• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Logo for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan
  • Strategic Directions
  • News and Events
  • Contact

  • About
    • History
    • Strategic Directions
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
      • CEE DEI Committee
      • DEI Resources
      • Have a concern?
    • Alumni
      • CEE Friends Association
        • CEEFA Board
      • Award Winners
    • Giving
      • Giving Legacy
    • Leadership and Governance
    • Faculty Search
      • Faculty Position in Environmental Engineering
      • Faculty Position in Intelligent Systems
    • Contact
      • Student Services Contacts
      • Master’s Advising Contacts
      • Undergraduate Advising Contacts
  • Undergraduate Studies
    • BSE Degree in Civil Engineering
    • BSE Degree in Environmental Engineering
    • Minor in Civil Engineering
    • Minor in Environmental Engineering
    • FocusCEE
      • Community Policy and Planning
      • Smart Cities
      • Sustainability
    • Undergraduate Opportunities
      • Undergraduate Externship
      • Student Research and Employment
        • CEE SURE/SROP Projects 2023
    • Schedule an Advising Appointment
    • Declare Your Major
    • Careers in CEE
      • What is a Civil or Environmental Engineer?
      • Career Pathways
      • Employers of CEE Graduates
      • How to Recruit CEE Graduates
    • Undergraduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • Graduate Studies
    • Master’s Programs
    • PhD Programs
      • PhD Mentoring Framework
      • PhD Candidate Roster
    • Pelham Scholars Program
    • Online Learning
      • Construction Engineering and Management MasterTrack™
    • Admissions Information
      • International Applicants
      • Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate Studies (SUGS) Applicants
    • Graduate Handbook
    • Graduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • People
    • Faculty
      • Affiliated Faculty
      • Core Faculty
      • Emeritus Faculty
    • Postdocs
    • Researchers
    • Staff
      • Administrative
      • Finance
      • Human Resources
      • IT & Web
      • Laboratory Technicians
      • Purchasing
      • Student Services
  • Research
    • New Grants
    • Civil Infrastructure Systems
      • Construction Engineering and Management
      • Geotechnical Engineering
      • Intelligent Systems
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems
      • Structural and Materials Engineering
    • Environment and Water Resources
      • Ecohydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
      • Energy and Clean Technology
      • Environmental Chemistry and Soil Physics
      • Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology
    • Smart Infrastructure Finance
    • Urban Collaboratory
    • Facilities
      • Advanced Materials Research
      • Cementitious Composites
      • Center of Excellence in Bridges and Structures
      • Computational Community Resilience
      • Computational Structural Simulation
      • Construction Engineering Lab
      • Geotechnical Engineering Labs
      • Intelligent Structural Technology
      • Next Generation Infrastructure
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems Research Facilities
      • Pavement Research Center of Excellence
      • Structural Engineering Lab
  • Resources
    • Shipping
    • Purchasing
      • Purchasing Frequently Asked Questions
    • Reimbursement
    • IT Resources
    • Lab Safety
      • Lab Safety Basics
      • Minimum Training Requirements
    • Lab Requests and Procedures
    • Room Requests
    • Faculty Intranet
    • Strategic Directions
    • News and Events
    • Contact

Zhengtian Xu awarded HKSTS Outstanding Dissertation Award and TSL Dissertation Prize

Both awards honor excellence in dissertations on the topic of transportation research.

Written by: Jessica Petras

September 1, 2021

Recent PhD alum Zhengtian Xu has received two awards for his dissertation On the Empty Miles of Ride-Sourcing Services: Theory, Observation and Countermeasures: the 2021Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS) Outstanding Dissertation Award cum Gordon Newell Memorial Prize and the 2021 Society of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) Dissertation Prize. 

According to the NKSTS website, the society established the Outstanding Dissertation Award “to promote transportation research and education in Asia.” The Gordon Newell Memorial Prize is named for a late faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley “in recognition of his significant contributions to scientific research and education in traffic and transportation theories.”

The TSL Dissertation Prize is the oldest and most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations in the transportation science and logistics area. The award honors the top dissertation that demonstrates fundamental contributions and originality of the ideas or methods, practical importance or applicability in solving important real problems, and clarity and excellence of the exposition.

The proliferation of smartphones in recent years has catalyzed the rapid growth of ride-sourcing services such as Uber, Lyft, and Didi Chuxing. But to overcome the physical and temporal frictions that separate drivers from customers and effectively reposition themselves towards desired destinations, ride-sourcing services generate a significant number of vacant trips. These empty miles traveled result in inefficient use of the available fleet and increase traffic demand, posing substantial impacts on system operations. 

In his dissertation, Xu investigated the formation and consequences of empty miles in ride-sourcing services and proposed countermeasures to bolster system performance. He was advised by Professor Yafeng Yin.

Xu finished his PhD in Summer 2020 and started as an Assistant Professor at the George Washington (GW) University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Fall 2020. His research focuses on mathematical modeling, optimization, and empirical operations management of urban transportation systems. He leads the Sustainable Urban Mobility Lab (The SUM Lab) at the GW Transportation Program, aiming to understand, promote, and regulate emerging urban mobility services and vehicle technologies.

This article was updated on October 26, 2021 to include the TSL Dissertation Prize.


MEDIA CONTACT

Portrait of Michele Santillan

Michele Santillan

Marketing Communications Specialist
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

(734) 748-1283

mssantil@umich.edu

Explore: Alumni Awards Civil and Environmental Engineering Transportation

Footer

Logo for Michigan Engineering at the University of Michigan

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter
  • U-M Engineering Home
  • Strategic Vision
  • Graduate and Professional
  • Undergraduate
  • U-M Engineering Research News
  • U-M Home

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter

© 2023 The Regents of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA Privacy Policy | Non-Discrimination Policy | Campus Safety

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube