Dr. Christina Diakaki

Short CV

Christina Diakaki received the Diploma in Production Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Crete, Greece, in 1991, the M.Sc. degree in Operations Management from the Institute of Science and Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester (U.M.I.S.T.), U.K., in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in Operations Research from the Department of Production Engineering and Management of the Technical University of Crete, Greece, in 2000. In 1986, she received a scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece for ranking first in the Department of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, Greece, while she was a special postgraduate scholar at the same department from 1995 to 1999.

From 1994, she is a freelancer, member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, while since 1999, she has been an Adjunct Professor at the Departments of Production Engineering and Management (1999-00, 2005-06, 2011-) and Environmental Engineering (2004-05) of the Technical University of Crete, Greece, and at the Departments of Electronics (2004-2012) and Natural Resources and Environment (2004-2011) of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece. Dr Diakaki has been a student associate at the Decision Support Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete, Greece (1991), and a research associate at the Dynamic Systems and Simulation Laboratory of the same university (1994-2003, 2013-). She has also been a research associate at the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Resources of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece (2006-2010), the Telecommunication Systems Institute of the Technical University of Crete, Greece (2011-), and the Industrial Design Engineering Department of the Technological Educational Institute of Kozani, Greece (2012-).

Since 1991, she has participated as a research associate in numerous research projects sponsored by the EC (ATT, Telematics Applications in Transport, DG for Transport, ESPRIT, IST, Leonardo Da Vinci, IEE), national authorities and private organisations. She serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals and conferences, she is member of the Editorial Board of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Journal of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and she is the author and co-author of numerous research reports and papers in scientific and technical journals, and conference proceedings. Her research interests include decision analysis and operations research, and systems’ analysis, modelling, optimisation and simulation, with applications in the fields of Transportation, Energy and Environment.

Vehicle Automation and Communications Systems: Past, Present and Future Perspectives - A motorway traffic management aspect

During the last decade, there has been an enormous interdisciplinary effort by the automobile industry and numerous research institutions worldwide towards the development, testing and employment of a variety of Vehicle Automation and Communication Systems (VACS) with the main aim to improve safety. Soon, however, it was realised that some VACS had also effects on road efficiency, and could therefore be used as measures to relief road networks from the significant congestion problems and their negative consequences to the environment and the quality of life in general. In simple words, some of the available VACS could also be used as traffic management tools. This presentation will provide an overview of the available VACS and their functionalities, and will discuss their perspectives from the motorway traffic management aspect, where the TRAMAN21 project focuses on. Classifications of the different systems in this respect will be also provided and discussed. Summarised findings of simulation and field operational tests regarding their effectiveness and user acceptance will be finally presented.