Jonas Mårtensson appointed new director of ITRL
Jonas Mårtensson is the new director of ITRL, officially starting from November 2021. Jonas is professor at the division of decision and control systems, and he has been engaged in ITRL since the start. His main research area is within connected and automated vehicles, and he is also leading the activities in the Smart Mobility Lab.
How has it been going since you took the role of director? What changes have been made at ITRL?
“ITRL continues at full speed just as before. The main activities happen within our around 30 ongoing projects, so a new director does not make such a big difference in the short run. My ambition is to engage more KTH faculty in ITRL so that we increase the momentum. And I am currently looking for a new vice director to support the management team.”
How will this impact the research at ITRL?
“The strength of ITRL is the engagement of many different strong research groups from different disciplines. The organizational change is that we used to have many PhD students and research engineers employed in the center, but now we will instead aim to have these employments in the different research groups that are engaged in ITRL. This will create a stronger collaboration within KTH and we will better utilize the existing competence that we have at KTH.”
Since ITRL has been extended until 2023, how does the strategy look like until then?
“Yes, ITRL started in the end of 2014 and will now continue until the end of 2023. But we are already planning for a new ITRL2 to continue after that. It is a perfect opportunity to reflect on what ITRL has achieved so far and how we can be even more relevant in the future. A lot has happened in the transportation domain over the last 10 years, and we need to update our research plan and engage new partners in ITRL. This strategic work will kick off in the coming weeks and there is a great engagement from colleagues at KTH and from our partners.”