By 2050, over 60% of the global population will live in cities, making public transit not just essential but foundational to the functioning of modern society. Yet, despite advances in mobility technology, cities still struggle to design bus systems that are efficient, adaptable, and that meet evolving urban and community needs. This project aims to develop a novel framework for co-designing and modeling urban bus systems using applied category theory, addressing challenges when planning city-scale transit networks. By creating a modular, extensible simulation platform and partnering with transit agencies, we will rigorously capture technical and stakeholder dynamics, test our models on real-world data, and explore AI-driven approaches for optimizing bus routes and service design.

Through this SuperUROP, I’m really excited to applying novel ideas to solve age-old problems, like transit, through a long-term research project. This project combines so multiple different disciplines into one, and I’m ready to tackle that head on!