Abstract: Driven by rapid advancements in battery, sensing, communication, and computation technologies, Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are transitioning from emerging innovations to pillars of daily mobility. This talk highlights my research group’s efforts to understand and evaluate the impacts of these transformative technologies on modern transportation systems and to leverage them to enhance system efficiency and sustainability. In the domain of EVs, our research covers a broad spectrum, encompassing the behavioral analysis and modeling of EV drivers, strategic deployment of charging infrastructure, optimization of charging schedules, and design and assessment of EV-related policies. As for CAV technologies, which are currently less mature, our efforts are concentrated on the development of operational strategies for the existing CAV technologies, such as truck platooning and modular autonomous vehicles.
Bio: Dr. Zhibin Chen is an Assistant Professor and Associate Area Head of Engineering at New York University Shanghai. Prior to this appointment, he was a research fellow at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and earned his Ph.D. in transportation engineering from the University of Florida in 2017. Dr. Chen’s research goal is to identify, develop, and implement emerging technologies to achieve a safer, more efficient, and environment-friendly transportation system. His research interests include network modeling, discrete optimization, and AI in transportation. His research has resulted in more than 50 published journal papers in top transportation, energy, and urban journals, such as Transportation Science, Transportation Research Part B/C/D/E, Sustainable Cities and Society, Applied Energy, and IEEE ITS. He was the recipient of the Stella Dafermos Best Paper Award and the Ryuichi Kitamura Paper Award at the 95th TRB Annual Meeting. More about his research is available at https://wp.nyu.edu/lists/.