Cristina Olaverri-Monreal of Johannes Kepler University, Linz

Self-driving vehicles are reshaping the future of transportation. Utilizing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, sensors, and real-time data analysis, they aim to improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability, surpassing the performance of conventional vehicles. While automation can handle numerous driving functions, the interaction between automated systems and other road users is vital for ensuring overall safety and effectiveness. In this context, human involvement is still crucial to guarantee well-informed decisions, an area that will be explored further in this presentation.

Biography:

Cristina Olaverri-Monreal is a full professor and head of the Department Intelligent Transport Systems at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, in Austria. Prior to this position, she led diverse teams in the industry and in academia in the US and in distinct countries in Europe.

She served as the president of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (IEEE ITSS) for the years 2022 and 2023. She is the IEEE Division IX Director and member of the 2026–2027 IEEE Board of Directors.

She also holds the position of chair for the Technical Activities Committee (TAC) on Human Factors in Intelligent Transportation Systems and is the founder and chair of the Austrian IEEE ITSS chapter. Prof. Olaverri is a senior/associate editor and editorial board member of several journals in the field, including the IEEE ITS Transactions and IEEE ITS Magazine.

She received her PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich in cooperation with BMW. Her research aims at studying solutions for an efficient and effective transportation focusing on minimizing the barrier between users and road systems. To this end, she relies on automation, wireless communication and sensing technologies that pertain to the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

Furthermore, she is an expert for the European Commission on “Automated Road Transport” and consultant and project evaluator in the field of ICT and “Connected, Cooperative Autonomous Mobility Systems” for various EU and national agencies as well as organizations in Germany, Sweden, France, Ireland, etc. In 2017, she was the general chair of the “IEEE International Conference on Vehicles Electronics and Safety” (ICVES 2017). She was awarded the “IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education” for her dedicated contribution to continuing education in the field of ITS. She has also been recently awarded with the prestigious 2023 IEEE MGA Diversity & Inclusion Award.

Address:Austria