CATS Lab Director

Xiaopeng (Shaw) Li

Associate Professor
Susan A Bracken Faculty Fellow
Director of National Institute for Congestion Reduction
Civil and Environmental Engineering

4202 E. Fowler Avenue ENG 207
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620-5350
Phone: (813) 974-0778
Fax: (813) 974-2957
Email: xiaopengli@usf.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Bio: Dr. Xiaopeng (Shaw) Li is currently the Susan A. Bracken (first holder) Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and also affiliated in the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida (USF). He serves as the director of a USDOT National University Transportation Center, National Institute for Congestion Reduction (https://nicr.usf.edu/). He also founded the Connected and Autonomous Transportation Systems (CATS) Lab featured with multiple in-house assembled cooperative driving automation (CDA) vehicles piloting tests of the USDOT CARMA ecosystem. His key research interests include technology developments, system modeling, and energy and equity impacts analysis of automated, connected, electrical and shared (ACES) transportation. He has published around 90 peer-reviewed journal papers, many in top-tier journals (e.g., TR Part B, Transportation Science, Annals of AAG, Operations Research). He has lead research projects (mostly as the lead PI) with a total budget around $20 million (in addition to around $12 million local matching), sponsored by agencies including NSF, US DOE, US DOT, National Labs, State DOTs, and industry companies. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award. He serves as an associate editor or editorial board member for journals including TR Part B, Part C, & Part E, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation System, IEEE-Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, IISE Transactions, ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Communications in Transportation Research, and Cleaner Logistics and Supply Chain. He is the chair for the Emerging Transportation Technology Testing (ET3) Committee (founding chair) in the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS), and the Special Interest Group Traffic Theory and Modelling in the World Conference for Transport Research Society. He is a member of the Transportation Network Modeling Committee (AEP40) and the Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee (ACP50) in Transportation Research Board. Dr. Li received a B.S. degree (2006) in Civil Engineering with a minor in Computer Engineering from Tsinghua University, China, a M.S. degree (2007) and a Ph.D. (2011) degree in Civil Engineering along with a M.S. degree (2010) in Applied Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign, USA.

Graduate Students & Researchers

Eren Yuksel

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: erenyuksel@usf.edu

Eren Yuksel is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey in 2013 and M.Sc. degree in civil engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida in 2018. His main research interests are Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), traffic data analysis and visualization, freight movement, and traffic operation & management.

Zhiwei Chen

Postdoctoral Research Associate
E-mail: zhiweic@usf.edu

Dr.Chen is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He obtained his bachelor degree from South China University of Technology in June, 2017. His main research interests are modeling and optimization of smart mobility systems and data-driven transportation equity analysis. His work has been supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Center for Transportation, Environment and Community Health (CTECH).

Saeid Soleimaniamiri

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: saeid@usf.edu

Saeid is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He acquired his B.S degree in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in January 2017. His main research areas are connected autonomous vehicles and vehicle fuel consumption modeling. His work has been supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Runan Yang

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: runanyang@usf.edu

Runan Yang is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of South Florida. In July 1st, she acquired her B.S. degree in transportation engineering in Chang'an University, China. Her main research is on traffic safety, transportation modeling and traffic behavior. Her work has been supported by research grants from Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

Xiaowei Shi

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: xiaoweishi@usf.edu

Xiaowei (Tom) Shi (Personal website) is a Ph.D student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degree from Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China in 2015 and 2018, respectively. His main research interests are transportation modeling and optimization.

Qianwen Li

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: qianwenli@usf.edu

Qianwen (Cami) Li is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of South Florida. She obtained her B.S. degree in computer science and technology from ShanDong University, China in 2018. Her main research interests are traffic flow theory, statistical modeling, and optimization.

Handong Yao

Postdoctoral Research Associate
E-mail: handongyao@usf.edu

Dr. Yao is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of South Florida. He received his PhD and M.S. degree in Transportation Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. His main research interest is connected and autonomous vehicle trajectory optimization modeling.

Zhaohui Liang

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: zhaohui@usf.edu

Zhaohui Liang is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, China in June 2019. His main research interests are connected autonomous vehicles and battery management strategies.

Peng Zhang

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: pengzhang@usf.edu

Peng Zhang is a Ph.D student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He obtained his Master degree from University of South Florida in 2019. His main research interest is connected autonomous vehicle.

Yleana Baez

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: ybaez@usf.edu

Yleana is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. She earned her B.S. degree in Civil and Industrial Engineering from the Jose Maria Vargas University (UJMV), Caracas, Venezuela in June 2000 and June 2001. She obtained her M.S. degree in Science of Engineering Management and Civil Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2013 and 2014. Her main research interest is connected autonomous vehicles.

Shubhankar Shindgikar

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: shindgikar@usf.edu

Shubhankar Shindgikar is a Ph.D student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune, India in May 2017 and a Master's degree also in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in May 2020. His main research interests are connected autonomous vehicles, transportation modeling and optimization.

Fatemeh Abootalebi

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: abootalebi@usf.edu

Fatemeh (Hoorad) is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environment Engineering at the University of South Florida. He acquired his B.S degree in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran in 2020. His research is primarily focused on highway transportation and intelligent transportation systems.

Ke Ma

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: kema13@usf.edu

Ke Ma is a Ph.D student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degree from Central South University, Changsha, China in 2018 and Southeast University, Nanjing, China 2021, respectively. His main research interests are mixed traffic flow analyses and CAV modeling.

Amin Isaai

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: isaai@usf.edu

Amin is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environment Engineering at the University of South Florida. He received his B.S degree in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, in 2020. He has software engineering experience in the industry as well. His research primarily focuses on Autonomous Vehicles and intelligent transportation systems.

Keke Long

Ph.D. Student
E-mail: kekelong@usf.edu

Keke Long is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of South Florida. She obtained her B.S. degree in Traffic Engineering from Changan University, Xi’an, China in 2018 and Master degree in Traffic Engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai, China in 2021. Her main research interests are vehicle trajectory optimization and vehicle control.

Former Students, Collaborators & Visitors

- Fang Zhou

Master Student, 2014-2015. Fang Zhou is currently a Transportation Research Engineer at Leidos, Inc.

- Jin Wang

Master Student, 2012-2014.

- Hongqiang Fan

Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2016.

- Yanqian Wang

Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2016. He is currently a faculty member at the Qingdao University of Technology.

- Mohsen Parsafard

Ph.D. Student, 2013 - 2017.

- Amir Ghiasi

Ph.D. Student, 2014 - 2018. Dr. Ghiash is currently a Transportation Research Analyst at Leidos, Inc.

- Omar Hussain

Ph.D. Student, 2014-2018.

- Yu Wang

Ph.D. Student, 2015-2019.

- Yu Wang

Ph.D. Student, 2015-2019. Dr. Wang is a postdoctoral research associate at Georgia Institute of Technology

- Gangyan Zhang

Master Student, 2017-2019.

- Dongfang Zhao

Ph.D. Student, 2016-2021.

- Hossein Amiri

Master Student, 2018-2021.