Moshe Ben-Akiva

Moshe Ben-Akiva
משה בן־עקיבא
Born
Moshe Emanuel Ben-Akiva
NationalityIsraeli • American
Known forDiscrete-choice theory; DynaMIT traffic simulator
AwardsIATBR Lifetime Achievement Award (2006); Jules Dupuit Prize (2007); IEEE ITS Outstanding Application Award (2011); INFORMS Robert Herman Award (2017)
Academic background
Alma materTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology (BS); MIT (SM, PhD)
Thesis'Discrete-choice models of trip generation and destination choice' (1973)
Academic work
DisciplineTransportation systems analysis, econometrics
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Notable worksDiscrete Choice Analysis (1985)[1]
Websitewww.its.mit.edu

Moshe Emanuel Ben-Akiva is an Israeli-American engineer who holds the Edmund K. Turner Professorship of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is noted for pioneering discrete-choice methods in travel-demand modelling and for co-creating DynaMIT, a real-time traffic-management simulation platform.[2]

Early life and education

Ben-Akiva moved to the United States, obtaining an SM in 1971 and a PhD in transportation systems in 1973 from MIT.[2] His doctoral research laid the foundations for the textbook Discrete Choice Analysis.[1]

Academic career

Immediately after completing his doctorate, Ben-Akiva joined the MIT faculty as an assistant professor; he was promoted to full professor in 1981 and named Edmund K. Turner Professor in 1996.[2] He founded and directs MIT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory, whose DynaMIT software is used for real-time traffic prediction and was recognised with the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Outstanding Application Award.[3][4]

Ben-Akiva has supervised more than fifty doctoral dissertations and teaches graduate subjects in discrete-choice analysis, demand modelling and dynamic traffic assignment.[5]

Research contributions

Working at the interface of engineering and economics, Ben-Akiva introduced random-utility models that underpin modern activity-based demand forecasting. His subsequent integration of choice models with dynamic traffic assignment led to the microsimulation tools MITSIM and DynaMIT, which combine real-time sensor data with behavioural models to forecast congestion and test control strategies.[6] Since the 2010s his group has blended machine-learning techniques with discrete choice to improve forecasts for on-demand mobility and urban freight systems.[5]

Honours

  • Lifetime Achievement Award, International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (2006)[7]
  • Jules Dupuit Prize, World Conference on Transport Research Society (2007)[8]
  • IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society Outstanding Application Award for DynaMIT (2011)[3]
  • Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award in Transportation Science, INFORMS (2017)[9]
  • Honorary doctorates from Université Lumière Lyon 2 (1992), University of the Aegean (2000), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2008) and University of Antwerp (2010)[10]

Selected publications

  • Ben-Akiva, M. & Lerman, S. R. (1985). Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to Travel Demand. MIT Press.[1]
  • Ben-Akiva, M., Meersman, H. & Van de Voorde, E. (eds.) Freight Transport Modelling. Emerald, 2013.
  • Ben-Akiva, M., McFadden, D. & Train, K. (2019). “Foundations of stated-preference elicitation.” Foundations and Trends in Econometrics, 10(1-2), 1–144.

References

  1. ^ a b c Ben-Akiva, Moshe; Lerman, Steven R. (1985). Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to Travel Demand. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-20217-0. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  2. ^ a b c "Moshe E. Ben-Akiva". MIT Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Outstanding Application Award – Past Winners". IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  4. ^ Jain, Tanmay; Antoniou, Constantinos; Balakrishna, Ramachandran; Ben-Akiva, Moshe (2015). DynaMIT 2.0: Architecture Design and Preliminary Results on Real-Time Traffic Prediction. 2015 IEEE 18th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems. IEEE. pp. 1235–1240. doi:10.1109/ITSC.2015.363.
  5. ^ a b "About Moshe Ben-Akiva". Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  6. ^ Ben-Akiva, Moshe; Bierlaire, Michel; Koutsopoulos, Haris N.; Mishalani, Rabi G. (2002). "Real-Time Simulation of Traffic Demand–Supply Interactions within DynaMIT". In Gendreau, Michel; Marcotte, Pierre (eds.). Transportation and Network Analysis: Current Trends. Springer. pp. 19–36. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-1495-1_2 (inactive 7 August 2025).{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2025 (link)
  7. ^ "Award Winners – International Association for Travel Behaviour Research". IATBR. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Ben-Akiva Honored for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Research" (Press release). MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. 12 July 2007. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award – Past Recipients". Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Professional Honors and Awards". Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
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