Transport systems (particularly rail), sustainable transport, digital transformation, data integration (ontology), digital twins, AI and machine learning, distributed ledgers, security of industrial systems.

John Easton is Professor of Sustainable Transport in the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University. His research interests centre on methods for the storage, integration, processing and display of transport related data (in particular data representation and exchange via ontologies and its use in digital twins), the application of machine learning in transport systems, the use of distributed ledger technologies in industrial contexts, and cybersecurity for cyber-physical systems in transport. John has significant experience working in rail industry projects over the past 17 years, including two secondments to Network Rail: initially to the team developing points monitoring algorithms for Intelligent Infrastructure, and later to phase 3 of the Digital Railway programme. He is a past chair (June 2018 – December 2021) of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Railway Technical Network, a member of the Department for Transport's College of Experts group, and sits on the Rail Safety and Standards Board’s Data and Information Systems Interface Committee (DISIC). He is also a Fellow of the HEA.

For activity related to the TransiT project, please see www.transit.ac.uk