Reinforcement learning-based prediction of university students’ mobility needs within a dynamic[...]

In order to tackle the problem of climate change and manage their greenhouse gas emissions, higher education institutions and universities around the world have started informing and motivating their students and faculty members about using sustainable mobility modes to realize their daily home-university trips. Various studies have been conducted or are under way to understand the daily mobility needs of the students and the faculty and how they depend on various factors such as the university campus location, transport modes available within or near campus, and the costs associated with each trip.

Furthermore, multiple case studies, from different countries such as India, Italy, The Netherlands, Canada, and the United States, discussing the mobility behaviour in and around the university campuses have been proposed in the literature. Although these case studies provide insights into the student mobility behaviour, the existing research presents the results for a single university without going further in setting up the campus mobility plan in order to support the university’s engagement in reducing its carbon footprint.

The Energy Saving Certificate Program MobE, initiated by CESI Engineering School, aims to understand and optimize the student mobility in order to reduce the energy consumption. With this program, CESI Engineering School is engaged in transforming the student mobility through an integrated approach involving numerical analysis, methodological contribution, and wide dissemination to students and other higher education institutions. It aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the student mobility by proposing efficient alternative modes of transport based on soft mobility (such as walking, bicycle, etc.) as well as those based on collective or individual mobility (such as public transport or car-pooling) contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions.

The Program MobE is structured around the following axes:

1. Analyze and understand the motivational levers of student mobility and imagine the mobility of tomorrow in a participatory way with more than 5,000 students.
2. Organize local events on the topic of student mobility with higher education institutions and universities, with concrete actions like setting up the communicating channels adapted to young public and proposing mobility challenges.
3. Support higher education institutions and universities in optimizing student mobility: 20 institutions directly involved in establishing the project diagnosis and 4 to 6 pilot universities to initiate the set-up of campus mobility plans based on data and digital tools.
4. Sustain the engagement of higher education institutions and universities in managing student mobility by providing the summaries, analyses, and methodological tools developed.

Funding category: Public funding alone (i.e., government, region, European, international organization research grant)