Professor and Director, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Professor and Director, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is often presented as a breakthrough in aircraft design, yet history shows that new transport modes succeed or fail not because vehicles can move, but because cities can manage them safely, reliably, and at scale. From railways to metros and highways, mobility progress has always depended on invisible control systems that regulate flows, prevent conflicts, and build public trust.
This keynote reframes Urban Air Mobility as a mobility system challenge, not an aviation novelty. It argues that the defining question for UAM is not whether electric vertical aircraft can fly, but how can we envision a new three-dimensional layer of mobility traffic. Issues of capacity, safety, integration becomes very important.
The talk explores how AI-driven coordination and digital connectivity are becoming the functional equivalent of traffic signals, rail signaling, and air traffic control-only now operating in dense, low-altitude urban environments.
Ultimately, the talk invites a reflection on how can Urban Air Mobility become predictable, integrated, and “boring enough” to earn a permanent place in the urban transport ecosystem.
Full Professor, Department of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
Full Professor, Department of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering University of Genova, Italy
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering University of Genova, Italy

