Alastair Shipman

Human behaviour and the optimisation of large-scale evacuation procedures in emergencies

Started: October 2016

Supervisor: Dr Arnab Majumdar

Description of Research

I am part of the Transport Risk Management group, specifically focusing on being able to accurately describe – and therefore predict – human behaviour during emergency evacuations. My specific interest is in terrorist attacks. I am examining how to improve the design of infrastructure to cope with the increasing threat posed by attacks on high density civilian groups. This involves both behavioural science to explain route choice, as well as computational modelling of pedestrian dynamics in order to better predict reactions to these threats.