Have you ever wondered who is behind a successful project? We tend to miss personal stories and individual or team achievements too often. To stop this, Transoft will be conducting interviews with our users to bring light to their projects, and most importantly to present them and their stories.
Melanie Hofmann, Marketing Assistant talked to Musa Mwine, former master student at Delft University of Technology, to ask him about his thesis work. Musa is from Uganda and he chose a local challenge for the topic of his master thesis. Using video analytics – among other techniques – he has explored the impact of applying motorcycle lanes in a busy junction in the city of Kampala, Uganda.
The video analytics, using TrafxSAFE, for this project was granted within the framework of the Transoft Educational Program. Through this program Transoft provides access to its software products at no or low cost for use in the curriculum, labs, and course projects. This Program also allows the academia to receive assistance in the development of practical curricula and offer lectures that connect theory to the practical aspects of engineering design as well as collaboration on research that Transoft would like to undertake in the near future. And is managed by Marc Steenhuis, Customer Success Representative & Transoft Educational Program Coordinator EMEA.
Read the interview with Musa now.
Melanie Hofmann
Hello Musa, welcome!
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. We are excited to hear about your project. But before we get into it, could you introduce yourself and tell us how you got into transportation?
Musa Mwine
My name is Musa Mwine. I’m Ugandan and I have been working with the Ministry of Works and Transport in Uganda. This opportunity has exposed me to what happens in the transportation sector. My interest, of course, is to mitigate major challenges in the transport sector. Firstly, very many people are involved in fatal crashes in developing countries such as Uganda where on average 10 fatalities are registered per day. Secondly, valuable time is lost due to extreme traffic congestion as people travel from one point to another. So, to me, those are the key issues that encouraged me to pursue a master’s degree in transportation at TU Delft, the Netherlands. Upon completion of my studies, I’ve been focusing on how to make the situation better, especially for road users in developing countries.
Melanie Hofmann
We have come to know you as a master student of TU Delft, within the framework of the Transoft Educational program, where you used TrafxSAFE for your graduation project. How do you recall your years at the renowned university and what was the topic of your graduation project?
Musa Mwine
Despite the fact that I was a student during covid, my campus life was not so fun.
Melanie Hofmann
Same experience.
Musa Mwine
Yes. But despite all that, as I have already said, I enjoyed my time at TU Delft. I managed to have some episodes at the university and here back in Uganda. So, generally I enjoyed it. My thesis focused on understanding the impacts of motorcycle dedicated lanes on traffic flow and safety of unsignalized intersections using a microsimulation case study in Kampala, Uganda. And what I would say is that Transoft helped me to analyze the data during my thesis. In this study, I managed to count traffic data per direction for the intersection that I was studying, and that is Ntinda Road – Jinja Road Intersection, here in Uganda. This study is not published, but it’s, available on the online TU Delft repository, and I successfully finished this assignment. Not only did I count the traffic as earlier highlighted, but also, I was able to obtain the surrogate safety indicators, Post-Encroachment Time (PET) and Time to Collision (TTC), that were variables in my analysis. I could gladly say that the people at Transoft managed to ably calibrate my intersection using the videos that I gave them. In the end, they were able to generate trajectories and give me the processed data. I know there were some issues, because of how data was captured, but generally it was a success and I’m very happy Transoft helped me during my study. Thank you!
Melanie Hofmann
Other than the analysis as pointed out in your previous response, how did Transoft help you to achieve your project goals? And what would’ve been your alternative?
Musa Mwine
I think there are two main points as earlier mentioned. One is what you have mentioned, and the second one is that I was able to get the surrogate safety measures, the indicators, that is Time to Collision and Post Encroachment Time. These were key variables in my study. So, without Transoft the other option would be to do it manually, which would have taken me a lot of time and most probably, I would not have graduated on time. So, to me a combination of TrafxSAFE and myself was important, since I was able to analyse the processed data using Excel. Consequently, I was able to complete my study as earlier planned.
Melanie Hofmann
When you say manually, do you mean like you would have need to stand at the crossroad, counting yourself?
Musa Mwine
That was an option, but, since I had the videos, I would just play the video and manually count the vehicles and maybe some other parameters that were required for my study.
Melanie Hofmann
Seems like TrafxSAFE saved a lot of time for you then.
Musa Mwine
It really saved a lot, it saved like two months of my time.
Melanie Hofmann
How did your career continue since you graduated? Where do you live now and what kind of projects are you working on?
Musa Mwine
First, I would say that Transoft, helped me model the conditions in developing countries which are not like, you would assume in developed countries. I was looking at an intersection with extremely high traffic conditions. With this intersection, I can assure you that manual counting was going to be a waste of my time. In addition, it was going to have a lot of errors that I was able to avoid. But overall, I managed to analyze this highly trafficked intersection using TrafxSAFE. So, I would highly recommend the use of the TrafxSAFE technology to not only researchers and students, but also practicing transportation engineers. With this tool, you can save time and get the actual metrics for your project site. Now, about the last part of the question, which is about my career, as I had earlier mentioned, I’m still working with the Ministry of Works and Transport in Uganda as an Engineer.
Musa Mwine
At the Ministry, I’m in a position to not only work on the policies but also to implement some of the designs that we come up with. So, it’s a good opportunity for me to practice what I studied, and I can assure you that I’m contributing positively towards the development of my country. At the same time, I also managed to open up a private company, DMB FuturePro Limited where we are trying to develop software. Of course, I was more motivated by what I realized with TrafxSAFE, I’m developing software that can be used to monitor motorcyclists and rank how they are performing in a day. They can then be recommended for some training if they fall short of what is required and also recommend some to customers if they are doing well. So, all in all, I’m trying to make the traffic safer not only for the motorcyclist, but the entire chain of road users. So, all road users are going to benefit. This is something that I’m working on closely right now I’ve already imported GPS gadgets from China. This project is my main priority in the next two months. If this will become a success, I would say that I really benefited from my master’s degree and my exposure when I was in the Netherlands.
Melanie Hofmann
Do you still work with some of our products sometimes?
Musa Mwine
Unfortunately, not, because I’m not allowed to have access. But, if I’m working on a project and it’s really necessary using your software, I would highly recommend it. Indeed, I’ve already recommended it to very many other students.
Melanie Hofmann
Thank you, your story is a notable example of the success of the Transoft Educational Program.
Before we say goodbye, is there anything that you would like to add?
Musa Mwine
Maybe, I could say that it’s important from my experience with the software, to customize it, somehow for developing countries where conditions are totally different. I had this discussion with Transoft’s Business Development Manager, David Homola back then, but some of the gaps that were not clear for a highly trafficked network or intersection could be improved. For example, with regards to road user behavior, people here take more risks and some of these are not considered by TrafxSAFE. In this way, the road user behavior is significantly different from what you can experience in developed countries.
We were also facing data collection challenges: the trajectories for pedestrians and motorcycles, sometimes were affected by larger vehicles, obstructing the view. However, I understand that this is a common challenge for video-based studies and can be remedied by following best practices when collecting video data and applying correction factors.
Melanie Hofmann
We appreciate your comments and suggestions, Musa and wish you the best of luck for your project to make roads safer for Uganda!
Thank you again for your time and I wish you a lovely rest of your day.
