Plenary Session 3 Panel Discussion

Prof. Oguchi, born in Tokyo 1964, graduated Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) in 1988 and got Ph.D from Graduate School of Engineering of UTokyo in 1993. After joining to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., he started his academic career in Tokyo Metropolitan University, and promoted to Professor in 2007. He moved to Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) of UTokyo in 2011 and assigned to director of Advanced Mobility Research Center (ITS Center) of IIS, UTokyo, in 2018. He is also a member of Mobility Innovation Collaborative Research Center (UTmobI) started in July 2018 in the university, and is in charge of education for the Department of Civil Engineering at UTokyo. His major research field is Traffic Engineering and Traffic Management and Control including advanced traffic signal control, advanced highway network traffic management systems, integrated transport and mobility system design including automated vehicles, harmonized design of infrastructure facilities and hierarchical road transport system. He also served as the chair of Business Promotion Working Group of Japanese national project SIP-adus (Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program in the Innovation of Automated Driving for Universal Services) which terminated in March 2023.

Stefan de Vries is a socially skilled and entrepreneurial business developer and project manager (PMP® certified), who thrives on responsibilities, challenges and variety. He enjoys realizing innovative ideas in a creative and non-conformist manner, both in professional and private sphere. He plays a key role in worldwide development initiatives on connected and automated driving, including design of new test facilities and engineering services. He currently leads the SUNRISE project; an EU-funded project on safety assurance for connected and automated mobility systems. 

Dr. Stephane Dreher is Senior Manager Innovation and Deployment in charge of CCAM at ERTICO – ITS Europe. He is coordinating the EU-funded FAME project aimed at supporting the alignment of CCAM R&I & testing in Europe by facilitating the collaboration and sharing of knowledge within the community of CCAM stakeholders and by developing a European Framework for Testing on Public Roads. He is a member of the Executive Group of the European CCAM Partnership under the Horizon Europe funding programme, leading the coordination cluster. From 2015 to 2017, he was a Transport Data and Statistics Expert with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He advised the Saudi Ministry of Transport on technical and policy matters regarding Transport Data, Analytics and ITS. Prior to that, he worked 10 years at HERE in charge of EU Government Programmes in Brussels. He contributed to the early specifications of the Local Dynamic Map concept, laying the foundations of HD Maps for Cooperative and Automated Vehicles.

Dr. Satu Innamaa works as Principal Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She has over 20 years of experience in research on transport and mobility, connected and automated driving, impact and quality assessment, and user needs. Currently, she is leading methodology work both in Hi-Drive project and FAME projects, related to automated driving.

Tim Haile is the Executive Director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. CCTA is Contra Costa’s designated Congestion Management Agency, responsible for putting programs in place to keep traffic levels manageable and works to plan, fund, and implement innovative transit programs that strengthen our diverse communities and improve the lives of residents. He is an award-winning transportation expert and advocate for redefining mobility. Tim has a proven track record of being a champion of change and strives to advance emerging technologies and transportation solutions that are safe, equitable, sustainable, and accessible.
His people centered mobility approach has developed award winning programs, such as Innovate 680, to connect communities providing customer focused mobility options to travelers by understanding people’s needs through travel behavior research and encourage travelers to move toward shared mobility.
Tim is a recognized industry leader in connected and autonomous vehicles through GoMentum Station, the largest autonomous vehicle testing facility in the Country, and deployments in Contra Costa County including the first shared autonomous vehicles open and free to the public in the Bay Area. Through his leadership, CCTA created the Dynamic Personal Microtransit autonomous vehicle project, a 28-mile connected autonomous vehicle network to support public transportation being delivered through a public private partnership.
In recognition of his knowledge and outstanding leadership, Tim received the 2023 ITS Distinguished Award for Advancement of Research and Innovation from Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies. In 2021, he was nationally recognized by Government Technology publication for Innovative Leadership.

Takayuki Morikawa received B.E. and M.E. from Kyoto University in 1981 and 1983, respectively. He received M.S. and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987 and 1989, respectively. In 1983, he started to work as research associate at Kyoto University and then became an associate professor and professor at Nagoya University in 1991 and 2000. From 1996 to 1997, he worked as a visiting associate professor at MIT. He served as the research leader of Nagoya University Center of Innovation Project (COI) and currently is the project leader of Nagoya University COI-NEXT My-mobility Center. His research areas are travel behavior analysis, transportation policies, and advanced mobility systems.