iHub-Data, a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) at IIIT Hyderabad organized its 2nd Mobility Summit yesterday featuring a diverse range of speakers and topics related to mobility. Keynote speakers from government, academia and industry, discussions on the path to successful adoption of mobility, 2-wheelers programs and human factors in mobility were key themes.
The Summit proved to be a highly informative and engaging platform for the exchange of ideas and knowledge in the field of Mobility with notable keynotes from academia, industry and government.
The Academia keynote speaker Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Design working on addressing societal problems through Data-Driven Systems approach to Road Safety, Public Policy, Human Factors, New Product Development and Lean Processes. Industry keynote speaker Dr Sameera Poduri leads the AI team for Customer Support at Uber. Her team is currently focused on developing GenAI solutions to enhance the quality and efficiency of support experiences.
The Government Keynote speaker, Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Electronics & Communications (ITE&C) and Department of Industries said, “I recall a quote from my early days – ‘You are not stuck in traffic — you are the traffic’ – at that time, I regarded it as a play of words, but I realize the true import of the sentence now. We need to develop a culture of collective responsibility which begins with individual responsibility if we are to change the mindset on roads, driving and related issues’. Interestingly, Telangana was the first major state in India to create open data policy from 2016 https://data.telangana.gov.in
The stakeholder consultation on ‘Safety and Mobility: The Right Balance’ on Oct 28th brought together various key stakeholders in road safety, from Transport Dept, UNICEF, coordinators working with schools and youth from the road safety club, medical professionals in trauma care, road infrastructure, and engineers’ perspectives too. This was to understand key gaps, barriers and possible solutions towards improving India’s road safety ecosystem. The e-consultation discussion points were documented and will be consolidated as a set of action points. They will be submitted to the State Government as an advocacy letter/ policy brief, and a white paper, to galvanize further measures on road safety.
Dr. Advani from CRRI mentioned the need for proper Engg solutions for road safety. IRASTE team has been working on some solutions, including helping drivers through the ADAS system. Accident zone can be converted into a grey spot before it becomes a black spot.
Dr. Pawar from IIT Hyderabad described the intersection conflict warning system developed at IIT Hyderabad. Dr. Sridhar from Unicef stressed that we should incorporate a human-centric approach into our thinking. Manideep from Road safety club said that over 7,000 participants have been trained through ABC, the Active Bleeding Control initiative.
Sanjay Ram from IDF emphasised that they work with more than 20,000 schools across India, which is a huge opportunity to inculcate road safety education in schools. Dr. Geetha, Pedistars highlighted the importance of education, enforcement, and emergency treatment in saving lives on Indian roads. Dr. Puppala, Deputy Transport Commissioner emphasized the need for scientific investigation in accidents, and comprehensive approach to driving education, focusing on CSR and the development of training faculty that is knowledgeable about the regulations and practices of the automotive industry.
Kavita Vemuri, who looks at human visual scene analysis, said that the approach that technology is a parallel arm to human factors will not solve the issues in mobility and safety. Dr. Nimmi Rangaswamy and Dr Shailaja Tetali shared their inputs and concluded the workshop.
For more than 20 years, IIIT-Hyderabad (IIITH) has been dedicated to enhancing the quality of education in cutting-edge areas of Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) through strong research programs in machine learning, image processing, computer vision, robotics, natural language processing, pattern recognition, and speech processing. IHub-Data, IIIT-Hyderabad is one of the 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) established under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber – Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) by DST, Government of India.
Mobility at IHub-Data aims to solve problems on Indian roads & driving conditions using data-driven technologies. It leverages techniques from machine learning, computer vision, computer graphics, computational sensing and allied areas to create solutions and aid transfer of solutions across diverse practical conditions on roads.
IHub-Data’s research focuses on:
- Enabling data driven mobility solutions for Indian roads
- Reduction of fatality on Indian roads
- Technologies for two-wheeler safety in India
- Scalable road infrastructure inspection
October 2023