Research

My work centers on three interconnected domains: trucking infrastructure, port–hinterland systems, and traffic assignment modeling. Within these areas, I use operations research techniques and data-driven methods to study and improve multimodal freight and logistics networks. The selected publications below highlight projects that best reflect my research interests and the balance I aim to strike between methodological contributions and real-world empirical applications.

Beyond publications, I am a strong advocate of open source research and strive to release large-scale frameworks along with documentation for community use. Scroll down to get a list of those. This page also includes my conference presentations and journal publications, which I update regularly with links to supplementary material and code for replicating results (though they may not always be fully up to date). For an up-to-date list, you can download my resume.

Research Domains

I am interested in how ports connect to their hinterlands and how bottlenecks in one component ripple across the system. My focus includes capacity measurement, anchorage and terminal queues, resilience during disruptions, re-routing, and the interaction of waterside, terminal, and landside operations. I am also drawn to questions of data quality and integration, as well as economic and policy aspects such as port pricing, demurrage, environmental costs, and the safety and sustainability of large-scale multimodal freight systems.

Some publications that reflect these interests include:

  • A Dynamic Ultimate Capacity Framework for Seaport Systems Bagchi, D.; Bathgate, K.; Boyles, S. D. · 2025
    Traditional methods to compute capacity rely on simulations, running many scenarios, and then using engineering judgment to define capacity. We define ultimate capacity using a dynamic differential-equation model that can work alongside simulation. We introduce the idea of degree of congestion and make a clear distinction: ultimate capacity is the short-term surge a port can handle under congestion, but it cannot be sustained. Operating capacity is the stable level a port can maintain over time. We further show how our analysis can be used to identify critical bottlenecks in an interconnected port system. Journal: Working paper
  • We address the challenge that most capacity studies rely on heavy, data-hungry simulations. We develop a queueing-based framework that works with limited data while still capturing the essential dynamics of port operations. This lets us estimate the operating capacity at a long term sustainable level of throughput a port can handle without instability. Applying our framework to the Port of Houston, we find that the system is already operating close to capacity, showing how even small demand surges can quickly trigger delays. Presented at: TRB 104th Annual Meeting (2025, Washington, D.C., USA, Lectern session) Journal: Working paper

Open Source Code Base

Discrete event simualtion for a multimodal port system
Co-developer
Python SimPy-based port operations discrete event simulation for any port with an anchorage followed by naviagble channel with terminals. Includes data for a model port and a technical manual. Helpful in bottleneck analysis, capacity mdoelling and disruption planning
python simpy ports research
Last mile electric vehicle delivery logistics
Co-developer
Bi-criterion Steiner TSP with time windows for last-mile electric vehicle logistics. Includes MILP models, heuristics, and benchmark datasets. Includes benchmarking codes for solving TSP problems using Google OR Tools and LKH heuristic.
tsp ev logistics optimization
Stochastic user equilibrium error bounds
Developer
Repository for stochastic traffic assignment with a logit model, enabling early termination via error bounds. Includes network design examples showing significant computation time improvements compared to traditional termination criteria.
traffic-assignemnt, SUE, error-bounds

Publications

Manuscripts under review

Manuscripts in preparation

Refereed conference presentations