Faculty News

RESEARCH CENTER UPDATE:

Dr. Wei Fan with CAMMSE studentsMultimodal mobility just got a boost. The Center for Advanced Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education (CAMMSE), located in CEE, was just awarded $1.4 million for year 6 of the project. The Tier 1 University Transportation Center started in 2016 under the leadership of Dr. Wei Fan. The original 5-year, multi-university award was $7.8 million. Other universities included in the UNC Charlotte-led center are the University of Connecticut, the Washington State University, Texas State University and the University of Texas at Austin.

CAMMSE does research that focuses on “developing advanced technology, methods and models for multimodal transportation (including highway, air, rail, freight, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian) as well as educating and developing an effective workforce.”

Read more about the multimodal transportation center here: https://cammse.charlotte.edu/

TWO NEW PATENTS:

Dr. Olya Keen’s new patent (US Patent 11,124,439) is a game changer for removal of hydrogen peroxide after advanced oxidation treatment. It is an improvement to an existing process that is used to treat water for potable reuse or to treat other impaired water resources, e.g. those affected by algal blooms. She shares, “This patent introduces a low-cost and sustainable water treatment process for potable water reuse and for impaired drinking water resources.” CEE researchers have been featured in local and national news as well.

The second patent (US Patent 11,174,201) was awarded to Dr. Shen-En Chen. It is a new kind of concrete that does not use potable water and cement. Typically concrete is made up of cement, air, potable (“drinkable”) water, sand, and gravel. This new technology will allow for a business to save money and use recycled (“reclaimed”) water onsite.

PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS:

The following publications were posted since the last newsletter publication.

Chen, Z. and Fan, W., A Freeway Travel Time Prediction Method Based on an XGBoost Model, Sustainability, 13(15), 8577, https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158577, 2021.

Clinton, S., Johnson, J., Lambirth, K.C., Sun, S., Brouwer, C., Keen, O., Redmond, M., Fodor, A. and Gibas, C., Sediment microbial diversity in urban Piedmont North Carolina watersheds receiving wastewater input. Water 12(6), 1557., 2020.

Gleason, J.E., Burbes, D. and Keen, O.S., Hydrogen peroxide quenching with mineral catalysts after UV/H2O2 advanced oxidation. ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering (accepted), 2021.

Juel, MAI, Stark, N., Nicolosi, B.,Lontai, J., Lambirth, K., Schlueter, J., Gibas, C., Munir, M., Performance evaluation of virus concentration methods for implementing SARS-CoV-2 wastewater based epidemiology emphasizing quick data turnaround, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 801, 149656, 2021.

Li, Y. and Fan, W., Bi-Level Optimization of Long-Term Highway Work Zone Scheduling Considering Elastic Demand, Accepted for Publication, Smart and Resilient Transportation, June 2021.

Liu, P. and Fan, W., Analysis of Head-On Crash Severity Using A Partial Proportional Odds Model, Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, Volume 13, Issue 7, pp. 714-734, https://doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2019.1667933, 2021.

Lin, Z. and Fan, W., Cyclist Injury Severity Analysis with Mixed Logit Models at Intersections and Non-intersection Locations, Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 223-245, 2021.

Liu, S., Li, Y. and Fan, W., Mixed Logit Model Based Diagnostic Analysis of Bicycle-Vehicle Crashes at Daytime and Nighttime, Accepted for Publication, International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, October 2021.

Liu, S., Lin, Z. and Fan, W., Investigating Contributing Factors to Injury Severity Levels in Crashes Involving Pedestrians and Cyclists Using Latent Class Clustering Analysis and Mixed Logit Models, Accepted for Publication, Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, https://doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2021.1958037, July 2021.

Liu, Y., Sun, M., Ion exchange removal and resin regeneration to treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether acids and other emerging PFAS in drinking water, Water Research, 2021.

Park, S., Rana, A., Sung, W. and Munir, M., Competitiveness of Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (ddPCR) Technologies, with a Particular Focus on Detection of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs). Applied Microbiology, 1(3), pp.426-444, 2021.

Qiu, B. and Fan, W., Machine Learning Based Short-Term Travel Time Prediction: Numerical Results and Comparative Analyses, Sustainability, 13(13), 7454, https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137454, 2021.

Qiu, B. and Fan, W., Mixed Logit Models for Examining Pedestrian Injury Severities at Intersection and Non-Intersection Locations, Accepted for Publication, Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, https://doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2021.1923101, June 2021.

Qiu, B. and Fan, W., Travel Time Forecasting on a Freeway Corridor: a Dynamic Information Fusion Model based on the Random Forests Approach, Accepted for Publication, Smart and Resilient Transportation, June 2021.

Song, L., Fan, W. and Li, Y., Time-of-day Variations and the Temporal Instability of Multi-vehicle Crash Injury Severities under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs after the Great Recession, Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Volume 32, 100183, 2021.

Research Awards

Olya Keen (PI), Jim Bowen (2021-2023) Charlotte Water, “Environmental Services and Student Experiential Learning” $272,885.

Olya Keen (PI), Suffolk County Water Authority (2021), “Testing scavenging term in groundwater samples” $27,004.

Dr. Wei Fan and his CAMMSE team were interviewed and featured by the university: INSIDE UNC CHARLOTTE: NINER INSIDER: BIKES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: HOW UNC CHARLOTTE RESEARCH KEEPS TRAFFIC – AND PEOPLE – MOVING, July 29, 2021. UNC Charlotte Twitter and UNC Charlotte Facebook, August 2, 2021.

Student Awards

  • Adeola Sorinolu won the student poster contest at the 101st NC AWWA-WEA Annual Conference, November 2021.

  • Li Song (Dr. Wei Fan’s Ph.D. student), Don Blackburn Memorial Scholarship, North Carolina Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, McKimmon Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, November, 2021.

  • Shaojie Liu (Dr. Wei Fan’s Ph.D. student), Roy D. Williams Memorial Scholarship, North Carolina Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, McKimmon Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, November, 2021.

Professional Society Recognition

Dr. Wei Fan:

  • Advisory Board Member, National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), September 2021-Present.

  • Secretary, Committee on Light Rail Transit Systems (AP075), Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, June 2021 – Present.