The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight has won the inaugural 2022 IEEE ITSS Presidential Prize for Sustainability in Transportation.
This award was only possible because of the sustained effort, innovation and teamwork of the academics, researchers, students and industrial partners in the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight.
Professor David Cebon
The Centre – a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Heriot-Watt and Westminster Universities and a consortium of industry partners – has been recognised "for its multinational, multistakeholder, multidisciplinary, high-impact research into decarbonising road-freight".
The Prize was created to recognise worldwide sustainable innovative approaches and efforts that contribute to accelerating climate-neutral transport. The Centre will receive a $6,000 research grant from the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSS) Society to use in the continuation of its research.
The Centre was founded to help industry and government minimise carbon emissions from the road freight sector. It focuses on researching innovative solutions to sustainability challenges facing road freight by optimising vehicle technologies in parallel with logistics operations.
Some recent contributions by the Centre to accelerate climate-neutral transport include:
- Developing an extensive research programme into vehicle decarbonisation technologies, including but not limited to:
- Developing a range of tools and technologies to help operators decarbonise their vehicle fleets, including:
- The ‘SRF Optimiser’ – online guidance to fleet decarbonisation strategies.
- The ‘SRF Logger’ – an Android app for logging vehicle performance data in-service.
- The ‘Coasting Advisor’ – Android App advisor for eco-driving.
- Fleet electrification dashboard – for designing fleets and depot charging systems.
- Extensive tools for agent-based modelling of logistics systems, used across a range of applications including: last mile logistics; UK electrification; development of a vaccine distribution system that optimises vaccine logistics across Bangladesh.
- Extending policy evidence via extensive briefings on road freight decarbonisation for policymakers.
- Building a global network of research centres concerned with sustainable road freight. In India, China and Africa, these centres collaborate to develop knowledge and strategic interventions to support global road freight decarbonisation.
- Running a successful International Workshop on Sustainable Road Freight, now in its ninth year.
Professor David Cebon, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, said: “It is a great honour to receive this important award from the IEEE. It was only possible because of the sustained effort, innovation and teamwork of the academics, researchers, students and industrial partners in the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. We are very grateful to the President of the IEEE ITSS for acknowledging our work in this way.”
Adapted from an IEEE ITSS news article.
