In Loving Memory of - Morgan State University

22I write this on 8 th January, coincidentally, exactly 15 years to the day that I came to visitShinya for a 3 month stay at the University of Delaware. While most probably knew ProfKikuchi for his work on all things AI, we had first met through his pioneering work oncar-following, fuzzy decision making, and instrumented vehicle experiments (he was oneof the few in the 90s to construct and use one purely to study traffic engineering issues).Shinya proved to be an ideal host (with a rather ‘English’ sense of humour!) and alwaysinterested in the view points of others no matter how crazy they seemed, while also veryunderstanding of the practical difficulties that one has when living away from family foran extended time. That brief but important visit marked the start of a purple patch in mycareer, that I am sure would not have happened without his encouragement andenthusiasm.Since that visit we met up at TRB virtually every year, usually over a meal at a(seemingly) randomly chosen venue – which was always an adventure (… inedible IndianBuffets, and managing to lose several cars full of students while breaking our trip back toNewark at the labyrinthine IKEA outside of Baltimore spring to mind). Indeed TRBalways seemed to hold some manner of adventure with Shinya – I believe he was evenheld up at gunpoint on Calvert St in the early 90s (although with his sense of humour Iwas never sure if that actually happened!). Sadly, in the last 5 years, we saw each otherless and less, and even missed each other entirely last year due to his illness. I’m given tounderstand that TRB may move to a new venue in a few years and strangely, I welcomethis as, to me, TRB at the Hilton will always be associated with Shinya, and won’t be thesame.Mark BrackstoneUniversity of Southampton, UKShinya and I go back to 1988 when I began studying at Penn. He was at the nearbyUniversity of Delaware and visited frequently. We both had the same dissertationsupervisor, Prof. Vukan Vuchic, but Shinya finished way back in 1974. We have bothgone on to work on a variety of subjects but I think public transportation remained thefirst love of us both. So having the love of the same subject and the same supervisorwas our inner bond.Shinya regularly showed me his work in fuzzy logic and some recent interesting workon sound reasoning and decision making in light of incomplete information.Unfortunately, he isn't here this year to present it. While I like to think I know a lotabout transportation performance and investment analysis, he made it clear to me thatthere is still a lot I need to learn. Indeed, some of his recent work will be incorporatedinto the second edition of a textbook.But what I most want to mention is the Finland connection. When there was a recentretirement at Aalto University he gave a strong recommendation for me to be a visitingprofessor. Without this, I probably wouldn't have gotten the appointment. My parentswere both immigrants from Finland and this has been a great opportunity to reconnectwith my roots. For this, I am eternally grateful to Shinya.Eric Bruun, Ph.D.Aalto University, FinlandShinya and I were members of the Transportation Systems Engineering group in theDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Delawarefrom 1990 to 2005. In 2005 he left for Virginia Tech as a distinguished faculty.During the 15 years, we worked together building a strong graduate program inTransportation. Shinya loved Transportation. But he was also passionate aboutFuzzy Set and Uncertainty theories. He was one of the first (if not the first)researchers to apply Fuzzy Set theory to different problems in Transportation. Hebecame fully involved and engaged in many national and international organizationswho did work in this area. With my background in Probability Theory, he and I hadmany lively discussions/arguments. Almost every time we started comparing themathematical efficacy of Fuzzy Set theory as compared with Probability theory, butended with philosophical questions about god, creation, evolution and other spiritualissues. As is customary in academia, he and I didn’t always see everything eye toeye, but at the same time we never lost communication and remained colleagues andfriends until the end. There are many things I’ll miss about Shinya – our ping ponggames, lunches and dinners with our respective families, our travels together, and,his rigorous professional and academic standards that he left for us in Delaware. Hewas a valued member of our community, and will be missed by great many of hisformer students and colleagues.Respectfully submitted;Arde Faghri, ProfessorUniversity of Delaware, USAWhile I was a graduate student at Virginia Tech, my Ph.D. advisor Professor DusanTeodorovic introduced me to Professor Shinya Kikuchi (who was then at University ofDelaware). Since then I have interacted with Dr. Kikuchi on numerous occasions. Hewas the chair of TRB’s AI committee in which I was a member. His pleasant andhumble demeanor set the tone for our committee meetings. He also had a great senseof humor, which was evident in his polite appeals for paper review volunteers. I alsointeracted with him about his research and teaching activities at Virginia Tech. Therewere many occasions in which I sought his advice and he was more than willing toshare his wisdom.It goes without saying that Dr. Kikuchi has made numerous high impact contributionsto the field of artificial intelligence applications in transportation, especially in FuzzyLogic. Many of us in the AI community, me included, have directly benefited from hiswork. The impact of his research spanned several transportation domains includingplanning, traffic operations, and public transportation, to name a few.We will not only miss an esteemed senior colleague who served our profession wellbut also a great friend.Praveen EdaraUniversity of Missouri-Columbia23