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BIO
Transportation is not about to move people and goods, instead it's all about to access activities and services.
Dr. Zhang is an Assistant Professor at The University of Southern Mississippi since 2019. She teaches for the Program of Industry Engineering technology in the School of Leadership, College of Business and Economic Development. Courses taught by Dr. Zhang include Engineering Economy, Statics and Strengths of Materials, Industry Cost Control, and Senior Project. Dr. Zhang also collaborates closely with the Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation at the same university. She has extensive research experience in various areas of transportation engineering, planning, and management, including transportation safety, network analysis, and pedestrian studies. She received her Ph.D degree in Transportation Planning and Management from Tongji University, Shanghai, China in 2012 and subsequently worked in University of California, Berkeley, as a Post-Doctoral Researcher. In 2016, she joined USM and lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her current research interests include: transportation related economic development, multi-modal freight network analysis, resilience of coastal regions, machine learning application in transportation, and traffic safety.
GRANTS
CBED Summer Research Grant, "Using Artificial Intelligence to Unlock the Walkability Data Reservior in Images: Opportunities and Challenges of Deep Learning Image Analysis in Active Transportation", PI (2025.4-2026.8)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Automated Sidewalk Presence Data Generation Based on Satellite/Aerial Imagery Phase III", PI (2024.10-2025.9)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Automated Sidewalk Presence Data Generation Based on Satellite/Aerial Imagery Phase II", PI (2023.10-2024.9)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Automated Sidewalk Presence Data Generation Based on Satellite/Aerial Imagery Phase I", PI (2022.10-2023.9)
Coastal Faculty Development Award, "Readiness, Perception, and Acceptance of Coastal Communities Toward Autonomous Trucks as Logistics Delivery Services", PI (2022.10-2023.6)
National Rail Passenger Association, "Research on an Modernized Tool for Socioeconomic Impact Analysis of Passenger Railways", PI (2023.1-2023.4)
CBED Summer Research Grant, "Barriers to and Motivators for Active Transportation for Mississippi Adults", PI (2022.3-2023.3)
The Institute for Systems Engineering Research (ISER) at Mississippi State University, “A market accessibility study of the inland waterway system in Mississippi – Phase III”, PI (2020.9-2021.9)
The Institute for Systems Engineering Research (ISER) at Mississippi State University, “A market accessibility study of the inland waterway system in Mississippi – Phase III”, PI (2020.9-2021.9)
The Institute for Systems Engineering Research (ISER) at Mississippi State University, “A market accessibility study of the inland waterway system in Mississippi – Phase II”, PI (2019.9-2020.5)
Gulf Regional Planning Commission (GRPC), “Economic impact evaluation for transportation improvement projects”, Principle Investigator (PI) (2019)
National Academy of Science (NAS), “An automated system for pedestrian facility data collection”, Principle Investigator (PI) (2018-2020) $129,954.00
Rail Passenger Association (RPA), “Economic impact study for Southwest Chief railway service”, PI (2018)
The Institute for Systems Engineering Research (ISER) at Mississippi State University, “A market accessibility study of the inland waterway system in Mississippi”, PI (2018-2019)
Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, “Developing and implementing strategies to improve management, health and utilization of forest and forest industry through market development”, Subcontractor to Mississippi Forestry Commission, PI (2018-2020)
Southern Rail Commission, “Restoration of Gulf Coast Passenger Rail Service – economic impact in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana”, PI (2018)
City of Hattiesburg, “Economic impact projection study”, PI (2017)
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), “Develop a Plan to Collect Pedestrian Infrastructure and Volume Data for Future Incorporation into Caltrans Accident Surveillance and Analysis System Database”, Project Director (2014)
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), “Pedestrian Safety Improvement Program”, Lead Researcher (2014)
City of San Diego, California. "San Diego Crosswalk Safety Analysis", Lead Researcher (2014)
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), “Strategies for Monitoring and Reducing Traffic Injury for Pedestrians”, Project Director (2014-2017)
California State Office of Traffic Safety, "Transportation Injury Mapping System", Lead Researcher (2012-2013)
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Zhang, Yuanyuan, Joseph Luttrell IV, and Chaoyang Zhang. "How to detect occluded crosswalks in overview images? Comparing three methods in a heavily occluded area." International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 17 (2025): 148-160.
Zhang, Y., and A. Haddud. "Exploring Perceived Usefulness of Using Autonomous Trucks in Logistics." Transportation Journal 64, no. 1 (2025): e12039.
Luttrell IV, Joseph, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Chaoyang Zhang. "Automatically detect crosswalks from satellite view images: A deep learning approach with ground truth verification." International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 16 (2024): 165-176.
Yang, Yilin, Ying Ni, Yixin Li, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Jian Sun. "Development of Moped-Following Models by Characterizing the Riding Style of Moped Riders." Transportation Research Record 2678, no. 11 (2024): 948-965.
Zhang, Yuanyuan, and Zikai Zhou. "A social-ecological framework to explore factors associated with transportation walking for rural American adults using case of Mississippi." Journal of Transport & Health 38 (2024): 101890.
Zhou, Zikai, and Yuanyuan Zhang. "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in distance education: A self-determination perspective." American Journal of Distance Education 38, no. 1 (2024): 51-64.
Zhang, Yuanyuan, George Raber, Amit Tripathi, and Steve Puryear. "Evaluating the market accessibility of inland waterway ports using the state of Mississippi as a case study." Transportation Research Record 2678, no. 3 (2024): 266-278.
Luttrell, Joseph, Zhaoxian Zhou, Yuanyuan Zhang, Chaoyang Zhang, Ping Gong, Bei Yang, and Runzhi Li. "A deep transfer learning approach to fine-tuning facial recognition models." In 2018 13th IEEE conference on industrial electronics and applications (ICIEA), pp. 2671-2676. IEEE, 2018.
Yingying Ma, Siyuan Lu, and Yuanyuan Zhang, "Analysis on Illegal Crossing Behavior of Pedestrians at Signalized Intersections Based on Bayesian Network," Journal of Advanced Transportation, vol. 2020, Article ID 2675197, 14 pages, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/2675197.
Hua Zhang and Yuanyuan Zhang (Corresponding author). Pedestrian Network Analysis Using a Network Consisting of Formal Pedestrian Facilities - Sidewalks and Crosswalks. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. 2019, Vol 2673(7): 294-307.
Zhao Yang, Yuanyuan Zhang (corresponding author), Offer Grembek. Combining traffic efficiency and traffic safety in countermeasure selection to improve pedestrian safety at two-way stop controlled intersections. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. Volume 91, pp 286-301, 2016.
Wen Xiong, Yuanyuan Zhang (corresponding author), Yahan Liang, Chao Jiang. When walking becomes praying: the walking environment survey and improvement for circumambulation paths in Lhasa. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Volume 2581, pp. 134-144, 2016.
Zhao Yang, Pan Liu, Yuanyuan Zhang, David Ragland. Multi-objective analysis of using u-turns as alternatives to direct left turns at two-way stop-controlled intersections. Journal of Advanced Transportation. Volume 50, Issue 4, pp 389-405, 2016.
Zhao Yang, Yuanyuan Zhang (corresponding author), Renwei Zhu, Xiaofei Ye, Xiaohong Jiang. Impacts of pedestrians on capacity and delay of major-street through traffic at Two-Way STOP-Controlled intersections. Journal of Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Vol 2015, pp 1-11. 2015
Frank Proulx, Yuanyuan Zhang (corresponding author), Offer Grembek. Database for active transportation infrastructure and volume. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2527, pp 99-106, 2015.
Yuanyuan Zhang, John Bigham, David Ragland, Xiahong Chen. Investigating the associations between road network structure and non-motorist accidents. Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 42, pp 34-47. 2015
Wei Huang, Lingbin Kong, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Xiaohong Chen. A discussion on project transportation impact analysis technique standard. Planners, 29 (7), 2013.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Xuesong Wang, Peng Zeng, and Xiaohong Chen. Centrality characteristics of road network patterns of traffic analysis zones, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2256, pp 16-24, 2011.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Xiaohong Chen, Jingwen Jiang. Wayfinding-oriented design for passenger guidance signs in large-scale transit center in China, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2144, pp 150-160, 2010.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Xiaohong Chen, Na Li. Experimental research of relationship between pedestrian stopping distance and walking speed to avoid pedestrian crowd stampede accident. ICCTP 2010: Integrated Transportation Systems: Green, Intelligent, Reliable. ASCE, pp 839-850, 2010.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Yuanyuan Zhang, Fan Zhang, Caleb Prine, Amit Tripathi, Steve Puryear. A market accessibility study of the inland waterway system in Mississippi. Proceeding of The 2021 Annual Conference of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering conference. May 26-29, 2021. Virtual.
Hua Zhang and Yuanyuan Zhang (Corresponding author). Pedestrian Network Analysis Using a Network Consisting of Formal Pedestrian Facilities - Sidewalks and Crosswalks. Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2019. (Recommended for publication in Transportation Research Record)
Yuanyuan Zhang, Chad Miller. Using bill of lading data to identify economic development opportunities. The 6th International Transportation and Economic Development Conference. June 6-8, 2018, Washington DC.
Joseph Luttrell IV, Zhaoxian Zhou, Yuanyuan Zhang, Chaoyang Zhang, Ping Gong, Bei Yang, Ruizhi Li. A deep learning approach to fine-tuning facial recognition models. IEEE ICIEA 2018, Wuhan, China.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Chad Miller, Dongxin Lin, and Brandon Nettles. An investigation of the shipping route of the U.S. exports of military end use products. Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2018.
Joseph Luttrell IV, Zhaoxian Zhou, Chaoyang Zhang, Ping Gong, Yuanyuan Zhang. Facial recognition via transfer learning: finetuning Keras_vggface. 4th Annual Conference on Computational Science & Computational Intelligence. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Dec. 14-16, 2017.
Yingying Ma, Xiaodan Qin, Yuanyuan Zhang (corresponding author), Shaokun Liu. Understanding When Price Can Affect Choice of Public Bicycle: Stated-Preference Survey and Analysis of Public Bicycle Service in Guangzhou, China. Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, 2017.
Wen Xiong, Yuanyuan Zhang, Xiaohong Chen, Chao Jiang. The Analysis of Right-of-Way for Different Road Users in China: Passing-Passenger-Unit Versus Passenger-Car-Unit. Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2015.
Zhibin Li, Pan Liu, Ye Li, Chengcheng Xu, Hao Yu, Yuanyuan Zhang. Development of a Variable Speed Limit Strategy Based on Car Following Behaviors for Improving Freeway Safety Under Severe Weathers. Transportation Research Board 93th Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2014.
Yuanyuan Zhang, John Bigham, Zhibin Li, David Ragland, Xiaohong Chen. Associations Between Road Network Structure and Pedestrian-Bicyclist Accidents. Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2013.
Yuanyuan Zhang, John Bigham, Zhibin Li, David Ragland. Associations between road network connectivity and pedestrian-bicyclist accidents. Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2012.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Xiaohong Chen, Na Li. Experimental Research on Relationship Between Pedestrian Stopping Distance and Walking Speed. Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting, Washington DC. 2009.
STUDENTS
AMIT TRIPATHI
Undergraduate Student
Year in group: 2018.8 - 2020.6
Research:
*Passenger railway impact study
*Forestry industry logistics study
*Port accessibility study
*Automated data collection for pedestrian facilities
CHAITANYA KUMAR MADDALA
Master Student
Year in group: 2019.8 - 2020.6
Research:
*Automated data collection for pedestrian facilities
WILLIAM KINKEAD
Master Student
Year in group: 2019.8 - 2020.6
Research:
*Multimodal network analysis
*Pedestrian network analysis
JOSEPH LUTTRELL
Ph.D Student
Year in group: 2019.1 - 2022.6
Research:
*Machine learning and its application to automated pedestrian facility data collection.
*Deep learning model development in Python using PyTorch and Tensorflow
JOSHUA HUBBELL
Ph.D Student
Year in group: 2020.1 - 2020.12
Research:
* Traffic crash data analysis
* Statistical modeling and big data analysis
DONGXIN LIN
Master Student
Year in group: 2017.9 - 2018.5
Research:
* Target industry identification based on trade data and shipping cost
* Defense logistics data analysis
JENNIFER HOOPER
Master Student
Year in group: 2018.9 - 2019.5
Research:
* Forestry industry logistics study
BRANDON NETTLES
Master Student
Year in group: 2017.9-2018.5
Research:
* Defense logistics data analysis
CALEB PRINE
Master Student
Year in group: 2018.9 - 2019.5
Research:
*Passenger railway impact study
*Forestry industry logistics study
*Port market accessibility study
Sarju Maharjan
Undergraduate Student
Year in group: 2019.2-2019.7
Research:
*Shipping cost comparison automation
*Website-based tool development
Akhil Samudrala
Master Student
Year in group: 2019.8-2021.1
Research:
*Automation of car accident report entry
*Autonomous vehicle related car crashes
Narendra Gopi Uppalapati
Master Student
Year in group: 2022.2-2022.5
Research:
*Pedestrian infrastructure mapping
Subeksha Khanal
Master Student
Year in group: 2023.2-2024.5
Research:
*Automation of extracting sidewalk polygons from aerial images
Oluseyi Olaolu Olukola
Doctoral Student
Year in group: 2024.4-2024.10
Research:
*Automation of extracting sidewalk polygons from aerial images
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