GITMob meeting no. 37

This session will take place at FEUP, room L202A, on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

In this session, we will welcome Thiago Sobral from Optimização e Planeamento de Transporte (OPT), along with João Teixeira and Luísa Bastos Leite from the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), for a deep dive into the increasingly relevant topic of intermodal mobility — a key enabler of more sustainable and seamless public transport systems. Professor Marta Campos Ferreira will moderate this session. The speakers will present ongoing research conducted within the scope of the Alliance for Energy Transition (ATE) Project, exploring the following areas:

• Intermodal mobility behavior
• Public transport planning and synchronization
• The development of a Decision Support Platform for transport planners, operators, and authorities. This platform aims to optimize the synchronization of transport networks across Portugal, enhance the passenger experience, and advance the shift toward sustainable, green mobility.

The ATE Project aims to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of companies through decarbonization, digitization, and decentralization of the Energy sector in Portugal. The consortium operates in 6 areas covering the entire value chain: i) decarbonization of the energy sector, ii) reindustrialization and circular use of resources, iii) digitization of the energy sector, iv) decentralization and democratization of energy, v) sustainable mobility and industry, vi) capacity building and business acceleration. As a result of creating innovative and export-oriented solutions, Portugal aims to position itself as a leader in energy transition and leverage a collaborative ecosystem in the form of a competitiveness cluster in the energy sector. ATE is funded by the Recovery and Resilience Program (PRR) under the EU framework. Website: https://www.aate.pt

Speakers’ short bio:

Thiago Sobral: Thiago is the Technical Coordinator for Research, Development, and Innovation at OPT and has been an Invited Assistant Professor from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at FEUP since 2014. His areas of interest focus on the intersection of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Information Visualization, and Ontology Engineering. He was a member of INESC between 2016 and 2021, at the Centers for Industrial Engineering and Management (CEGI) and Center for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE) in 2022, where he developed research activities in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (Urban Mobility and Port Logistics), and the application of Information and Communication Technologies, namely Ontology Engineering and Data Visualization. During this period, he visited foreign institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Indian Institute of Technology Patna (IIT Patna), where he actively participated in research projects in these areas. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Applied Mathematics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2011), a Master’s Degree in Service Engineering and Management from FEUP, and a Ph.D. in Transport Systems from the same institution, within the scope of the MIT Portugal Program.

João Teixeira: João Teixeira holds a Ph.D. in Spatial Planning (Cum Laude) and a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering, with nearly 8 years of research experience in sustainable mobility. His career is focused on transport and spatial planning, with a particular emphasis on active and shared micromobility. João has authored 15 research papers (12 as 1st author) in high-impact journals, a book chapter, and 22 presentations in scientific conferences and workshops, resulting in over 1000 citations and a h-index of 14. João is currently working on the ATE Project, funded by European Funds NextGeneration EU, studying the travel behaviour of intermodal users, namely through marketing segmentation techniques. He also teaches in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at FEUP, including supervising Master’s theses.

Luísa Bastos Leite: Born in 2002 in Porto, she graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management from FEUP in 2023, having been distinguished as the student with the best average in the course. During her academic career, she was actively involved in extracurricular initiatives, having joined the administration of JuniFEUP, FEUP’s Junior Enterprise, where she developed leadership and project management skills. She has also supplemented her training with several internships at consulting firms, including a recent experience at McKinsey & Company. Last semester, she completed an Erasmus mobility program in Munich at the Technische Universität München (TUM), one of Europe’s most prestigious technical universities. She is pursuing an M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management at FEUP and conducting research within the scope of the ATE project. Her recent work focuses on synchronization techniques in public transport, including developing a literature review article in this research domain.