Yiming Bie is Professor of Transportation Engineering with the School of Transportation, Jilin University, China. He obtained his Ph.D. degree at Jilin University in June 2012. His research interests include public transportation operations, traffic control, and intersection design. He has authored or co-authored over 70 journal articles at top-tier journals such as Transportation Research Part C, Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Journal of Transportation Engineering-ASCE. The algorithms developed by him were adopted by the most popular adaptive traffic control system in China and has been implemented to more than 20 cities. Recently, his research is focused on electric bus operations in cold regions. He is Principal Investigator for two projects funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China and a few projects from other funding agencies. In 2019, he was conferred the outstanding reviewer recognition by Journal of Transportation Engineering-ASCE.Bob X. Qu is Professor and Research Group Leader at the Division of Geology and Geotechnics, Chalmers University of Technology. Throughout his academic career, he has been endeavoring to practically improve transport safety, efficiency, equity, and sustainability through traffic flow modeling, network optimization, and most recently emerging technologies. In particular, his research has been applied to improvement of emergency services, operations of electric vehicles and connected automated vehicles, and management of vulnerable road users. He has authored or co-authored over 90 journal articles published at top-tier journals in the area of transport engineering, and he is a recipient of many prestigious awards. His research has been supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Programme, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Sydney Trains, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Swedish Innovation Agency Vinnova, and European Union.Dr. Robert J. Howlett is Executive Chair of KES International, a non-profit organization that facilitates knowledge transfer and the dissemination of research results in areas including Intelligent Systems, Sustainability, and Knowledge Transfer. He is Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University in the UK. His technical expertise is in the use of intelligent systems to solve industrial problems. He has been successful in applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related technologies to sustainability and renewable energy systems; condition monitoring, diagnostic tools and systems; and automotive electronics and engine management systems. His current research work is focused on the use of smart microgrids to achieve reduced energy costs and lower carbon emissions in areas such as housing and protected horticulture.Dr. Lakhmi C. Jain, Ph.D., ME, BE(Hons), Fellow (Engineers Australia), is with the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and Liverpool Hope University, UK. She serves the KES International for providing a professional community the opportunities for publications, knowledge exchange, cooperation, and teaming. Involving around 5,000 researchers drawn from universities and companies worldwide, KES facilitates international cooperation and generates synergy in teaching and research. KES regularly provides networking opportunities for professional community through one of the largest conferences of its kind in the area of KES.
