“The mathematics of traffic and crowd dynamics”
Monday, April 13, 2026
11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Campus Center, Multi-Purpose Room A
Lunch will be provided.
Registration recommended.
Math is everywhere, including in the systems regulating traffic end those monitoring crowds. Keeping the technicalities to a minimum level, we will illustrate technical and math ideas behind two main areas:
- Road traffic. The world largest traffic experiment was performed on an open highway with autonomous vehicles by the CIRCLES consortium in November 2022. This opened a new era for the future of traffic.
- Crowd dynamics. This highly interdisciplinary field is at the intersection of cognitive science, architecture, engineering, physics, and math. We focus on a recent project to use cameras, drones, and Lidars for crowd safety in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
About Dr. Piccoli:
Benedetto Piccoli is University Professor and the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University–Camden. He also served as Vice Chancellor for Research and is currently chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. His research interests span various areas of applied mathematics, including control theory, traffic flow on networks, crowd dynamics, math finance, and applications to autonomous driving, population health, and biomedical systems. He is the author of more than 350 research papers and 7 books and is the founding editor of Networks and Heterogeneous Media. Piccoli is the 2009 Fubini Prize recipient, Plenary speaker at ICIAM 2011, 2012 inaugural Fellow of American Mathematical Society, 2024 SIAM W.T. and Idalia Reid Prize recipient, 2023-24 member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, 2024 IEEE ITS Institutional Lead Award recipient for the CIRCLES consortium, and 2026 ICM invited speaker.