News

We are pleased to welcome Balázs Kulcsár, Electrical engineering at Chalmers University, as new Board member of SAFER!

Balazs is in the research group Automatic Control at the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research mainly focuses on design of intelligent transport systems, modeling of traffic flows and traffic network modeling and control management. His projects are contributing to developing future transportation systems from a holistic point of view. 

Balazs has a strong engagement in the paradigm shift towards transportation becoming a sustainable mobility service. His interests in this field of research, expertise and strong collaborative network, in Sweden as well as abroad, will be a valuable asset for the Board.

He has international experience from being a postdoc in the USA and the Netherlands. Balázs will take up the role as Director of Transport Area of Advance as of 1 April 2022. Balázs’ perspectives, experiences and networks complement those of the other Board members and the clear conviction is that he will contribute to the Board’s work and the future success of SAFER. 

Balázs about:

What does collaborative research mean to you?
Emerging technological problems claim more and more functionalities form innovative engineering solutions. Furthermore, these novel techniques have to coexist with others in for example interaction and system perspective. Therefore, I can see a clear need for strong collaborative research platforms: those are the key to successful research. Finally, we also need to add that transportation science is an interdisciplinary field of research and consequently the above changes bring lots of challenges.

If you had the opportunity to start up a new research project of any kind to help improve traffic safety, what would that be; what is your dream project?
An interesting question would be to find an answer to the acceptance of risk levels, for example accidents, by travelers, vehicle users (e.g. in a mean sense). This answer can help us to draw the borderline between traffic safety and traffic efficiency for, for example automated vehicles. 

What about your favorite transport mode from your home to work at Chalmers University?
My favorite way is to walk to/from work. However, in general, I use public transport. 

Balázs is replacing Sinisa Krajnovic’s seat in the SAFER Board in his role as Director of Transport Area of Advance (Sinisa in turn replaces Angela Hillemyr’s seat, representing the line organisation).  According to the SAFER Main agreement, Chalmers as host of the centre has two positions on the Board. 

Read more about Balázs’ research below.