【 Title】 Big Data for Sustainability: Understanding the Environmental Implications of Emerging Transportation Systems

【Presenter】Dr. Hua Cai, Assistant Professor at Purdue University

【Host】 Dr. Hai Jiang

【Date】Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, 14:00-15:00

【Venue】Room 412, Shunde Building

【Language】English

【Abstract】Transportation system interacts with human, natural, and other urban infrastructure systems and needs to be examined as a coupled engineered-human-natural system. Environmental implications of fleet electrification highly depend on the adoption and utilization of electric vehicles at the individual level.  Past research has been constrained by using aggregated data to assume all vehicles with the same travel pattern as the aggregated average. This neglects the inherent heterogeneity of individual travel behaviors and may lead to unrealistic estimation of environmental impacts of fleet electrification. The recent rapid development of information and communications technology has made available large-scale data (e.g. GPS trajectories, bus card records, mobile call records, geotagged social media) that represent unprecedented opportunities to understand individual mobility dynamics. By mining human mobility patterns from these “big data” and incorporating them into environmental systems analysis, my research aims to help better assess the environmental impacts of urban transportation systems and ultimately provide decision support for sustainable urban systems.

【Bio】Dr. Hua Cai is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. She holds a joint appointment in the School of Industrial Engineering and the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering. Dr. Cai uses industrial engineering tools to study system sustainability. Her research interests include environmental impacts of emerging transportation systems, energy-water nexus, energy policy, complex adaptive systems, and urban sustainability.   Specific interests include the electric vehicle development for sustainable urban systems,  environmental implications of ride sharing, multi-modal transportation, and autonomous and connected vehicles (“new mobility.”) Prior to joining Purdue, Dr. Cai was an environmental engineer and laboratory manager at CDM Smith.  She received her Ph.D. from University of Michigan, M.S. from the Pennsylvania State University, and B.S. from Tsinghua University. Dr. Cai is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.).

All interested are welcome!