WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ladris, a leader in evacuation modeling and disaster planning and response technologies, announced today that its collaborative research paper, "Scenario Discovery to Identify Critical Scenarios Within a Vehicle Fire Evacuation," was presented at this year’s Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The paper serves as a milestone in the underresearched field of evacuation modeling.
Primary author Peter Foytik of Old Dominion University and contributing author Bowen Kyle, Ladris CTO, represented Ladris at the event, presenting the paper’s findings on identifying critical scenarios within vehicle evacuations using scenario discovery techniques. This research addresses a persistent challenge in emergency planning: the risk of overlooking critical failure scenarios within vast combinatorial input spaces while working with limited testing resources.
Old Dominion University is at the forefront of transportation research and traffic science, with its Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) serving as a hub for advanced modeling and simulation work. The collaboration between Ladris and VMASC validates Ladris' research rigor and technical credibility within the academic transportation community.
The inclusion of Ladris’ work at the TRB Annual Meeting further underscores Ladris' standing as a trusted leader in the transportation safety and emergency management sectors. As part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, TRB annually convenes thousands of engineers, scientists, and transportation researchers from the public and private sectors to address complex transportation challenges. The Board's program is supported by both state and federal government organizations, indicating that Ladris’ research is accepted and validated at the highest level.
“Everything we do at Ladris is shaped by extensive research and quality science,” said Bowen Kyle, Ladris CTO. “Our investments in research position us at the forefront of our field and translate to significantly improved model performance, ensuring that we can provide our customers with the very best tools to keep their communities safe.”
The study utilized both Evac models from Ladris and Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times (FLEET) models from Old Dominion University to analyze specific combinations of conditions and variables–including traffic loads, destination selection, road geometry, and behavioral response–that most adversely impact evacuation performance. Results demonstrated that incorporating additional factors revealed more diverse critical scenarios while maintaining low computational costs, providing emergency planners with more comprehensive risk assessments.
This research reinforces Ladris' commitment to advancing evacuation modeling through rigorous academic research and peer-validated methodologies. Collaboration with Old Dominion University and acceptance to the TRB Annual Meeting demonstrate the efficacy of Ladris’ models and the stringent validation standards these models are held to. Ladris synthesizes advanced research with practical application, ensuring that transportation agencies and emergency planners have access to critical public safety tools when preparing for and during emergency evacuation scenarios.
Contact: media@ladris.com
About Ladris
Ladris' mission is to create a future in which every person on Earth is much less likely to die in a disaster or lose their homes, livelihoods, and natural resources to a disaster. Ladris has brought together leading operators, scientists, first responders, emergency managers, and government technology veterans to solve this problem for good. United by purpose, our ambition is to become the first and last solution that communities need to largely eliminate the risk of disasters by making better decisions in advance and in the moment. Learn more at www.ladris.com.
