Chinese Overseas Transportation Association

Dr. Haizhong Wang

Associate Professor
Oregon State University
Tel: 541-737-8538
Fax: 541-737-3052
Email: Haizhong.Wang@oregonstate.edu

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Haizhong Wang is an Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering within the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Dr. Wang received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Applied Mathematics and Civil Engineering (Transportation), and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Hebei University of Technology and Beijing University of Technology, China. Dr. Wang has graduated 4 Ph.D students, 10 master students, he has published over 52 journal papers and more than 70 major conference papers, he has attracted 2.0 million (his share) external funding from eight different funding sources including NSF (Awards #1563618, #1826407, #1902888, and #1940345), ODOT, OTREC, PacTrans, Oregon Sea Grant, FHWA etc.

He is a member for three TRB standing committee: AHB45 Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics, ABJ70 Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications and ABR30: Emergency Evacuation and AHB45 (3) Subcommittee on Connected and Automated Vehicles through Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics. Dr. Wang is also actively involved in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Resilience Division (IRD) and serving on the Critical Infrastructure and Lifeline System Committee (CILSC), Disaster Response and Recovery Committee (DRRC), Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC), and Risk and Resilience Measurements Committee (RRMC). He is also serving on the Board of Directors for the Chinese Oversea Transportation Association (COTA) since Jan. 2014 and was the organizing committee chair for CICTP2017. He is the 2014 recipient of the Outstanding Reviewer for ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering and current editorial board member of Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Dr. Wang is the current secretary general of the Chinese Oversea Transportation Associations since 2018. He started his COTA involvement as a student back to 2004. Over the past 15 years, he has been an active contributing member in the COTA communities as a conference participant, student board member (2008), area editors for the annual CICTP conference series, organizing committee chair/members for COTA winter symposiums at TRB, co-chair of the organizing committee for CICTP2017 at Tongji University, leading the paper review, publication, and EI indexing submission for COTA’s newly initiated International Symposium for Emerging Transportation Technologies (ISETT) in 2018 and 2019, he is currently the publication committee co-chair for the CICTP2020 which will be held on July 4-6, 2020 in Xi’an, China. He experienced and actively contributed to COTA’s steady growth and transitions to a more professional non-profit organization bridging the transportation community in China and the different other parts of the world.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
Building on the collective successes of the past and current COTA leaders, he would like to further challenge himself to participate this election to continue to serve the COTA community and work closely with the new COTA BODs to continue to build an inclusive, transparent, and welcoming COTA community and family. With COTA’s stable growth over the past years, there are emerging questions/challenges facing COTA community in this rapidly-changing era including but not limited to (1) How COTA is serving the community and how the community hopes COTA to serve them; (2) Why COTA’s conferences and activities are unique given many other different transportation conferences/events; (3) How to effectively and efficiently communicate and interact with COTA community, members, institutions, industry and government partners; and (4) How to create a sustainable funding stream to address the questions above and many others from members in general.

To this end, it is my firm conviction to continue my service on the BOD with the existing and new BOD members to address the questions/challenges listed above to advance the collective successes under the leadership of the next new president. My current term on the COTA Board will end in January, 2020. I therefore decide to take this opportunity to nominate myself and fully dedicate myself to COTA members and community. I am confident of being a collaborative team member to serve the COTA BOD again. I would also be a listener to the COTA community to hear their voices and potentially constructive criticisms to help create a better COTA community for all. I have developed a greater resilience and adaptive capacity to cope with and incorporate and implement innovative ideas to continue to promote COTA’s success and growth.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yinhai Wang, Professor, University of Washington Seattle;
Dr. Ping Yi, Professor, University of Akron;
Dr. Heng Wei, Professor, University of Cincinnati;
Dr. Zhen (Sean) Qian, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Melon University;
Dr. Ziqi Song, Assistant Professor, Utah State University.

Dr. Jianwei Wang

Vice President / Project Manager
Precision Systems, Inc.
Tel: (301) 640-1866
Email: wjwish@gmail.com

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Jianwei Wang is the Vice President and Project Manager in Precision Systems, Inc. (PSI), a consulting firm located in Washington DC. He is currently managing multiple projects including traffic safety engineering support, ADA evaluation, and Asset inventory and condition assessment. In the past few years with PSI, he managed projects in transportation planning, traffic engineering and ITS design, and traffic signal design and operation. While working on practice projects, he also led the team to conduct research on ADA evaluation, emergency evacuation, traffic safety, and traffic management plan. Several papers were published and presentations were made on these topics as one of the best practices nationwide. Before joining PSI, Dr. Wang served as Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland. He conducted several research projects on work zone traffic safety, real time travel time prediction, and traffic simulation. Dr. Wang earned his bachelor and doctoral degree in Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University and accomplished over 50 projects in China during his graduate and undergraduate studies. Some projects included transit/subway network planning, long term transportation planning, ITS, and software development. Dr. Wang currently served as the Vice President of Association of Oversea Tsinghua Alumni in Transportation (ATAT). He helped to form and register the organization and organized the winter TRB reunion. He is also actively involved in the transportation professionals and Chinese communities in the DC area.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
I have been participating and supporting COTA conferences and events since I was in college. I actively supported COTA TRB winter technical symposium since moving to the DC area in 2004. I was involved in the growing of COTA and fully understand its missions, rules and policies. I met many senior and young Chinese professionals who are willing to contribute or seeking help. COTA can be an effective and efficient platform for Chinese overseas transportation professionals in academic, industry and government. I will utilize my extensive experience in academic and industry, private and public in both U.S. and China to bring the connections and more interactive participations. Also, I will work closely with BOD members to support event organization including COTA Winter Symposium, CICTP, and other workshops/symposiums.

Endorsement:
Dr. Zhen(Sean) Qian, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Melon University;
Dr. Jianyang Zheng, Program/Project Manager, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration;
Mr. Kangzhi (Kyle), Liang, Retired;
Mr. Jun (Jason) Wang, Appalachian Regional Commission;
Dr. Xuegang (Jeff) Ban, University of Washington.

Dr. Jun Liu

Assistant Professor
The University of Alabama
Tel: 205-348-9569
Email: jliu@eng.ua.edu
Website: https://jliu.people.ua.edu/

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Jun Liu is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Prior to joining the University of Alabama in 2018, he worked as a transportation planner/demand modeler at Virginia Department of Transportation and as a post-doc researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. He received PhD degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2015. His primary areas of research interests are innovations related to intelligent transportation systems, connected and automated vehicles, transportation planning, highway safety and operation, and sustainable transportation. Dr. Liu has expertise in large-scale data analytics, agent-based modeling, micro- and macro-simulations, spatiotemporal modeling, and statistical analysis. His work helps understand the roles of travelers, vehicles, infrastructures and policies in transportation systems and develop solutions to transportation challenges related to planning, operation, safety and environment.

Since 2015, Dr. Liu has published 30 refereed papers in premier transportation journals, 12 technical reports and three book chapters. He also has over 70 conference presentations/papers and invited talks. He is currently a member of TRB Standing Committee on Transportation Safety Management (ANB10) and a member of TRB Standing Committee on Geo-spatial Data Acquisition Technologies (AFB80). He is also a panel member of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project - NCHRP 20-102(22) State and Local Impacts of Automated Freight Transportation Systems. He currently serves as a Handling Editor for Transportation Research Record: Journal of Transportation Research Board and he is an Editorial Board member of Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Dr. Liu currently serves as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator of six active research projects or grants that have attracted more than eight million U.S. dollars in extramural research funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation Georgia Department of Transportation, and Alabama Department of Transportation. He has also worked on various projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Tennessee Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Transportation and Virginia Department of Transportation.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
As a young scholar, I have stayed in close touch with the COTA over the past few years. I have voluntarily engaged in various COTA activities including paper reviewing for the CICTP conferences. I also participated COTA events during the TRB Annual Meetings. In particular, I participated the Young Professional Lightning Talk in 2019. I am ready to make a strong commitment to serving on the 2020 COTA BOD and contribute significantly to the success and growth of COTA. If I had the chance to be part of the COTA BOD, I would like to work closely with other members and contribute my time and ideas to further boost the impact of COTA within and outside of the transportation professional community. The COTA has been a unique and successful platform to share information and knowledge on transportation development for all Chinese transportation professionals. If I served on the 2020 COTA BOD, I would like to contribute to building a stronger bridge between the COTA and young Chinese transportation professionals, especially whose from underrepresented institutes and areas (e.g., Alabama). I will devote myself to facilitate effective communications to amplify the visibility of COTA programs among young transportation professionals. I will also help strengthen the academic programs of the COTA, supporting and encouraging young Chinese professionals to participate in COTA activities and events. I will also strive to lead or assist in organizing COTA activities and events that can attract young Chinese professionals. I have personally built a solid relationship with a large group of young Chinese transportation professionals. I will work with other COTA BOD members to develop a strategy to promote the engagement of young professionals into COTA’s activities and events. I am also committed to other responsibilities to be assigned by the COTA BOD.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yinhai Wang, Professor, University of Washington;
Dr. Yafeng Yin, Professor, University of Michigan;
Dr. Yu Zhang, Associate Professor, University of South Florida;
Dr. Jianming Ma, Project Manager, Traffic Operation Division, Texas Department of Transportation;
Dr. Jianyang Zheng, Program/Project Manager, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration;
Dr. Xuewei Qi, Scientist, General Motors;
Dr. Haizhong Wang, Assistant Professor, Oregon State University.

Dr. Junfeng Jiao

Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Email: jjiao@austin.utexas.edu
Website: https://soa.utexas.edu/resources/urban-information-lab

Qualification/Background Information
Junfeng Jiao is a tenured associate professor and Hampton K. and Margaret Frye Snell Endowed Chair in Transportation at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the founding director of Urban Information Lab at UT. He holds courtesy appointments in Center for Transportation Research, CM2 USDOT Tier 1 University Transportation Center, Dell Medical School, Population Research Center, Center for Sustainable Development, and several other institutes.

He is the Chair-Elect for the eight-year Good Systems (Artificial Intelligence) Grand Challenge at UT. He has received several national or international awards such as the USDOT UTC Best Equity Research Award, UT President Award for Global Learning, UT Provost Award for Experiential Learning, UT SOA Research Excellence Award, Dr. Cécile DeWitt-Morette France-UT Endowed Excellence Fund, Boeing Fellowship, Netherlands Government Fellowship, and others.

His research focuses on urban informatics, smart city and shared mobility. He has used different technologies (GIS, GPS, Drone, smart phone, social media, wearable devices, etc.) to quantify cities and understand their impacts on people’s transportation activities. Previously, he investigated Uber's price surge, Bike travel and biking sharing activities, Airbnb's spatial clustering and transit access, and E-scooters' spatial-temporal pattern. In 2020, he will lead a team to Japan and study how driver less car might aid vulnerable people during the Tokyo Olympic Game. He firstly coined the term of Transit Desert and measured it in all major US cities. His works were widely reported by the Associated Press, CNN, US News, Yahoo, MSN, NBC, NPR, USA today, Finance and Commerce, City Lab, The Conversation, Chicago Tribute, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, Seattle Times, Seattle Met, Dallas News, Houston Chronicle, Austin Statesman, Texas Tribune, Wired and many other news outlets.

He has worked on projects funded by the NIH, USDOT, UT Austin, Intel, WSDOT, RWJF, and others. These works have been published in journals like Journal of Transport and Land Use, Journal of Public Transportation, Transportation Research Part D, Journal of Transport Policy, Journal of Transport Geography, Journal of Safety Research, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Accident Analysis & Prevention, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Cities, Journal of Urban Technology, Land Use Policy, American Journal of Public Health, etc.

He is the co-chair for The Analytical Methods, Technology, & Society track at the ACSP conference and Board Member for IACP. He is on the editorial board of Transportation Research Part D, Journal of Transport and Land Use, PLOS one, and AIMS Public Health. He published six book chapters through the Springer and Routledge.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
He is a registered COTA member and a frequent attendee for COTA events at TRB. In 2019, he has worked with Prof. Zhibin Li and Prof. Chuan Ding to guest-edit a special issue for the Journal of Land Use and Transport based on papers submitted to the COTA Annual Conference. By running for COTA BOD, he hopes to build a strong relationship between COTA and other closely related academic disciplines such as urban planning and computer informatics. He plans to guest-edit more special issues to publish COTA members’ research. He also hopes to help COTA build strong collaborations with industries and universities (e.g. UT Austin, TAMU, Rice, Houston) in the State of Texas.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yu Zhang, Associate Professor, University of South Florida;
Dr. Jianming Ma, Project Manager, Traffic Operation Division, Texas Department of Transportation;
Dr. Jason Cao, UMN.

Dr. Pengfei (Taylor) Li

Assistant Professor
University of Texas Arlington
Email: pflee2002@gmail.com

Qualification/Background Information
At present, I am an assistant professor in Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas in Arlington (UTA). Prior to the current appointment, I was an assistant professor at Mississippi State University. I also have years of industrial experiences before returning to academia. I conduct and publish both applied and theoretical research in the past and have a solid knowledge of IT and communication networks. Therefore, I can provide good judgements to the research merits in multiple disciplines. The research areas I could tackle include, network modeling, advanced computing, traffic operations and connected automated vehicles.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
I understand that a major goal for COTA is to promote the academic exchange between the transportation research communities of China and the rest of the world. A strong commitment would be needed to fulfill the role as a member of COTA BOD. I am aware of the responsibility and willing to do so. In my humble opinion, keeping and improving the research leadership of transportation community at the dawn of transportation autonomy will be a critical challenge for COTA. As we are witnessing, the boundary between disciplines are becoming less clear and so interdisciplinary collaboration will be ubiquitous. How to identify the role and contribution in such collaborations would be important for transportation researchers, a majority of whom have civil engineering background. However, the knowledge gaps between traditional transportation engineering education and emerging transportation research needs seem becoming larger. Solving this issue requires fundamental changes to CE curriculums and it would be not easy in most areas. Nonetheless, should I be elected, I would like to seek the conversations among educators, researchers and employers to start discussing this long-term issue. I will also help to organize COTA annual meetings if needed.

Endorsement:
Dr Heng Wei, Professor, University of Cincinnati;
Qingyan (Ken) Yang: AECOM;
Pengfei (Taylor) Li (self), University of Texas Arlington.

Dr. Pan Lu

Associate Professor
North Dakota State University/ Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Tel: 701-212-3795
Email: Pan.Lu@ndsu.edu

Qualification/Background Information
I am an associate professor with Department of Transportation, Logistics, and Finance with College of Business at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and also serves as an associate research fellow of a transportation focused research and education center on campus known as the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI). I hold a Ph.D. in Transportation and Logistics from NDSU. In 2010, I became a research analyst with UGPTI focusing in the area of asset management, freight transportation, smart transportation, rail transportation, and transportation safety. I became an assistant professor in 2015 and has been promoted as an associate professor since 2017.

I am the author of more than 60 papers in national and international journals and conferences, and more than 20 published technical reports and presentations for federal and state agencies, including the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the North Dakota Department of Transportation, the Northern Plains Rail Companies, the Red River Valley and Western Railroad Company, the North Dakota Public Service Commission and others. In the course of my research career, I have been awarded more than $2 million in grant funds as principal investigator or co- principal investigator from a diverse group of federal, state, local, and private entities.

I am also an active service contributor to numerous outstanding professional organizations and conferences, such as American Statistical Association (ASA), International Association of Chinese Infrastructure Professionals (IACIP), Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORM), Transportation Research Forum, Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Moreover, I dedicate myself as a service contributor to Chinese transportation communities. I have served as COTA member since 2017 and reviewed numerous papers for COTA annual conference. I am also member for World Transport Convention (WTC) and has served as Infrastructure Investment, Financing and Management Committee member, WTC conference paper reviewer, and conference session chair. Moreover, I am also a member of International Association of Chinese Infrastructure Professionals (IACIP).

I has provided my professional expertise and administrative skills in the course of my professional service efforts, I have organized and chaired numerous workshops and conferences for NDSU to exchange research ideas and outreach industry agencies to seek collaboration opportunities, including three conferences between North Dakota State University and University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and the first NDSU 2019 Rail Workshop on Railroad Assessment and Modeling in 2019. The success of the scholarly activities has greatly promoted the reputation of NDSU’s research capabilities especially in the area of Transportation and Logistics, Civil Engineering and Environment, and Business Operation Research.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
COTA has well established its strong branding as a nonprofit organization to connect transportation professionals who are interested in the transportation development in China and to serve as a platform to exchange information and knowledge on transportation development. COTA successfully sponsored 18 COTA International Conference Transportation Professionals (CICTPs) and annual symposiums with various critical transportation topics as conference theme focus. With the past and current COTA leaderships, COTA has been constantly growing as one of the largest associations for Chinese transportation researchers and engineers since it was founded in 1996. I strongly believe, with the new blood into the COTA BOD, COTA will continue moving forward towards to its new high level. To that sense, I found myself shares the same interest as COTA’s mission. I am willing to dedicate significant amount of my service towards to COTA as one of the new BOD member. To sustain stable and relevant, a great portion of experienced senior BOD member is critically important, moreover, a healthy portion of “fresh blood” to BOD is also important to COTA to introduce new ideas and energy. Therefore, I decide to nominate myself to fill in one of the six vacant board position to contribute my service and energy to this great organization. To me, a non-profit organization need to remain stable, relevant, and resilient, the following key contributors are critically important:

• Longevity of leadership and volunteers
• Polished practices and procedures
• Extraordinary donor and collaborators
• Sustainable memberships

Thus, I would be excited and happy to work with senior and other junior BOD members under the leadership of COTA president and advisory board to make every effort to maintain and improve COTA’s stability, relevance, and resilience. If I have opportunity to serve COTA as BOD member, I would enthusiastically participate and organize various COTA activities in China and USA, as well as in other regions upon demand. I will also enthusiastically work hard to boost membership and promote best practice for broader outreach efforts to promote industry’s interest in COTA. I am willing to take any vacant BOD position prefer outreach or secretary and have confidence that I am ready to contribute my service for continuing COTA’s success and growth.

Endorsement:
Dr Heng Wei, Professor, University of Cincinnati;
Dr. Haizhong Wang, Associate Professor, Oregon State University;
Dr. Yingling Fan, Professor, University of Minnesota;
Dr. Ziqi Song, Assistant Professor, Utah State University.

Dr. Shanjiang Zhu

Assistant Professor
Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS6C1
Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel: (703) 993-1797
Email: szhu3@gmu.edu
Website: https://volgenau.gmu.edu/profile/view/13961

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Shanjiang Zhu is an Associate Professor of Transportation Planning and Engineering at George Mason University (GMU). He graduated from Tsinghua University with a B.S degree in 2003 and a M.S in 2005. During 2001-2003, he studied at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, in France, as a dual-degree student. He obtained his Ph.D. degree at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 2010 and worked two years as a Research Scientist at the University of Maryland before joining GMU. Dr. Zhu is experienced in travel demand modeling, travel behavior analysis, GPS-based travel survey method, integrated transportation planning and simulation models, traffic incident management, and transportation economics. Dr. Zhu is a Co-PI of the TransInfo UTC that focuses on Big Data studies in transportation. His research work has also been funded by NSF, FHWA, VDOT and Virginia OPT3 office. He is Virginia Governor’s appointee on the Technical Advisory Board of Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and is a fellow of GMU P3 policy center. Dr. Zhu is the recipient of 2014 Young Research of the Year Award, International Transport Forum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Dr. Zhu has been a COTA member and very active in COTA activities since 2009. He was first elected to COTA BODs in January 2014 and served on COTA BOD for four years. During these four years, Dr. Zhu was serving in the capacity of COTA Secretary General and resumed the responsibility of keeping meeting minutes, developing and maintaining COTA archives, and coordinating external communications. In addition to these routine responsibilities, he worked closely with other BOD members to serve COTA members and expanded the impact of COTA among Chinese transportation professionals both in China and overseas through various activities. Since 2011, Dr. Zhu has been in charge of the event logistics to support COTA Winter Symposium and the reception during the Transportation Research Board annual meetings. He was the organization committee chair of the 2017 South China University of Technology-COTA Pre-CICTP Workshop, the 2016 Zhejiang University-COTA Summit Workshop, and the 2015 COTA Winter Symposium. Dr. Zhu also served on the organization committee of CICTP 2017 and 2018.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
Thanks to the visions, dedications and continuous efforts of previous and current COTA BODs, COTA has become an influential organization among Chinese transportation professionals. The three flagship activities, COTA Winter Symposiums during the TRB annual meetings, COTA International Symposium on Emerging Trends in Transportation (ISETT), and the CICTP conference series co-organized with partner universities in China, have become major venues for academic exchanges and social interactions between Chinese transportation professional overseas and in China. As the field of transportation research and practice evolves both overseas and in China, I envision COTA could expand and improve its services to the members and the boarder Chinese transportation community in several ways. A key role for COTA is to serve as the information hub for Chinese transportation professionals. Currently, the main channels include the COTA website, newsletters, and WeChat groups. COTA could improve its services by better collecting, organizing, and distributing key information such as hiring and internship opportunities, call for papers, call for award nominations, and project solicitations in a timely manner on its platforms. COTA could also cultivate and facilitate academic discussions between professionals overseas and in China in a more active and formal way. A key way to promote such exchanges is to formalize the discussion mechanism by setting up COTA academic committees and WeChat groups on focused topics, particularly in the emerging research areas such as big data analytics, connected and autonomous vehicles, and shared mobility.

If selected, I am committed to serving COTA members and the Chinese transportation community with my best capacity. I will work closely with COTA chair and other BOD members to organize and promote COTA activities, and dedicate necessary time and energy to fulfill my commitment. COTA has been a welcoming home for many of us for the past 20+ years and I look forward to contributing to its future growth and success.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yu Zhang, Associate Professor, Univ. of South Florida;
Dr. Zhen(Sean) Qian, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Melon University;
Dr. Wei Fan, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Dr. Wei (David) Fan

Professor and Director
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Tel: (704) 687-1222
Fax: (704) 687-0957
Email: wfan7@uncc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/professorweifan/

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Wei (David) Fan is a full professor and the transportation area coordinator in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He currently directs the USDOT Tier I University Transportation Center for Advanced Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education (CAMMSE). He holds a Ph.D. (May 2004) in Civil Engineering – Transportation from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ’em Horns!).

Dr. Fan’s primary research interests include big data analytics for transportation, connected and autonomous vehicles, multimodal transportation and shared mobility, traffic system operation and control, and transportation network modeling. He serves as a handling editor on the Transportation Research Record (TRR) inaugural editorial board and an associate editor of three journals including the IEEE Transactions – Intelligent Transportation Systems, ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, and International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology. He also serves as a member on several review panels including the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), and four ASCE committees as well as one Transportation Research Board (TRB) committee. Dr. Fan has been involved in many sponsored projects (over 14 million dollars in funding), having been a principal or co-principal investigator on numerous research studies for the USDOT, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), NCHRP, SHRP2 Education Connection, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and North Carolina DOT (NCDOT). Dr. Fan has published more than 100 journal articles, proceeding papers and technical reports. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas and was also a proud ASCE Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Teaching Fellow in 2007.

Dr. Fan has been very active in the Chinese transportation community. For example, he is currently helping as the organizing committee chair for the 23rd COTA Winter Symposium to be held during the 2020 TRB Annual Meeting at Washington D.C. Sunday, January 12, 2020. He served as a member on the symposium steering committee and helped organize a CAV session for the 22nd COTA Annual Winter Symposium in January 2019. Dr. Fan also served as an area editor for the 19th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP2019) that was held at Southeast University and was selected as the recipient of the Best Area Editor Award (i.e., Autonomous Vehicles and Intelligent Infrastructure) at Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China in July 2019. He also served both as an area editor and a session chair for the 18th COTA conference International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP2018) that was held at Tsinghua University at Beijing, China in July 2018. He also actively presented at the CICTP2019, and CICTP2018, as well as the COTA Annual Winter Symposiums.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
Through participating in the organization of various COTA events and activities in the last two years, I have truly enjoyed working with a group of like-minded colleagues and friends and have benefited both professionally and personally from many people I have come to meet or develop friendships with during these activities. I have witnessed how COTA successfully brings all Chinese transportation professionals together and provides a platform for people to exchange ideas, foster collaborations, generate new ideas and build network. It has been a great pleasure to see that COTA is becoming a professional organization that is influential to not only Chinese transportation professionals, but also researchers and practitioners in the global transportation community.

I would like to nominate myself and have decided to run for the 2020 BOD membership so as to better serve this great organization. With my rich professional service experience, I am confident that I will add values to the COTA BOD. My envisioned commitment to the BOD, if I am re-elected, will include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Serve on the COTA Board and contribute to the continued development of the COTA academic affairs committee, or in another position on the Board as seen fit by the COTA President;
2. Continue organizing and/or providing support and assistance to the organization of COTA Winter Symposia and reception events at TRB;
3. Enhance the collaboration and strengthen the ties between COTA and other professional organizations/publishers (e.g., ASCE, Elsevier, IEEE, and TRB);
4. Increase the COTA visibility and footprint at prestigious transportation conferences, workshops, international symposiums, and forums world-wide;
5. Promote the participation of world-wide transportation professionals and students in COTA activities, and facilitate activities to assist the career development of transportation students and young professionals.

Thank you very much for your consideration. Your strong support is highly appreciated, and I hope to have your vote!

Endorsement:
Dr. Jianming Ma, Texas Department of Transportation;
Dr. Zhen (Sean) Qian, Associate Professor, Carnegie Melon University;
Dr. Ping Yi, Professor, University of Akron;
Dr. Lei Yu, Professor, Texas Southern University;
Dr. Yu Zhang, Associate Professor, University of South Florida;
Dr. Shanjiang Zhu, Associate Professor, George Mason University.

Dr. Wei Sun

Research Associate
University of Washington
Tel: (206) 221-9199
Email: wsun91@uw.edu
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-sun-01775b113/

Qualification/Background Information
I am a research associate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Washington (UW). I have a Ph.D. in transportation engineering from University of Florida (2019) and a bachelor's degree in transportation engineering from South China University of Technology (2014). My active research fields include transportation data analytics, traffic simulation and software development, traffic operations and safety, transportation network modeling and analysis. Before joining the University of Washington, I have been working as a research assistant at the University of Florida. I have worked on a variety of research projects funded by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Freight Mobility Research Institute (FMRI), and the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE). Through these projects, I have applied data analytics and statistical modeling to solve transportation engineering related problems, contributed in the technical transfer activities through developing several simulation and data analytical software programs, published technical reports and research papers, and presented lectures of research findings at various meetings and conferences, such as Transportation Research Board Annual Meetings, Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region, and PacTrans | CSET Region 10 Transportation Conference. Since joining the STAR Lab (Smart Transportation Applications & Research Laboratory) in 2019, I have been working as a researcher in both the NCHRP 07-26 project (Update of Highway Capacity Manual: Merge, Diverge, and Weaving Methodologies) and the Center for Safety Equity in Transportation (CSET) project (Developing a Data-Driven Safety Assessment Framework for RITI Communities in Washington State). In addition to leading the research efforts to develop analytical methodologies for these projects, I also help advise students and facilitate collaborations with related parties.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
COTA is well known for its significant roles in enhancing connections among overseas transportation professionals and promoting transportation development in China. As a highly motivated Chinese transportation researcher, I am very enthusiastic about contributing to the development of COTA to the best of my ability. If selected, I promise to dedicate my time and energy to work closely with fellow COTA members for the greater good of COTA and its members. If you have any questions or need any additional information, please feel free to contact me, thanks.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yinhai Wang, Professor, University of Washington;
Dr Heng Wei, Professor, University of Cincinnati;
Mr. Ruimin Ke, PhD Student, University of Washington.

Dr. Yang Liu

Assistant Professor
National University of Singapore
Tel: (65) 6516-2334
Fax: (65) 6777-1434
Email: iseliuy@nus.edu.sg or ceelya@nus.edu.sg
Website: https://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/cee/staff/liu-yang/

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Yang Liu is jointly appointed as an Assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management at the National University of Singapore. Previously, Dr. Liu worked as a consultant at Cambridge Systematics and provided modeling expertise to public agencies such as the Chicago Department of Transportation. She received her B.S. from Tsinghua University, MPhil from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Dr. Liu's research focuses on the areas of travel demand and congestion management, sharing economy, urban logistics, resilient supply chains, and information and routing in stochastic transportation networks. She has worked on the research projects funded by the US and Singapore public agencies, including Federal Highway Administration, National Science Foundation, Chicago Department of Transportation, and Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE). She is the leading PI in the MOE Tier 1 project "Development of Urban Mobility Models for Seniors in Singapore" and the MOE Tier 2 project "Congestion management policies for road networks with ridesharing services".

Dr. Liu has been actively serving and participating in international professional organizations and societies in China, the US, and Eastern Asia. She has served as an Area Editor in the Area of Transportation Policy, Planning, and Modeling and handled the review of 20 papers for the 2017 COTA International Conference for Transportation Professionals. She has also served as a Chief Reviewer for the Proceedings of the International Conference of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS) 2019, and a member on the editorial advisory board of Transportation Research Part B. Currently, she is a member of IEEE ITS Education Committee, a member of Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies (AP020) and a member of International Scientific Committee of EASTS. She is co-chairing and organizing the 3rd International Symposium on Multimodal Transportation (ISMT) (https://blog.nus.edu.sg/ismt2019/), which will be held at Singapore in December 2019. She also serves as an editorial advisory board member of Transportation Research Part C and a guest editor for the ISMT special issue of Transportation Research Part E. Her service to the professional societies has been recognized. She has been awarded the Certificates of Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing from Transportation Research Part B, Part C, and Part E. Dr. Liu's expertise and experiences in serving the professional organizations and societies prepare her to better provide her future service to the COTA community if elected.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
Since I was a graduate student, I have actively participated in various COTA activities, such as attending COTA events and annual conference meetings and serving on the editorial board of the annual conference proceeding and Best Poster Award committee. I have greatly benefited from the participation and involvement in the COTA community. I am very excited about the possibility of continuing to contribute to COTA as a Board of Directors (BOD) member. If I were provided the opportunity to serve on the COTA BOD, I would do my best to contribute to the development of the Chinese transportation community. I will bring my rich industrial and academic background to my work on the COTA BOD that includes, but not limited to, the following aspects:

• Enhance the diversity and the influence of COTA community by fostering the collaboration among Chinese transportation professionals and promoting COTA membership in Asia region;
• • Work closely with BOD members to develop COTA initiatives and technical committee in the areas of my expertise and to organize events such as COTA International Symposium, CICTP, and other workshops;
• • Help to expand the reach of COTA to professionals in the industry, academics, and public sectors in China and Asia and gain support and sponsor opportunities for COTA initiative and activities;
• • Help to develop career development initiatives that help Chinese transportation professionals and students achieve long-term professional growth.

Endorsement:
Dr. Jianmin Ma, Project Manager, Texas Department of Transportation;
Dr. Yafeng Yin, Professor, University of Michigan;
Dr. Henry Liu, Professor, University of Michigan.

Dr. Zhuo Yao

Air Pollution Specialist
California Air Resources Board
Tel: (916)-324-8028
Email: zhuo.yao@arb.ca.gov
Website: http://www.zhuoyao.net/

Qualification/Background Information
Dr. Zhuo Yao is an Air Pollution Specialist at California Air Resources Board (CARB) in the Transportation Analysis Section, Sustainable Transportation and Communities Division. He is also an adjunct professor in the Civil Engineering Department at California State University Sacramento (CSUS). Dr. Yao holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management, College of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Cincinnati, a Master of Science degree from Beijing University of Technology, and a Bachelor’s degree from Polytechnic University of the Philippines. His research focuses on integrated land use, transportation and emission modeling, traffic activity data inputs for emission modeling and field monitoring of pollutants. Dr. Yao spent most of his career working with California EPA and other state agencies developing tools and data sets for decision support and performance measurement systems of evaluating policies, strategies, and modeling techniques for transportation and air quality. one of the key positions fighting for to reduce the GHG emissions from the transportation sector by implementing multiple legislations set by the state of California, such as Assembly Bill 32 (the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006), Senate Bill 375 (the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008), Senate Bill 1014 (the California Clean Miles Standard and Incentive Program: zero-emission vehicles) etc.

Dr. Yao is an active, renowned participant and contributor to COTA communities. He started to serve as a communication officer for COTA since his graduate studies beginning 2008. During his term he had offered significant assistance to COTA BOD administration, including voluntary effort in redesigning COTA logo, serving as the editor to COTA newsletter and the webmaster for maintaining the COTA website. Later, he was invited to serve as reviewer and area editor for CICTP for many years. In addition to his service at COTA communities, he has served as the webmaster for Great Lakes ITE, and editor for ITS Society Midwest newsletter. He is a member of Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), TRB Sustainability Research Subcommittee, ADD40(2) and ITE Sustainability Task Force.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities
With love and passion, I have witnessed the continuous growth of COTA in the past decade. There is no doubt that the current and past leaders have led COTA to today’s glory and achievements in many aspects. Obviously, the future success of COTA will need tons of dedications and contributions from all members of COTA society. I am highly motivated and committed to contribute my service, time, ideas, and expertise to foster COTA’s future development and growth. I am hence nominating myself to run for the board member position by providing my services to this great organization. If I were provided an opportunity to serve on the COTA BOD, I would like to be working together with other BOD members to make every effort to achieve the goals and objectives of COTA.

My envisioned commitment includes, but not limited to, the following aspects.

• To serve as a COTA liaison with government agencies, education institutes, and industry partners to further foster COTA’s impact and collaboration in the transportation field;
• To continue COTA’s diligence and thorough efforts in the construction of a highly dedicated community with an international focus of boosting effective collaborations between COTA and other transportation organizations. This is achieved thru soliciting knowledge and expertise exchange with stakeholders;
• To continually facilitate and support networking and collaboration among members of the association by organizing major COTA events, and activities. This is to further consolidate COTA community into a more solidified, stronger professional organization;
• To boost improving the quality of newsletters and other communication services to the next level.

Endorsement:
Dr Heng Wei, Professor, University of Cincinnati;
Dr. Haizhong Wang, Associate Professor, Oregon State University;
Mr. Jason Wang, Senior Transportation Specialist, Appalachian Regional Commission.

Zhiqiang(Adam) Wu

PhD Student
University of South Florida
Tel: (754)802-9046
Email: zhiqiangwu@mail.usf.edu

Qualification/Background Information
Mr. Zhiqiang Wu is a PhD candidate of Civil Engineering at University of South Florida (USF). He obtained his bachelor degree in Chang’an University in 2015 and started his PhD study from 2016 in University of South Florida. His primary research interests include urban air mobility, transportation planning, electric vehicles, and pedestrian safety. Zhiqiang mainly focus on applying mathematical modeling and statistical analysis tools to explore the feasibility of the new travel modes, their impact on existing transportation system and optimal planning and operation strategies. Zhiqiang is also very active in student organization activities of transportation field at University of South Florida. As the director of public event of Institute of Transportation Engineer (ITE) USF student chapter, he has helped organize various activities to increase the impact of ITE USF student chapter and increase the involvement of students.

Envisioned Commitments/Proposed Activities

• Closely work with Board of Directors and help organize activities involving young professionals, such as Young Professional Lightning Talk held each year at COTA TRB Winter Symposium;
• Build up connection networks within Chinese young professionals oversees, improve the COTA related information publication within the young professional group and increase their involvement in COTA activities;
• Help create more young professional related sessions at each COTA conference to increase communications among them, provide more opportunities for them to present their research works and receive more suggestion and guidance from successful senior researchers.

Endorsement:
Dr. Yu Zhang, Associate Professor, University of South Florida;
Dr. Zhen (Sean) Qian, Assistant Professor, Carnegie Melon University;
Mr. Ruimin Ke, PhD Student, University of Washington.