About C.R.T.
Support for Training and Scientific Instruction
The C.R.T’s scientific and technical faculty, which is well rooted in different institutions and maintains multiple contacts abroad, clearly serves as the Centre’s “grey matter”-its most vital resource. However, the success of a research institution such as the C.R.T. depends on other factors, such as easy and fast access to pertinent data and the availability of resources that enable researchers to stay on the leading edge of scientific and technological progress.
The Computer Science Laboratory at the Service of Transportation
For many years, mainframes processed the majority of the C.R.T.’s research work. Since 1984, however, the centre has gradually shifted these efforts to PCs, mini-computers, standalone workstations, parallel computers and specialized equipment found at the Laboratoire d'informatique appliquée au transport. This lab has been developed and continuously modernized over the years to ensure that all researchers, professionals and students are equipped with powerful calculating abilities and the tools and environment best suited to their research efforts. A small technical team of analysts and programmers oversees network management and software and equipment maintenance, while providing user support.
This lab’s main research activities include:
The design and development of user-friendly interactive graphic methods specially adapted to the complexity and processing of the space-time dimensions of transportation planning and management.
Development and testing of effective algorithms
Parallel processing of problem-solving methods.
Administration and development of sizeable databases. The use of such resources and techniques serves as an essential asset in making the most sophisticated analytical and decision-making methods more user-friendly and accessible and in ensuring their transfer to the outside world in the form of specialized software.
Reference Literature
The Centre’s reference literature is designed to meet the needs of instructors, researchers and students interested in transportation, whether or not they are associated with the C.R.T. Located in its own section of the Mathematics and Computer Science Library, the collection includes more than 13,000 documents and subscriptions to some fifty transportation-related journals and reviews. Special exchange agreements with numerous Canadian and foreign organizations provide for constant expansion of this collection. Furthermore, many databases and Web-based periodicals can be searched through the Université de Montréal’s Hermès server.