publication of a number of academic papers in various journals and presentation at the Transpiration Research Board (TRB).
Results:
These new algorithms have been embedded into IT Curves’ software suite, which is being utilized by a number of transportation service providers nationwide. Based on these on-going service contracts with operators, the company has been able to retain a workforce of eight full-time employees.
In 2012, the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley selected IT Curves as one of the most innovative young companies in the Machine–to-Machine (M2M) space. The company won contracts to modify its system to accommodate ride-sharing operations for a shuttle operation at Dulles and Reagan Airports.
Results from this joint effort enabled IT Curves to expand its services to meet the needs of paratransit and non-emergency Medicaid transportation, shuttle transit, and other demand-responsive transportation providers. IT Curves has been awarded a number government requests for proposals (RFPs) due to the collaborative work on the ride-sharing algorithm and continues to participate in a variety of RFPs. One of the most recent awards was with Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in September, 2017, to service the Abilities-Ride program.
Principal Investigator:
Elise
Miller-Hooks
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Project Manager:
Matthew
Mohebbi
CEO
Technologies:
Software Development
