image: KLU Assistant Professor Transportation
Credit: KLU
Open-source tool for all modes of transport
The awarded software package enables users to calculate the shortest connection between two points worldwide across different transport modes – road, rail, or sea. “If you want to travel from Hamburg to Rome, the program can calculate the distance via the sea route. The same works for rail and road networks on all continents,” explains Heinold. “This dataset is openly available and already used in research and practice around the globe.” The package has been downloaded more than 143,000 times – an exceptional number in transport research.
A technical breakthrough in route analysis
The system is based on a novel shortest path model that integrates data from road, rail, and maritime routes, enabling consistent multimodal distance calculations – something conventional routing software cannot do. Heinold and the team cleaned and harmonized large open datasets and linked them into a unified open-source structure. “It sounds simple, but it was an enormous data effort,” Heinold explains. “We had to make sure the different sources aligned instead of contradicting each other and shortest paths were computed fast – that was the real technical breakthrough.”
International collaboration
Heinold sees the project as a prime example of collaborative open science. “What makes me proud is that researchers from the USA, Spain, and Germany came together to create a solution anyone can use. We all shared the same goal: to build a tool that calculates distances across transport modes – open, transparent, and accessible to all.” Connor Makowski, Research Associate at MIT and lead developer of the package, highlights the collaboration: “SCGraph was born out of the need to make complex transportation networks easier and reproducible to use. The fact that it evolved into such a vibrant cooperation among researchers from several countries is perhaps its greatest success – the award is a wonderful recognition of that.” The 2025 award ceremony took place during Open Data @ MIT event held on Oct. 21 at Hayden Library in Cambridge (MA).
From side project to global tool
Originally, the tool was part of a larger MIT research project that required distance calculations across various transport systems. While working on his own logistics research, Heinold came across an early version of the software, identified areas for improvement, and helped make the system more user-friendly. “Developments like this often emerge organically through collaboration,” says Heinold. “We kept refining it together until it was too useful not to share.”
About Kühne Logistics University (KLU)
KLU, Kühne Logistics University, is a leading, state-recognized, international university with campuses in Hamburg, Germany (headquarter), and Saigon, Vietnam. It offers English-taught Bachelor’s, Master’s, MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs in business and management, data science and analytics, and notably, logistics and supply chain management. Named after its founder and benefactor Klaus-Michael Kühne, one of Germany’s most successful business leaders, KLU is committed to empowering contemporary leaders with a strong Operations Mindset. Accordingly, its teaching and research activities blend academic excellence with a hands-on approach to ensure real-world applicability. Emphasizing digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, KLU shapes leaders to drive responsible and sustainable change globally. KLU holds the international AACSB accreditation, an honour bestowed upon only five percent of the world’s top business schools. Students benefit from small classes and individual support from highly research-active professors, along with integrated internships, participation in student and sports clubs, and international exchanges with prestigious partner universities. Tailored career coaching and partnerships with leading companies pave the way for successful careers.
Media Contact
Tanja Marker
tanja.marker@klu.org
+4015172829472
Study:
Makowski, Connor and Saragih, Austin and Guter, Willem and Russell, Timothy and Heinold, Arne and Lekkakos, Spyridon, SCGraph: A Dependency-Free Python Package for Road, Rail, and Maritime Shortest Path Routing Generation and Distance Estimation (August 11, 2025). MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics Research Paper No. 2025/028, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5388845 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5388845
(https://github.com/connor-makowski/scgraph)