Prof. Dr. Sigal Kaplan from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came as AIANI-Fellow to the University of Innsbruck in February 2019. She visited the Unit of Intelligent Transport Systems - Planning, Construction, Operation and Management of the Department for Infrastructure Engineering.
As an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Kaplan's main research interest is behavioral geography as key for promoting a sustainable mobility by focusing on the link between transport behavior and new technologies, taking a socio-technical perspective. Her research focuses on how transport choices are shaped by people's needs and values with the aim to be better, do better and feel better. Her recent research focuses on the adoption of new technologies including electric cars, bike-sharing and multi-modal apps.
Prof. Kaplan has published 63 papers in scientific journals and her research spans across North, East and South Europe.
 
During her stay Prof. Kaplan gave a guest lecture at the Technical Campus of the University of Innsbruck. The topic of the lecture was “The Motivation for Using Advanced Travel Information Systems: a Socio-Technical Perspective”. In her talk, the efforts and need to reduce car ownership and car use were discussed. For this reason, cities are increasingly offering alternative transport modes, including major improvements in public transport, electric car-sharing and bike sharing. The next step would be the complete integration of these systems via multi-modal travel apps that provide integrated information, booking and payment options. Thus, urban transport is taking another step from product to “Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)” solutions.
Prof. Kaplan’s presentation elaborated passenger's motivation to adopt the new multi-modal travel app for Copenhagen, which included a "green loyalty" program with the aim of encouraging travelers to choose sustainable transport options based on green and healthy gamification elements. Moreover, the current on-going research regarding the willingness to adopt “MaaS” in Innsbruck was also presented.
While Prof. Kaplan was here she was working on the project “Applying affective event theory to explain transit users’ reactions to service disruptions” in collaboration with VVT and IVB.
Her visit was supported by the state of Tyrol.
 
AIANI and the Department of Infrastructure Engineering of the University of Innsbruck were delighted to have Prof. Kaplan as a lecturer in Innsbruck and are looking forward to future cooperations.

Prof. Alex Retzker from the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, came back to the University of Innsbruck for a second time as AIANI-Guest Professor. He already visited the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck in October 2018 and came back in February 2019. During his stay he gave a guest lecture about “Nano-NMR based flow meter”.

Prof. Retzker’s lecture was about the Microfludic channels that are now a well-established platform for many purposes, including bio-medical research and lab on chip applications. In his talk Prof. Retzker introduced a theoretical proposal which is based on a nano-NMR setup for measuring the mean drift velocity near the surface of a microfludic channel in a non-intrusive fashion. He discussed different possible protocols and provided a detailed analysis of the measurement’s sensitivity in each case.
 
AIANI and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck were delighted to welcome Prof. Retzker again to Innsbruck and are looking forward to future collaborations!