Tackling the Urbanisation Crunch

SMU Associate Professor of Information Systems Lau Hoong Chuin is redefining the field of urban logistics, the study of goods and services distribution within our cities. In a project funded by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Collaborative Urban Logistics Programme, Associate Prof Lau and colleagues at the SMU Urban Management & Analytics Laboratory are working closely with private companies to optimise urban freight transport and distribution systems. The problem the researchers hope to solve is what is known as the ‘last mile’, or the transportation of urban freight from distribution centres to retailers and consumers in city centres.