Ariel from Colombia

Who are you and what is your background?

I am Ariel Rojas, I’m an Industrial Engineer from Bogotá, Colombia, where I got both my bachelor’s and master’s degree at Universidad de Los Andes. I am very passionate about Operations Research, Sustainability, and data-driven decision-making in general. During my master’s degree, I worked as Teaching Assistant for multiple undergraduate and graduate optimization courses, where I developed my love for teaching. Before the PhD, my research experience was focused on stochastic optimization projects aimed to the development of decision support systems in the fields of Transportation and Supply Chain Management. At the end of my master’s degree, I also had the privilege of doing a research internship at HEC Montréal. It was an honour to work among professors whose work I had studied in my previous research and that’s where I was told about the opportunity to apply to the SEED programme position that I am now part of.

What is your PhD research/ topic about?

My project is focused on operating and routing electric vehicles (EVs) considering uncertainty in their energy consumption, for the context of Last-Mile delivery systems. The energy consumption of EVs is dependent on many different factors whose value cannot be known at the time of planning. These factors can be categorized into exogenous and endogenous factors. Exogenous factors belong to the environment or the EV specifications, which the EV drivers have no control over, and include some such as the ambient temperature, the road traffic and road angle, and the curb mass of the vehicle. Endogenous factors are those affected by the driver’s behaviour, such as the acceleration and braking cycles, whether the windows are up or not while driving, and the use of auxiliary systems such as air conditioning, among others. It is well known that the driving range of EVs is considerably lower than that of their fossil-fuel counterparts. It is also true that the charging capacity available for EVs is often limited, and that is why it is very important to develop routing plans that account for the uncertainty in the energy consumption, as EVs must be able to complete their routes without depleting their battery and respecting the existing charging capacity.

 

What are the big challenges to be tackled and possible future impacts?

My research in the SEED program contributes to the Energy and Environmental transition. The decarbonization of transportation has become a major priority in the last years. One of the sectors that is more directly impacted by this is city logistics. Municipalities are envisioning more and more constraining regulations such as low emission zones in city cores. Carriers need solutions for delivering to businesses and private customers in city centers that meet these new regulations, while remaining economically viable. EVs, or electric-power-assisted vehicles such as cargo bikes, provide increasingly used solutions for low-carbon transportation. Regarding the limits in range, charging infrastructure and charging time duration, the possibility of a driver running out of power without access to a charging station or a backup battery is a major deterrent to using EVs. As a result, the key requirements for using this technology in last-mile delivery are, first, the ability to better predict the energy consumption and, second, the ability to plan routes that are both robust to consumption uncertainty and economically sustainable for the companies that use them.

What is the configuration of your PhD research?

My project is on the academic co-supervision track of the SEED program. My main supervisor is Professor Fabien Lehuédé here at IMT Atlantique, and I am also supervised by Professor Ola Jabali from Politecnico di Milano, and Professor Jorge Mendoza from HEC Montréal. I do have some international mobility planned, which I am very excited about. I will spend six months in Montréal, and six months in Milan.

After a few weeks embarked as PhD fellow at IMT Atlantique, what is your first feeling about the programme and your institution?

I am quite satisfied with the PhD life that the programme, the university, and the city have offered me in these first couple of months. I am also very happy on the directions that the research is taking me, along with my supervisors. To have this kind of professional, academic, personal, and financial support to work on a project that I am very passionate about makes me feel very grateful to be here.