Scholarships

Scholarships

2024 – 2025 Scholarships for Graduate Study in Transportation

This competition has closed

CTRF encourages students to apply and submit work in either English or French

The CANADIAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH FORUM (CTRF) encourages graduate students to specialize in the transportation or logistics field through its scholarship program. CTRF encourages students to apply and submit work in either English or French. The mission is to develop highly qualified personnel who will eventually join and contribute to the transportation or logistics profession in Canada. Therefore, CTRF, in cooperation with other organizations, is offering scholarships, worth $6,000 each for the academic year 2024-2025. Preference is given to (but not limited to) students applying for and entering Master’s or PhD programs and current graduate students in the process of choosing research topics for theses or graduating essays.

A candidate may only receive one CTRF scholarship but may apply more than once. The educational institution that the student seeks to attend or is attending, need not have a specialized transportation program for the student to qualify. The Scholarship Committee determines whether the student’s proposed program of study qualifies for the scholarship. Field of study may be in business, engineering, economics, geography, law, planning, or related fields.

To be considered for a CTRF Scholarship sponsored by Transport Canada, the applicant’s research or study must be focused on one of the following three areas: Economics, Efficiency, and Competitiveness in Transportation; Transportation Safety and Security; or Sustainable Transportation. Applicants are encouraged to review details of the Transport Canada program at the bottom of this webpage (https://ctrf.ca/scholarships/).

Scholarship recipients will be given an opportunity to present their research at a CTRF event (either by webinar or at the Annual Conference).

Scholarship recipients will be offered a complimentary registration for the CTRF Annual Conference held in the year of their scholarship. (For Example: a 2024-2025 Scholarship recipient will receive a complimentary student member registration to the 2025 Annual Conference.)


Deadline for Submission: This competition has closed

Announcement of Awards: CTRF 2024 Annual Conference

Eligibility: Full-time graduate student at an accredited Canadian University

Criteria: Awards will be decided by a Selection Committee, based on academic achievement, relevant work experience, clear transportation research focus in the program of study, stated career objectives, and supporting letters of reference.

Submission RequirementsCombine the following 3 items into a single PDF file named Surname_Application, and submit in a single email to studentawards@ctrf.ca. The email subject line should read: CTRF Scholarship Application.

The applicant is responsible for ensuring all submission requirements are met.

1. A cover letter, including name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address; degree program and institution, along with current year in program and expected year of graduation; name and email address of faculty supervisor

2. Official transcripts, which include the universities’ stamp and/or seal and signature of the registrar. International transcripts can be submitted if signed/stamped as ‘official’ by the Canadian university that the applicant is attending. Do not submit unofficial transcripts.

3. A 300-word summary outlining graduate research project or field of study

DO NOT INCLUDE / SUBMIT A CV OR RESUME, ONLY PROVIDE THE THREE ITEMS LISTED ABOVE

References: Two letters of reference are required. Do not submit more than two. References should be confidential assessments of the candidate’s intellectual abilities and background, research abilities and record, work habits, commitment to career, leadership qualities and any other personal attributes which indicate that the candidate is worthy of an award. Please have referees send their letters by email directly to studentawards@ctrf.ca by January 31, 2024.

After a student has been named to receive a scholarship, eligibility requirements including proof of full-time registration must be met before the scholarship can be confirmed.


Transport Canada Sponsorship

To be considered for a CTRF Scholarship sponsored by Transport Canada, applicant’s research or study must be focused in one of the following three areas.

Economics, Efficiency and Competitiveness in Transportation

  • Competition and the use of market forces, both within and among the various modes of transportation, as the prime agents in providing viable and effective transportation services;
  • Appropriate use of regulation and strategic public intervention to achieve economic or socially efficient outcomes that cannot be achieved satisfactorily by competition and market forces without unduly favouring, or reducing the inherent advantages of, any particular mode of transportation;
  • Rates and business conditions that do not constitute an undue obstacle to the movement of traffic within Canada or to the export of goods from Canada;
  • Solutions where governments and the private sector work together for an integrated transportation system;
  • Integration of physical and electronic connections between modal systems to reduce logistic time and costs;
  • Improving modal efficiency and availability of intermodal services in support of Canada’s gateways and trade corridors and global supply chains;
  • Increasing efficiency at major trade gateways including ports, airports and border crossings;
  • Improving intercity and commuter connections to facilitate the seamless movement of public;
  • Improving knowledge of modal choice by shippers, travelers, and commuters;
  • Innovative business practices to improve efficiency, productivity and competitiveness in transportation.

Transportation Safety and Security

  • Appropriate use of regulation and strategic public intervention to achieve safety and security that cannot be achieved satisfactorily by competition and market forces without unduly favouring, or reducing the inherent advantages of, any particular mode of transportation;
  • Increasing safety and security in a transportation system that is also accessible without unduly limiting the mobility of persons, including persons with disabilities;
  • New  technologies, as well as better ways of using existing technologies in transportation safety and security;
  • Innovation in research and development (R&D), business practices, policies and regulatory approaches, and skills and capacity building related to transportation safety and security;
  • Reducing delays and costs associated with increased security measures by advancing new technologies;
  • Integrated approach to safety and security among modes;
  • Understanding human factors in accidents;
  • Measuring the safety and/or security of the transportation system.

Sustainable Transportation

  • Appropriate use of regulation and strategic public intervention to achieve   environmental or social outcomes that cannot be achieved satisfactorily by competition and market forces without unduly favouring, or reducing the inherent advantages of, any particular mode of transportation;
  • Innovative solutions in transportation to support environmental sustainability in freight and passenger movements;
  • Improving knowledge in transportation demand management that lead to environmental sustainability;
  • Managing and/or reducing congestion in urban areas;
  • Measuring sustainability in transportation;
  • Improving knowledge pertaining to transportation externalities;
  • Development of tools to integrate environmental considerations in decision making in transportation;
  • Developing means of reducing the impact of transportation on human health and the environment.
Bourses d’études

2024 – 2025 Bourses d’études en transport pour étudiants diplômés

Le Groupe de recherches sur les transports au Canada (GRTC) encourage les étudiants diplômés à se spécialiser dans le domaine du transport ou de la logistique par le biais de son programme de bourses d’études. Le GRTC encourage les étudiants à postuler et soumettre un projet de recherche soit en français ou en anglais. Le but est de développer du personnel hautement qualifié qui, éventuellement, pourra rejoindre et contribuer à la profession en transport ou en logistique en Canada. Ainsi, le GRTC, en collaboration avec autres organisations, offre des bourses d’un montant de 6000$ chacune pour l’année universitaire 2024-2025. La préférence sera accordée, sans s’y limiter, aux candidatures des étudiants débutant leur maîtrise ou leur doctorat, ou à celles des étudiants diplômés en recherche de sujets de thèse ou de mémoire.

Un candidat ne peut recevoir qu’une seule bourse du GRTC, mais peut formuler sa demande plus d’une fois. De plus, l’institution d’enseignement que fréquente l’étudiant ou au sein de laquelle il compte étudier n’est pas tenue d’offrir un programme spécialisé en transport. Le Comité des bourses déterminera si le programme d’études choisi par le candidat est admissible. Les domaines d’études incluent notamment l’administration, l’ingénierie, les sciences économiques, la géographie, le droit, la planification ou tout autre domaine relié.

En particulier, afin d’être admissible à recevoir une bourse de Transports Canada, le champ de recherche du candidat doit faire partie de l’un des trois domaines suivants: Économie, efficacité et compétitivité en transport; Sécurité et sûreté en transport; et Transport durable. Les candidatssont invités à prendre connaissance des détails du programme de Transports Canada au bas de la page web (https://ctrf.ca/scholarships/) .

Les boursiers auront l’occasion de présenter leurs recherches lors d’un événement du GRTC (soit par webinaire ou lors de la conférence annuelle).

Les boursiers se verront offrir une inscription gratuite au congrès annuel du GRTC qui suivra l’attribution de leur bourse. (Par exemple : un lauréat de la bourse 2024-2025 recevra une inscription gratuite à la conférence annuelle 2025.)


Date limite de soumission des demandes: Ce concours est terminé

Annonce des récipiendaires des bourses: Conférence annuelle du GRTC 2024

Admissibilité: Étudiant diplômé à temps plein dans une université canadienne accréditée

Critères : les bourses sont attribuées par un comité de sélection sur la base des résultats académiques, de l’expérience pertinente de travail, de l’emphase mise sur les transports à l’intérieur du programme d’études, des objectifs de carrière, et de lettres de recommandation.

Exigences pour la soumission des demandes: le candidat doit s’assurer de remplir toutes les conditions requises.

Faire parvenir la demande par un courriel unique à studentawards@ctrf.ca en mentionnant Bourses du GRTC comme objet du message. Joindre les informations requises en combinant les trois éléments suivants dans un seul fichier PDF nommé «Nom_de_famille_Application »:

1. Une lettre de présentation comprenant le nom, l’adresse postale, le numéro de téléphone et l’adresse électronique; le programme d’études et l’établissement, ainsi que l’année en cours dans le programme et l’année prévue pour l’obtention du diplôme; le nom et l’adresse électronique du superviseur de la faculté.

2. Les relevés de notes officiels, qui comportent le cachet et/ou le sceau de l’université et la signature du registraire. Les relevés de notes internationaux peuvent être soumis s’ils sont signés/estampillés comme « officiels » par l’université canadienne fréquentée par le candidat. Ne soumettez pas de relevés de notes non officiels.

3. Un résumé de 300 mots décrivant le projet de recherche ou le domaine d’étude du diplômé.

NE PAS INCLURE OU SOUMETTRE DE CURRICULUM VITAE. FOURNIR UNIQUEMENT LES TROIS ÉLÉMENTS MENTIONNÉS CI-DESSUS.

Références: Deux lettresde recommandationsont requises. Ne pas en soumettre plus de deux. Les lettres de recommandation doivent être des évaluations confidentielles des capacités intellectuelles et des antécédents du candidat, de ses capacités et de ses antécédents en matière de recherche, de ses habitudes de travail, de son engagement envers sa carrière, de ses qualités de leadership et de tout autre attribut personnel indiquant que le candidat mérite de recevoir une bourse. Veuillez demander aux personnes fournissant ces lettres de recommandation de les transmettre par courriel à studentawards@ctrf.ca avant le 31 janvier 2024.

Une fois qu’un étudiant a été désigné pour recevoir une bourse, les conditions d’admissibilité, y compris la preuve d’une inscription à temps plein, doivent être remplies avant que la bourse puisse être confirmée.


Parrainage par Transports Canada

À considérer pour une bourse parrainée par Transports Canada, la recherche ou l’étude du requérant devant porter sur l’un des trois secteurs suivants.

 Économie, efficacité et compétitivité en transport

  • La concurrence et l’utilisation des forces du marché au sein des divers modes de transport et entre eux comme principaux facteurs en jeu dans la prestation de services de transport viables et efficaces;
  • L’utilisation appropriée de la réglementation et l’intervention publique stratégique pour obtenir des résultats efficaces sur le plan économique ou social, qu’il n’est pas possible d’obtenir de manière satisfaisante par le biais de la concurrence et des forces du marché, sans pour autant favoriser indûment un mode de transport donné ou en réduire ses avantages inhérents;
  • Le taux et la conjoncture économique qui ne constituent pas un obstacle abusif au mouvement du trafic à l’intérieur du Canada ou à l’exportation des marchandises du Canada;
  • Des solutions faisant appel à la collaboration des secteurs public et privé pour le maintien d’un système de transport intégré;
  • L’intégration de connexions physiques et électroniques entre les systèmes modaux pour réduire le temps et les coûts liés à la logistique;
  • L’amélioration de l’efficacité des modes et de la disponibilité des services intermodaux à l’appui des portes et des corridors commerciaux ainsi que de l’ensemble des chaînes d’approvisionnement du Canada;
  • L’amélioration de l’efficacité aux grandes portes de commerce, y compris les ports, les aéroports et les passages frontaliers;
  • L’amélioration des liaisons interurbaines et du navettage en vue de faciliter le déplacement fluide du public;
  • L’amélioration des connaissances des expéditeurs, des voyageurs et des navetteurs quant au choix de modes de transport;
  • Des pratiques commerciales novatrices pour améliorer l’efficacité, la productivité et la compétitivité dans le secteur des transports.

Sécurité et sûreté en transport

  • L’utilisation appropriée de la réglementation et l’intervention publique stratégique pour garantir la sécurité et la sûreté, qu’il n’est pas possible de garantir de manière satisfaisante par le biais de la concurrence et des forces du marché, sans pour autant favoriser indûment un mode de transport donné ou en réduire ses avantages inhérents;
  • L’augmentation de la sécurité et de la sûreté d’un réseau de transport accessible sans obstacle abusif au mouvement des personnes, y compris les personnes ayant une déficience;
  • Les nouvelles technologies et un meilleur emploi des technologies actuelles de sécurité et de sûreté dans le secteur des transports;
  • L’innovation dans le domaine de la recherche et du développement (R et D), les pratiques opérationnelles, les politiques, les approches réglementaires et le perfectionnement des compétences et des capacités liées à la sécurité et la sûreté des transports;
  • La réduction des retards et des coûts associés à l’augmentation des mesures de sûreté en faisant progresser les nouvelles technologies;
  • Une approche intégrée de la sécurité et de la sûreté dans les modes de transport;
  • La compréhension des facteurs humains dans les accidents;
  • L’évaluation de la sécurité ou la sûreté du système de transport.

 Transport durable

  • L’utilisation appropriée de la réglementation et l’intervention publique stratégique pour obtenir des résultats efficaces sur le plan environnemental ou social, qu’il n’est pas possible d’obtenir de manière satisfaisante par le biais de la concurrence et des forces du marché, sans pour autant favoriser indûment un mode de transport donné ou en réduire ses avantages inhérents;
  • Des solutions novatrices dans le secteur des transports pour assurer un environnement durable à travers les déplacements de marchandises et de passagers;
  • L’amélioration des connaissances de la gestion de la demande en transport en vue d’un environnement durable;
  • La gestion ou la réduction de la congestion dans les zones urbaines;
Scholarship Recipients

2024-2025 Scholarship Recipients

CTRF wishes to thank the sponsors of the current scholarship program, without whom these awards would not be possible.

Thank you.


2024-2025
Transport Canada Scholarships


Rifat Bhuiyan - Dalhousie University ($6,000)

Most traditional travel demand forecasting models rely on travel surveys that capture an individual's travel information for a typical day of the week, primarily due to the costs and participant fatigue associated with multi-day data collection. However, the concept of a typical weekday no longer aligns with current realities due to substantial post-pandemic changes in travel behavior. Preliminary studies in Halifax reveal an increased reliance on online platforms for various needs like food ordering, healthcare, and teleworking. Additionally, a significant population working remotely or adopting a hybrid model now travels during the evening peak period for errands, resulting in a larger PM peak. Given these conditions, transitioning from a daily to a weekly travel model promises precise travel demand modeling, capturing temporal variations and facilitating longitudinal emission measurement.

My research aims to extend the integrated transportation, land-use, and energy model (iTLE) by developing a weekly activity generation and duration simulator. This innovative approach involves implementing a 'Day of the Week' choice model for major activity types using ordered-logit structure, relying on the Halifax Travel Activity (HaliTRAC) survey which is a typical day survey. In the absence of longitudinal data, the model depends on individuals' self-reported expected frequencies of weekly activity occurrences paired with cohort level weekly pseudo-travel diaries determined by data driven clustering approach. The preliminary results show significant temporal nexus in cohort-level activity participation and will soon be deployed to examine the daily variation in travel-activities. Subsequently, the weekly travel forecasts obtained from the remodeled iTLE will be applied in MOVES, an open-source emissions calculator, to quantify temporal effects of vehicular emissions.

The outlined research aims to develop an activity-based travel demand and emissions modeling tool with spatial transferability capable of forecasting weekly travel demand. The outcomes of the research can assist policymakers in planning tailored interventions focused on achieving the 2050 net-zero emissions goal.


Md Shahadat Hossain - University of British Columbia, Okanagan ($6,000)

Vehicular travel and usage are often dictated by households’ vehicle ownership, such as the number and type of vehicles owned. Hence, it is critical to understand the vehicle ownership decisions of the household which dictates their vehicle usage and determines the vehicular energy consumption and emissions. The primary objective of my Ph.D. research is to investigate households’ vehicle ownership decisions within an agent-based integrated urban model STELARS (Simulator for Transportation, Energy, and LAnd use for Regional Systems). The medium-term decision component of STELARS includes the microsimulation of two major decisions – vehicle transaction and type choice decisions. Advanced econometric models are developed to investigate the behavioral dynamics of vehicle transactions and type choices. Hazard-based duration models are used for vehicle transaction decisions to capture the continuous time dimension of households’ vehicle fleet evolution. In the case of vehicle type choice, a multidimensional choice model is developed for the vehicle body, vintage, fuel, and technology type preferences that captures the correlation between the choice dimensions. Thus, STELARS is a discrete-continuous microsimulation technique that captures the evolution of household vehicle fleets adopting a continuous-time simulation technique, and vehicle type choices for each transaction at a discrete-simulation time step. Furthermore, STELARS is an event-based microsimulation model that captures the effects of significant life events (e.g., birth of a child and addition of a job) on vehicle ownership decisions of the households assuming they become active in response to such events. This model is expected to improve the prediction accuracy of households’ vehicle fleet evolution including the ownership of alternative fuel vehicles and vehicles with advanced technology and can be utilized to test the effect of different policy scenarios on them.


Jing Li – McMaster University ($6,000)

Deep Learning Enhanced Traffic Non-Recurring Congestion Prediction

(1) Background: Traffic congestion is a critical problem that plagues most cities worldwide. Non-recurring congestion occurs as a result of an unexpected event (e.g., traffic crashes, construction zones). It has been reported that non-recurring congestion accounts for approximately 50% of congestion. An accurate prediction of non-recurring congestion is vital in implementing effective mitigation strategies and policies aimed at reducing congestion caused by unexpected events.

(2) Research gap: While most recent research has focused on predicting recurring congestion, only a limited number of studies have paid attention to nun-recurring congestion prediction. Existing research on this subject typically offers only basic and short forecasts (i.e. next 5 minutes) around crash sites.

(3) Objective of this research: The objective of this research is to make robust, quantitative, multi-step-ahead, and spatio-temporal predictions of non-recurring congestion by using deep learning techniques under two assumptions: (1) a human driving environment and (2) a mixed driving environment including human driving vehicles and connected vehicles. Two levels will be considered for each assumption, including road highway level prediction and road network level prediction.

(4) Research methods: Methods based on different deep learning algorithms, including transformer, graph neural networks, convolutional neural networks, and long short-term memory, will be developed to capture spatiotemporal features of traffic data. The model with the highest prediction accuracy in test datasets will be selected as the final model. Its performance will be evaluated by conducting real traffic flow data experiments.


Didem Cicek Simsek – University of Ottawa ($6,000)

The research question this PhD study aims to answer is: "Can autonomous last mile delivery systems achieve time and cost efficiency, while being widely accepted by users and demonstrating improved sustainability performance compared to traditional delivery methods?"

This research aims to develop a novel digital roadmap for successful adoption of autonomous delivery technologies by the logistics industry to help the industry tackle human-resource scarcity problem and meet the raised consumer expectations in a sustainable manner. A comprehensive analysis will be performed based on three important pillars: 1- Techno-economic analysis 2- User acceptance and 3-Sustainability performance. The research will mainly use quantitative research methods.

  • Techno-economic analysis: Techno-economic analysis framework will be employed to combine technical and economic considerations to evaluate the feasibility and viability of the selected autonomous last mile delivery solutions. The study will examine factors such as cost, efficiency, scalability, and adoption barriers for the investigated solutions. Desktop simulations will be conducted to run real-life delivery scenarios and compare the efficiencies of autonomous delivery solutions against traditional delivery modes.
  • User acceptance: User acceptance models focus on understanding the factors that influence user acceptance and adoption of technology considering elements like perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust, and privacy. A stated preference survey, which helps quantify how people might behave in a new situation, will be designed to capture user insights on this new mode of delivery. Statistical data analytics tools will be employed to derive insightful data for the industry players on pricing, delivery times or privacy.
  • Sustainability performance: Sustainability is crucial for planning autonomous delivery solutions for last mile logistics as it addresses environmental concerns, enhances customer perception, ensures regulatory compliance, and supports long-term viability. This study aims to derive some metrics to assess sustainability performance of the investigated autonomous delivery solutions. Alternatively, a life cycle assessment approach can be employed to evaluate sustainability performance.