Daynamica has grown out of an ongoing, multi-year research project led by researchers at the University of Minnesota, including company CEO Dr. Yingling Fan (Humphrey School of Public Affairs), CTO Dr. Julian Wolfson (School of Public Health), and Dr. Gedas Adomavicius (Carlson School of Management).
This page highlights the research outputs associated with the Daynamica project. It will be updated as Daynamica-related papers and reports appear.
Real-time trip purpose prediction using online location-based search and discovery services (Transportation Research Part C, 2017)
Abstract: The use of smartphone technology is increasingly considered a state-of-the-art practice in travel data collection. Researchers have investigated various methods to automatically predict trip characteristics based upon locational and other smartphone sensing data. Of the trip characteristics being studied, trip purpose prediction has received relatively less attention. This research develops trip purpose prediction models based upon online location-based search and discovery services (specifically, Google Places API) and a limited set of trip data that are usually available upon the completion of the trip. The models have the potential to be integrated with smartphone technology to produce real-time trip purpose prediction. We use a recent, large-scale travel behavior survey that is augmented by downloaded Google Places information on each trip destination to develop and validate the models. Two statistical and machine learning prediction approaches are used, including nested logit and random forest methods. Both sets of models show that Google Places information is a useful predictor of trip purpose in situations where activity- and person-related information is uncollectable, missing, or unreliable. Even when activity- and person-related information is available, incorporating Google Places information provides incremental improvements in trip purpose prediction.
SmarTrAC: A Smartphone Solution for Context-Aware Travel and Activity Capturing (2015)
This report describes the development and field testing of Daynamica, originally called SmarTrac, from June 2013 to February 2015. The research was completed under contract with the Volpe Center at the U.S. Department of Transportation in support of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office. The research was developed on the basis of an earlier pilot study that was funded by the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota.