Tapash Alister

For the Summer of 2022-2023, I had the opportunity to complete a remote internship with the Brisbane office of Veitch Lister Consulting (VLC), a traffic consulting and modelling company. For the first half of the internship, I used a traffic simulation of the road network around Loganlea in southern Brisbane, which was built to work with MaDAM, a dynamic (time-dependent) traffic simulation model. From this, I was tasked with adjusting the network to work with STAQ, a static (non-time-dependent) assignment model, documenting issues and figuring out how to solve them. In the second half of the project, I used the aforementioned model of Loganlea to compare and analyse how STAQ and MADAM compared to each other, comparing the simulated travel times and traffic loads between the two models. The results of both sections were compiled into a report, which provides valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of both models and how well they work together. Throughout the project, I largely had the freedom to work on the project how I saw fit, with the supervisor mostly taking a hands-off approach and only intervening when the task required his expertise. This both made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable, as I was able to truly get stuck into the problem and make decisions for myself and honed my decision-making and project management, as I had to tackle most issues on my own. Overall, I found that this was a more than worthwhile eight weeks, and I would highly recommend it. Despite beginning the internship with no knowledge of traffic modelling software or the mathematics underlying it, through the skills I have picked up during my degree and the guidance of my supervisor, I found myself right at home by the end of the program, regularly contributing to discussions and solving problems. Along with sharpening my problem-solving ability and opening my eyes to many new mathematical ideas and frameworks, I gained valuable experience working in the commercial sector, which can only be gained in programs like these.