Exciting news for UTSG Members but also important information for non-
Members

At the opening plenary session of the 12th World Congress on Intelligent 
Transport Systems, that took place in San Francisco early in November, Dr 
Stephen Ladyman, MP Minister of State for Transport UK gave a presentation 
at the conclusion of which he invited delegates to attend the next 13th 
World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems.  This will be hosted by 
ITS (UK) and will be held in the Excel Exhibition Centre from 8–12 October 
2006 in London.  

The theme of the 2006 Congress is Delivering Transport Excellence and 
acknowledgement has been made to the importance of innovation and academic 
research.  Towards the end of Dr Ladyman’s opening address, he said “ITS 
is key to the UK Government’s transport vision, and I suspect it will be 
vital all around the world.  And I want the UK to be seen as a leader in 
ITS and pivotal in building the partnerships needed to understand and 
deploy it.  We very much look forward to demonstrating that achievement 
and ambition, both here (that is at the 12th Congress) and at the 2006 ITS 
World Congress and, if I can have another advertisement – in London we 
want to encourage a new generation of ITS experts by holding an 
International University ITS challenge.  A competition for the best 
depiction of how ITS will benefit transport in 2015.  More details 
later.”  

The competition is likely to take the form of a short computer 
video/Powerpoint presentation that describes a research output that will 
make a difference to transport systems beyond 2015.   The ITS Congress 
2006 is a golden opportunity for the UTSG to showcase its research 
excellence.  Whilst details of the competition are still evolving, I urge 
everyone to begin to think of ways in which their research can be entered 
into the competition. 

Another piece of GOOD NEWS, is that the best Scientific paper will be 
awarded with a prize funded by the Transport for London and given that all 
Scientific papers are peer assessed there will be good return on 
investment.

In the meantime, I would like to remind everyone that the deadline for 
draft papers has been extended to 6 January 2006.  Even at this late 
stage, I would like to encourage members of the UTSG to submit a Technical 
and/or Scientific papers as detailed on www.itsworldcongress.com.  

Many of the abstracts submitted to and papers that will be presented at 
the UTSG Conference in 2006 are consistent with the themes of the ITS UK 
Congress so may I suggest that people look carefully at their work and 
seize on this golden opportunity to disseminate their research results.  
It may only be necessary to change the emphasis of the UTSG paper at this 
stage, and if selected improved at a later date next year.

I am particularly anxious that the role Intelligent Transport Systems 
plays in reducing the impact of traffic and transport in the environment 
features more at the 2006 Congress.  At the San Francisco Congress, 
whereas the environment was mentioned in many of the presentations, there 
were only three sessions that were devoted to environment issues.  

Finally, the UTSG is looking at ways to raise the profile of transport 
research in the UK at the Congress by having an exhibition stand, and we 
are looking at the possibility of demonstrating our innovation (for 
example, instrumented cars, access laboratory, pedestrian tracking etc) by 
requesting financial support from the EPSRC, more details about this will 
be given at the UTSG Conference in January.

I am looking forward to seeing you then.

In the meantime have a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Regards

Margaret