Dissertation Prize for Janody Pougala
© 2026 EPFL
Janody Pougala has been awarded the 2024 Eric Pas Dissertation Prize by the International Association of Travel Behavior Research (IATBR) for her doctoral dissertation, “OASIS: An Integrated Optimisation Framework for Daily Scheduling,” completed at the Transport and Mobility Laboratory at EPFL.
The Eric Pas Dissertation Prize recognizes outstanding doctoral research that advances the understanding and modeling of travel behavior.
Janody’s dissertation introduces OASIS, a new modeling framework that jointly optimizes individuals’ daily activity schedules and travel choices. By integrating behavioral preferences, constraints, and uncertainty within a single optimization problem, the framework captures real-world decision-making more realistically than conventional sequential travel-demand models.
By combining insights from behavioral research with mathematical optimization and real-world data, the model reflects how individuals adapt their schedules and transportation choices in modern contexts shaped by flexible work patterns, new mobility options and increasingly diverse lifestyles. The framework is available as open-source software and has demonstrated strong potential for applications in long-term transport planning and urban policy analysis.
The award highlights the significance of Janody’s contribution to travel behavior research and the growing importance of integrated, behaviorally rich models for understanding and planning future mobility systems.