Faculty Profile

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BIOGRAPHY

  • Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2018
  • M.S., Statistics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2017
  • M.S., Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2013
  • B.S., Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2010

Dr. Haobing Liu is a Research Engineer II and Instructor in School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His career and research interests center on energy, emissions, and air quality modeling of transportation sectors, with special interests in exploring innovative technologies and policies that shape sustainable transportation systems.

Haobing's Ph.D. dissertation research, “Modeling the Impact of Road Grade on Driving Behavior, Vehicle Energy Consumption, and Emissions” examines vehicle operations in response to road grade changes, and the incorporation of such behaviors into energy, emissions and air quality modeling system. Haobing developed a streamlined machine learning method using Python to generate high-resolution road grade based on United States Geological Survey Digital Elevation Model (DEM), an open source LiDAR data. The straightforward method and publicly available DEM enable researchers to easily implement in any other regions across the United States. With the grade information available, Haobing also built a Hierarchical Bayesian Model to examine the impact of road grade on vehicle operations, including the operation heterogeneity across drivers, vehicle types, and road types. The model indicated a strong correlation between driving behavior and road grade, while such relationship varies by drivers and vehicle types. The results also highlighted the importance of integrating road grade and grade-behavior correlation into vehicle energy consumption and emissions modeling, especially for heavy-duty vehicles. The findings can lead to enhanced agency guidance on improved emissions modeling and have the potential to improve vehicle activity model with grade impact integrated.

In addition to dissertation research, Haobing has also leveraged various emerging data science and computer science techniques to address critical inquiries in sustainable transportation system:

  • One of Haobing's research assessed life-cycle energy consumption and emissions for intercity passenger travel for more than 200 city-city pairs by aviation, intercity bus, and automobile. The modeled processes included vehicle manufacturing, infrastructure construction and maintenance, upstream fuel production, and vehicle operation and maintenance. The research to date indicates that lifecycle energy consumption and emissions per passenger-mile of travel are lowest for fully-loaded intercity buses. For medium to long-distance travel (500+ miles), aviation is energy more efficient than automobiles, due to the high fuel efficiency of the air cruise mode, while automobiles are more efficient than aviation for shorter distances, sue to takeoff and landing energy use. This research provides a basis for future policies designed to encourage mode shifts by a range of service.
  • In 2016-2017, Haobing developed a real-time near-road air quality modeling system by linking hourly traffic data and meteorology data with vehicle emissions model and dispersion model in parallel supercomputing cluster. The new tool will facilitate server-side automation of transportation and air quality analysis for transportation planning and management.
  • In 2014-2015, Haobing participated in the project of emissions modeling and eco-driving for transit. An eco-driving strategy has been designed to avoid high-speed and hard acceleration driving, and results indicated eco-driving can reduce fuel consumption of diesel and CNG transit fleet by about 4%. These results are of great significance, considering eco-driving training does not require significant capital investment.
  • In the Summer of 2015, Haobing worked as an ORISE Fellow in the National Vehicle Fuel and Emission Lab at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). I conducted a successful project on vehicle activity and emission modeling at highway ramps that were an improvement for MOVES model, a regulatory vehicle emission model published by US EPA for conformity analysis in the United States. EPA plans to integrate my research result into MOVES 2019 version since it is an improvement in modeling accuracy on highway ramps.
  • Another research Haobing led was vehicle classification method for MOVES modeling. A classification method was proposed to generate vehicle type distribution for improved MOVES input at project-level analysis. The paper has been presented in 2015 TRB meeting, The Transportation and Air Quality Committee (ADC20) of the Transportation Research Board selected our paper as its "Spotlight Presentation" for that year, since the paper was ranked 1st among 220 papers reviewed.

In this field, Haobing has authored or co-authored more than 15 peered-review papers in well-known transportation and energy journals, including Transportation Research Part-CTransportation Research Part-DApplied EnergyJournal of Transportation Engineering (ASCE), and Journal of Transportation Research Record.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Sustainable Transportation
  • Energy, Emissions and Air Quality Modeling in Transportation Sectors
  • Data Mining and Statistical Modeling for Transportation Applications
  • Geoprocessing and Big Data Analysis in Transportation Based on Parallel Computing Clusters

HONORS & AWARDS

  • Georgia ITS Wayne Shackelford Scholarship, Nov. 2017
  • Georgia Section ITE Transportation Engineering Scholarship, Dec. 2016
  • Transportation Research Board Transportation and Air Quality (ADC 20) Committee Paper Rating #1, Jan. 2015
  • National Center of Sustainable Transportation Outstanding Student Award of the Year 2014, Dec. 2014
  • Tongji University Level-A Graduate Fellowship, 2010-2013
  • Graduated Magna Cum Laude in Shanghai, 2010

RECENT PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

ARTICLES
  • Liu, H.*, Rodgers, M. and Guensler, R. (2019). The Impact of Road Grade on Vehicle Accelerations Behavior, PM2.5 Emissions, and Dispersion Modeling. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. 75, 297-319
  • Liu, H. and Kim, D.*, (2019). Simulating the Uncertain Environmental Impact of Freight Truck Shifting Programs. Atmospheric Environment, 214, p.116847.
  • Liu, H.*, Rodgers, M., and Guensler, R. (2019). Impact of Road Grade on Vehicle Speed-Acceleration Distribution, Emissions and Dispersion Modeling on Freeways. 69, pp: 107-122. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2019.01.028
  • Liu, H.*, Li, H., Rodgers, M.O. and Guensler, R., (2018). Development of Road Grade Data Using The United States Geological Survey Digital Elevation Model. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 92, 243-257. doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2018.05.004
  • Xu, X.*, Liu, H., Li, H., Rodgers, M. and Guensler, R. (2018). Integrating Engine Start, Soak, Evaporative, and Truck Hoteling Emissions into MOVES-Matrix. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. In Press., DOI: 10.1177/0361198118797208
PROCEEDINGS
  • Li, H., Wang, Y., Xu, X., Liu, H., Guin, A., Rodgers, M.O., Hunter, M.P., Laval, J.A., Abdelghany, K. and Guensler, R., 2018. Assessing the Time, Monetary, and Energy Costs of Alternative Modes. TRB 97th Annual Meeting, January 7-11, 2018., Washington D.C., USA.
  • Liu, H., Li, H., Rodgers, M. and Guensler, R. Development of Road Grade Data Using the United States Geological Survey Digital Elevation Model. TRB 97th Annual Meeting, January 7-11, 2018., Washington D.C., USA.
  • Guensler, R., Liu, H., Xu, Y., Kim, D., Alper, A., Rodgers, M. Energy Consumption and Emission Modeling of Individual Vehicles Using MOVES-Matrix. 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 8-12, 2017, Washington D.C., USA.
  • Guensler, R., Liu, H., Xu, X., Xu, Y., Rodgers, M. MOVES-Matrix: Setup, Implementation, and Application, 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 10-14, 2016, Washington D.C., USA.
  • Li, H., Liu, H., Xu, Y., Rodgers, M., Guensler, R. Performance of Multiple Alternatives to Reduce Carbon Emissions for Transit Fleets: A Real-World Perspective. 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 10-14, 2016, Washington D.C., USA.