Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ.
Tel 01703 594657, Fax 01703 593152, E-mail gdl@soton.ac.uk, Web Site http://www.trg.soton.ac.uk

INTRODUCTION

MVA Systematica are now actively seeking to strengthen their association and activity with the academic community. To do so they wish to identify a number of Universities internationally with which to form mutually beneficial links. Such universities will be attributed with the acronym title TRIPS SPECTRE standing for a TRIPS Specialist Centre of Teaching and Research. This paper briefly describes the first fledgling SPECTRE at the University of Southampton. A background to this SPECTRE is given in addition to an outline of the responsibilities assumed by both parties. The paper describes what the SPECTRE has achieved and is seeking to do as its TRIPS related activity develops.

THE TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH GROUP

The Transportation Research Group (TRG) has been established for over 25 years as a Research Group within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southampton. The Group has grown considerably to a total current staff of some 20 drawn from a range of science, engineering, mathematics and social science disciplines.

The research activities of the TRG have built on and extended the early research on all aspects of traffic engineering, and individual studies have related to traffic control, safety and project evaluation both in the UK and overseas. In the last decade, the range of research has been extended to include the identification and assessment of the potential for new technology with studies and modelling of route guidance, on-line traffic control in networks, integrated network management, public transport priority and in-vehicle technology for guidance control and enforcement. Other more recent areas of research include freight and light rail operations, and environmental monitoring and evaluation. New initiatives in demand management and microscopic trip decision modelling are also underway. Considerable personal research is also undertaken on a wider range of topics, by both staff and research students. Clients for the research include the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Traffic Control Systems Unit in London (TCSU), London Transport, the European Commission (EC) and others. A significant development has been the formation of partnerships between the TRG and industry, consultants and local authorities to develop practical applications of our fundamental research.

A major area of activity is the TRG's development of CONTRAM which has taken place in recent years as part of a SERC sponsored Rolling Programme. Variants of CONTRAM have been produced to model Dynamic Route Guidance (DRG), re-routing effects of variable message signs (VMS) and more recently the use of Parking Guidance Information (PGI) to influence car park choice.

A thriving MSc course in Transportation Planning and Engineering also forms a major part of our activities. This course has ICE, CIT and EPSRC accreditation with a number of EPSRC studentships available each year. Current annual intakes of students are between 15 and 20. The course has been operating since 1969 and is constantly updated to reflect the rapidly emerging new transport technologies and priority issues, such as congestion, safety and the environment. Figure 1 provides an outline of this course and how it addresses the transportation process.

The full-time course lasts for one year comprising a nine month taught period followed by a three month period in which the students must produce a dissertation on a short research project. The part-time two and three year options for the course are an attractive alternative for students in full-time employment with consultants, local authorities and others. A typical mix of students includes UK, EU and overseas students and represents a broad range of experience and expertise. It can often be the case that overseas students are unfamiliar with transport policies, practices and technologies exercised in the UK.

Students have the opportunity to give feedback on the course at the end of each year. The absence of the use of transportation planning software from the course in recent years has been seen as regrettable. Attempts in earlier years to include coursework exercises using such software had been constrained and compromised by the short time available within the course for students to become familiar with software that did not have a user friendly interface. As part of the course review in 1996 it was decided that this matter should be addressed in view of improvements in software ease of use. TRIPS was seen as an attractive option as a leading transportation planning software tool with a Windows interface for data entry and a graphical interface for easy and effective visualisation of network models and results.

An approach to MVA Systematica to discuss the introduction of TRIPS into the MSc course coincided with the initiative to develop what are now termed TRIPS SPECTREs. The initiative stems from MVA's belief that "there is greater mutual benefit to be gained from a stronger link between TRIPS and the international academic community". Discussions between the two organisations culminated in TRG's formal submission early in 1997 to MVA Systematica of a proposal to become the first SPECTRE. The proposal, representing a series of options and opportunities rather than a binding set of commitments for both parties, was accepted.

To derive mutual benefit from the association each party assumes a number of responsibilities. The TRG undertakes to:

• integrate TRIPS into its teaching programme at undergraduate and postgraduate level,