Staßfurt highschool students discusse AI for traffic lights with our experts

On 12.03.2024, a 10th grade class from Saxony-Anhalt from Staßfurt High School made their way to Dresden to find out about study opportunities at the TUD. At our Chair, they focused on the topic of "The traffic lights of the future - modern management of urban traffic systems". With the help of a simulation, they controlled the traffic on the highway themselves and saw the effects of their actions. They then discussed various aspects of traffic light control in urban areas: Who has the right to short waiting times? Pedestrians or cyclists? Cars or trams? How bad is congestion? How are noise and pollutant emissions taken into account? How important are green waves? All these conflicting goals can be optimized with the help of an AI. To train the AI, various aspects have to be modeled and weighted in a cost function - a problem, which the students worked on solving exemplary in small groups. The results were then compared and discussed together with regard to their effects.

This workshop gave an insight into the traffic telematics specialization in the traffic engineering degree program.