UMD Hosts ASCE Workshop on Generative AI in Transportation

Transportation researchers and industry representatives gathered in College Park, Maryland on March 13-14 for a two-day workshop focused on generative AI and its implications for a range of transportation issues.

Meta data scientist and UMD civil and environmental engineering alumna Yangwen Liu (left) is pictured with Professor Cinzia Cirillo, director of the Center for MultiModal Mobility.

The event, titled “Pioneering Transportation Innovation With Generative AI,” was organized by the American Society for Civil Engineers' Transportation & Development Institute (ASCE TDI) and hosted by the Center for MultiModal Mobility (CMMM), a Tier One Urban Transportation Center based at the University of Maryland’s civil and environmental engineering department. The workshop attracted over 170 participants and audience members.

Presentations, panel discussions, and workshops focused on topics that included revolutionizing traffic operations and management, enhancing traffic safety both in urban and rural areas, and industry trends related to the use of generative AI for transportation applications.

CMMM’s director, UMD Professor Cinzia Cirillo, led the conference, which began with welcoming remarks by Lili Du, chair of ASCE TDI’s AI in Transportation Committee, and Nii Attoh-Okine, chair of the UMD civil and environmental engineering department. Professor Attoh-Okine also delivered a presentation on quantum machine learning and railway applications.

In addition to Attoh-Okine and Cirillo, UMD Faculty Xianfeng “Terry” Yang, who is the Secretary of the ASCE AI in Transportation Committee, moderated the session on “Generative AI for Traffic Operations and Management.”

Other academic institutions represented at the event included Arizona State University, George Washington University, Georgia Institute of Technology, New York University, University of Missouri, University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington, and Virginia Institute of Technology.

The conference was also co-sponsored by BlueHalo, CR2C2, and Leidos.

Published March 27, 2025