Student Seminar by Ms. Tianliang Zhu on Sep 8, 2026, 3:00PM

Title: Enhancing Multimodal Transportation Network Resilience through Cross-Layer Interaction Modeling

Speaker: Ms. Tianliang Zhu (Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Date: Sep 8, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Venue: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing Two, G/F, Run Run Shaw Building, HKU

Registration Link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/wFrBs0tH4K

ITS Student Committee will provide a beverage for registered participants.

Abstract: Multimodal transportation networks play a vital role in supporting efficient and reliable urban mobility, yet their increasing interdependence also makes them vulnerable to disruptions that can propagate across different transport modes. Understanding how these interactions influence network resilience is therefore essential for the planning and operation of robust urban transport systems. This seminar explores the resilience of multimodal transportation networks from a multilayer and cross-modal perspective. A cross-layer interaction model is introduced to capture both within-mode interactions and transfer-mediated dependencies between different transport modes, allowing the cascading effects of disruptions to be examined under a range of disruption conditions. Using a large-scale urban public transport network as a case study, the analysis investigates how different patterns of interdependence can either support network functioning or amplify disruption impacts. The findings highlight the importance of achieving an appropriate balance between within-mode reinforcement and cross-mode coordination. More broadly, the study provides insights into how multimodal transport systems can be designed and managed to better withstand disruptions, maintain service continuity, and support more resilient urban mobility.

Bios: Tianliang Zhu is a PhD student in the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests focus on multimodal transportation networks, transport resilience, and network modeling, with particular attention to the impacts of extreme weather events, such as flooding, on urban transportation systems.

Student Seminar by Ms. Busra Bayrak on Jul 29, 2026, 3:00PM

Title: HFCV Adoption Under Externality: Low- and High-Travel-Distance Consumers

Speaker: Ms. Busra Bayrak (Management School, University of Liverpool)

Date: Jul 29, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Venue: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing Two, G/F, Run Run Shaw Building, HKU

Registration Link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/sh8i2iympQ

ITS Student Committee will provide a beverage for registered participants.

Abstract: Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) are increasingly viewed as a viable low-carbon option for transport decarbonization. Yet, HFCV adoption remains limited, mainly due to consumer anxiety associated with safety and convenience under an underdeveloped hydrogen refueling infrastructure. This paper studies HFCV adoption when consumer utility is shaped by network externalities. We develop an analytical adoption model with two heterogeneous customer segments, high-distance fleet users and low-distance private users, and derive equilibrium prices, demands, and profits. Our results show that (i) adoption can progress more rapidly among low-distance users, as segment-level usage intensity and perceived inconvenience shape adoption differently in the presence of externalities, (ii) the equilibrium can exceed the socially optimal adoption level depending on consumer patience and infrastructure maturity, (iii) the planner’s policy should combine infrastructure investment to resolve over-adoption with demand-side subsidies to close the residual under-adoption gap; neither instrument alone is sufficient. The analysis offers insights for manufacturers and policymakers seeking to accelerate HFCV adoption and address infrastructure related anxiety.

Bios: Busra Bayrak is a PhD student in the Department of Operations and Supply Chain Management at University of Liverpool Management School. Her research interest focuses on sustainable operations and supply chain management, particularly the interplay between the triple bottom line, government interventions, consumer behavior, and product adoption/diffusion processes.

Student Seminar by Ms. Qingying He on May 28, 2026, 3:00PM

Title: Coordinated path planning of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for maritime monitoring

Speaker: Ms. Qingying He (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Date: May 28, 2026 (Thursday)

Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Venue: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing Two, HKU

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/YuBwcqw9y2

ITS Student Committee will provide a beverage for registered participants.

Abstract: Maritime monitoring often involves dispersed tasks over open water, where fixed support infrastructure is limited and costly to deploy and maintain. UAVs provide fast aerial sensing, while USVs can operate for longer periods and support UAV launch, recovery, and energy replenishment. The key planning challenge is to coordinate UAV sorties and USV routes so that monitoring tasks and launch--recovery operations remain feasible. This talk presents optimization models and scalable algorithms for UAV--USV coordinated path planning. The study starts from a deterministic setting, where coordination and synchronization are captured through a mixed-integer linear programming model and solved by customized exact and heuristic algorithms. It then considers travel time uncertainty caused by weather, waves, and currents, and develops a robust optimization framework to improve synchronization reliability. It further addresses real-time planning with imperfect operational information, where a cluster-wise robust optimization method is used to update decisions while accounting for heterogeneous forecast errors. Numerical experiments in the context of Guangdong--Hong Kong--Macao Greater Bay Area show that the proposed methods are effective, computationally efficient, and reliable under uncertainty. The framework provides a practical decision-support tool for operating heterogeneous autonomous systems in uncertain maritime environments.

Bios: Qingying He is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, under the supervision of Prof. Wei Liu. She holds a BSc in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Northeastern University and an MSc in Computational Mathematical Finance (with Distinction) from University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on transportation network modeling, optimization, and data-driven decision-making, with an emphasis on multi-modal coordination across unmanned aerial, surface, and ground vehicles. Her research has been published in world-leading journals in the field, such as TR Part B, TR Part E, IEEE T-ITS and Transportmetrica B.