Project Meeting 2023.06.15

Agenda

• Admin
  • Task status review & schedule
  • Teams Meeting Recordings
• Conferences
  • TRB Workshop Proposal
  • Discuss paper topics for TRB Annual Meeting
• Continued discussion on survey data and frequency (if there's time)

Action Items

• Jeff will add a unit test with chunking to replicate ORCA removal related errors and then fix them.
• Joe will organize a response to the Eric Miller editorial and related TMIP thread.
• Joe will help to develop an outline of a TRB paper about the current state of ActivitySim.

Meeting Notes

• Task status review & schedule
  • Roadmap – ongoing progress
  • ORCA replacement - code review ongoing
    • WSP posted several comments and identified bugs. They are about 50% through the code but think that they are through the most important ones.
      • Unit tests are not established with and without chunking. Chunking is enabled in one test, but set to infinite, so it’s not actually utilizing chunking. Jeff needs to make some updates to make the code work with chunking.
      • Jeff will add a unit test with chunking to replicate errors and then fix them.
    • RSG is still reviewing and will post some additional comments. RSG is about 70-80% through with review.
    • Jeff suggests that there be a 6-month beta release to make sure it works for folks before it’s an “official” release.
  • Data Type
    • WSP tentatively planning to present approach on June 27, but could bump to later if ORCA review request requires more time.
  • New Data Pipeline Format - done
  • Input Checking
    • RSG has been evaluating a Pandera vs pydantic approach. Jeff, David H, and Dave O discussed yesterday, and RSG is testing some performance issues and still exploring the pros/cons of each.
  • Documentation tasks – structure is set up but need to get ORCA replace finalized first. Templating work is about 50% done and, over the next two weeks, CS wants to get ORCA replacement to be done enough for a pull request, with 3-4 templates provided.
  • User’s Guide – not started yet
  • Memory leak check – This is a WSP T&M task, and WSP will wait until after all the higher priority/scoped work is done. They will address this topic if there are still fixes to be made and budget available.
• Teams Meeting Recordings
  • CS will be providing new calendar invites with a new meeting link. The meetings will be set within a Teams channel so that all members of the consortium have access to the recordings and can share with others, without having to request permission. CS will be trying new things with the administrative side of the meetings/notes/recordings and are requesting patience as we figure out what's best for the group.
  • As of now, the plan is to keep all of the recordings within this Teams channel and the periodically archive them in a Google Drive, to be set up by AMPO.
• Conferences
  • TRB Workshop Proposal
    • Workshop proposals were due June 15. Even if we had more time, it wasn't likely to be sponsored by AEP50. It was suggested that we consider requesting a supporting organizational meeting where we would get a space at the Marriott. The down side is that we’d have to do our own advertising to get folks to come since we wouldn’t be on the main meeting program. Those requests aren’t due until October 1, so there’s time to consider this.
    • Proposed scope and agenda developed by David Ory. TRB Workshop Proposal.docx
    • We could invite folks who may be using ActivitySim but not part of the consortium, such as BEAM CORE folks, particularly those on the research side. Other ideas include:
      • Lawrence Berkeley Lab
      • Universities/professors such as Dr. Bhat (UT Austin), Dr. Pendyala (ASU), Georgia Tech, UC Irvine, etc. It would be helpful if universities could include ActivitySim in their curriculum for workforce development – or we could develop ActivitySim training for those students. Lisa noted that TFResource is looking to having more educational content, with python code embedded.
  • We would want to be careful to not derail the workshop with other topics: for example, semantics of tour-based vs activity-based, which model is the “best”, etc.
    • As a side topic, does Activity Sim was to response to Eric Miller editorial/ related TMIP thread?
      • Joe will organize a response, with input from group. Joel and Lisa are interested in supporting this effort, and Joe will organize a call.
• Discuss paper topics for TRB Annual Meeting
  • Technical work - RSG may want to submit something but TBD.
  • Status update
    • Collaboration wins/losses
    • Steer away from behavioral/technical aspects
    • Joe to help develop an outline.