Description:

Dr. Lili Du 

Professor 

University of Florida

 Abstract:

In recent years, wireless communication, onboard computation facilities, and advanced sensor techniques have enabled a well-connected and data-rich transportation system, i.e., connected vehicle systems (CVS). Even though the CVS has been granted a great potential to smartly route travelers (or CVs) to avoid traffic congestion, scholars have recognized that as the majority of vehicles become CVs, current real-time information provision and routing methods may worsen traffic congestion, given each CV still selfishly and independently chooses its own shortest path (independent routing). This inherent deficiency of the current routing methods is rooted in the inconsistency between system performance and individual vehicles' route choice behavior. Motivated by this view, our studies have introduced a novel Coordinated In-Vehicle Routing Mechanism (CRM), which used various game theories to coordinate CVs' routing decisions en route to address the overreaction phenomenon and the associated flash crowds. Drawing upon the foundational seed model, our research delved deeper into the development of information perturbation-aided CRM (IP-CRM) and correlated game-based CRM (CeRM), which strategically alter traffic information provision (travel time or route choice preferences) to CVs for mitigating network-wide congestion. Our investigations embraced a multidisciplinary approach, including computer simulation, machine learning, distributed optimization, and gradient coding schemes, to identify optimal information perturbation schemes, recommend optimal route choice preferences, tackle scalability challenges, and enhance the robustness of the CRMs against communication failures. Numerical experiments built upon the Sioux Falls network validated and confirmed the merits of our approaches. 
 
Bio:

Dr. Lili Du is currently working as an NRC renowned Research Associate at the Federal Highway Administration-Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, and she is also a Professor in the Civil and Coastal Engineering Department, University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. degree in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems with a minor in Operations Research and Statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. Dr. Du's research is characterized by integrating operations research, network modeling, game theory, control theory, AI, and statistical methods into traffic flow analysis, transportation system analysis, urban planning, and network modeling. Her current research mainly focuses on the impacts of connected and/or autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles, mobility on demand, smart curb, network resilience, and traffic flow analysis. Dr. Du's research has been published in Transportation Research Part B, Part C, and Part D, IEEE Transactions on ITS, Networks, and Spatial Economics. Her research has been funded by NSF, State DOTs, STRIDE UTC, FMRI UTC, and Toyota InfoTechnology Center. Dr. Du was a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2016. Her project, "Driverless City" won the First Nayar Prize at IIT. She is the founding and active chair of both TRB AEP40-4 subcommittee on Emerging Technologies in Network Modeling and ASCE-T&DI Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Committee. She serves as an editor for Transportation Research Part B: Methodological and an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems.