Sept. 14, SAS 2012, Modeling the New Jersey Turnpike in 99 Hours

     It’s a question every student has asked at least once. The Modeling
Contest in Mathematics (MCM), held annually by COMAP, provides a
way for undergraduates to apply the knowledge gained from classes to real
world problems. Each year, COMAP presents six interesting prompts
on anything ranging from locating a missing aircraft to modeling a Mar-
tian government. 99 hours and a little sleep deprivation later, teams of
students return a solution to one of the offered prompts.
This past year for MCM we addressed the infamous traffic of the New
Jersey Turnpike. We developed an agent-based model for optimum toll
plaza design and analyzed over 700 designs. We also considered the effects
of autonomous vehicles on the traffic flow and efficiency of the plazas.
Based on this model we suggested improvements on current designs to
ease congestion. This talk will be accessible to all undergraduates.