Professor Andrew Morris
& Dr Haitao He

Andrew Morris is Professor of Human Factors in Transport Safety, Leader of the Behavioural Safety Research and Injury Prevention Research Group in the School of Design and Creative Arts, and Visiting Professor at Hasselt University in Belgium. Dr Haitao He is Lecturer in Urban Transport and Urban Mobility in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering. Professor Morris has a long history with the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS); his first engagement with IAS was in 2018 as part of the Annual Theme, Motion. From there his engagement with IAS increased, culminating in co-leading the 2021/22 IAS Annual Theme Artificial Intelligence: Facts, Fictions, Futures. As a part of this theme, Professor Morris and Dr Haitao He arranged a conference on “Artificial Intelligence and Smart Mobility” under the umbrella of IAS. More than 70 participants from around the world attended this conference which Included keynotes from IAS Visiting Fellows Professor Mohamed Abdel-Aty (University of Central Florida), Professor Kay Axhausen (ETH Zurich), Professor Sebastien Glaser (CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology), Professor Nigel Wilson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Professor Andy Rakotonirainy (CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology), Professor Juan de Dios Ortúzar (Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile) & Professor Xuesong Wang (Tongji University).

The support of the IAS was critical to the success of the event which yielded lasting international research relationships, including collaborative projects and repeat visits with Professors Nigel Wilson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Professor Haris Koutsopoulos (Northeastern University).

Dr Haitao He's success in the highly competitive UKRI Future Leader Fellowship, is a testament to the groundbreaking research and innovation fostered by the IAS. Consistently offering a conducive platform for national and international academics to collaborate and engage in cutting-edge research, the IAS facilitated Dr He's close working relationship with both Professor Morris and key international researchers. This fruitful collaboration, centred around the annual IAS theme, proved critical to Dr He’s successful Future Leaders’ Fellowship application. In his words:

“I am very happy to say that the Fellowship is a direct legacy of the conference on ‘AI for Transport’ that IAS supported me to organise with Professor Morris. My IAS Fellows helped me shape my proposal and served on my advisory panel. Their esteemed names and contributions, as well as the fact that I successfully organised this event on my Fellowship topic, enhanced the perceived research excellence and international scope of my Fellowship in the eyes of the reviewers.”