Research

Research Grants

• “Fleet-Facility Partnership: Collaborative Planning and Interactive Operations of Shared Autonomous Vehicle Fleet and Parking Facility”, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, 2027-2030, PI.
• “Unlocking the Potential of Human-UAV Collaboration for Smart Metro Maintenance: Data-informed Optimization of Task Planning, Ruting, and Orchestration”, MTR Research Funding (MRF), 2026-2029, PI.
• “Parking and charging as a service: Capacity allocation and pricing strategies”, General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, 2025-2027, PI.
• “Urban multi-modal transportation system management based on tradable travel carbon emission”, General Programme, Natural Science Fund of Guangdong Province, 2025-2027, PI.
• “Order allocation and vehicle routing optimization of an integrated logistics platform with crowdsourced and dedicated couriers”, General Program, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 2024-2027, PI.
• “Urban co-modality in public transport systems: Synergize passenger and freight movements”, Early Career Scheme (ECS), Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, 2022-2024, PI.
• “Synchronization and optimization of an integrated passenger-freight transport system with demand uncertainties”, Science Fund for Young Scholars, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 2022-2024, PI.
• “Transport modelling and management for the transition to autonomous driving”, Seed Fund for Basic Research for New Staff, University Research Committee, HKU, 2021-2022, PI.
• “SynchroHub: Cyber-physical internet for synchronizing cross-border logistics hubs in the Greater Bay Area (GBA)”, Theme-based Research Scheme, Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, 2023-2028, Co-PI.

Research Awards

(†: Research student advised by Dr Zhang)

• Best Paper Award, The 16th Workshop on Computational Transportation Science (CTS). “Urban logistics system design with truck-drone collaborative delivery.” Authors: Gong, Z.†, Zhang, Z.†, Zhang, F., 2025.
• HKSTS-ATRS Best Paper Award, The 28th Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) World Conference. “Ground-air collaborations for disaster responses with uncertainties.” Authors: Sun, W.†, Wu, L., Zhang, F., 2025.
• Best Student Paper Award Second Prize, NSFC-RGC Conference on Frontiers of Digital Twins in Intelligent Manufacturing and Smart Cities. “Integrating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Public Buses for Parcel Delivery in Urban Area.” Authors: Zhen, Y.†, Lin, J.†, Zhang, F., 2025.
• Best Paper Award, The 5th Frontier Symposium on Traffic Behavior and Transportation Science (TBTS). “To park or to share your autonomous vehicle?” Authors: Zhang, Z.†, Zhang, F., Liu, W., 2024.
• Outstanding Student Paper Award First Prize, The 28th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS 2024). “On the network equilibrium of an integrated air-ground urban transport system.” Authors: Gong, Z.†, Zhang, Z.†, Zhang, F., 2024.
• Best Presenter Award, The 6th International Symposium on Multimodal Transportation (ISMT 2024). “Dynamic routing for trucks and drones for multiple tasks after disasters.” Authors: Sun, W.†, Zhang, F., 2024.
• Meritorious Service Award, Transportation Science, 2024.
• Qian Xuesen Urban Science Gold Award (Transportation) Nomination Award. “On the joint network equilibrium of parking and travel choices under mixed traffic of shared and private autonomous vehicles” published on Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. Authors: Zhang, Z.†, Liu, W., Zhang, F., 2023.
• Best Paper Award, The 14th Workshop on Computational Transportation Science (CTS). “Modeling the vehicle parking, charging and vehicle-to-grid services in the era of electric vehicles.” Authors: Zhang, Z.†, Zhang, F., Liu, W., 2023.
• Best Student Paper First Prize, Annual International Conference for Digital Intelligence Logistics and Supply Chain Management (DILSCM 2023). “On urban co-modality: Service network design for a bus-integrated freight transport system.” Authors: Lin, J.†, Zhang, F., 2023.
• Best Student Paper Third Prize, Annual International Conference for Digital Intelligence Logistics and Supply Chain Management (DILSCM 2023). “Unmanned aerial vehicle routing problem with multiple public bus service line.” Authors: Zhen, Y.†, Zhang, F., 2023.
• Best Area Editor, The 22nd COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals, Chinese Overseas Transportation Association, 2022.
• Outstanding Student Paper Award, The 20th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS 2015), 1st runner-up. “Managing the multimodal transportation system with roadway space allocation and responsive bus services.” Author: Zhang, F., 2015.

Selected working papers

• Chen, Z., Zhang, Z., Zhang, F. Synergize mobility and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) services for electric vehicle platforms: Pricing and vehicle dispatching strategies.
• Gong, Z., Zhang, Z., Zhang, F. Strategic design of urban logistics system with truck-drone delivery: A continuum approximation approach
• Gong, Z., Zhang, Z., Zhang, F. Airline fleet sizing, dispatching, and pricing strategies under passenger and cargo demand uncertainties with dedicated and convertible aircraft.
• Li, D., Sun, W., Zhang, F. Joint Optimization of Incentive and Routing Strategies in Crowdsourced Last-mile Delivery.
• Li, D., Zhang, F. A Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for the Two-Echelon Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows.
• Lyu, Y., Mo, T., Zhang, F. Managing urban transportation carbon emissions through integrated personal and corporate carbon trading systems.
• Shao, S., Lin, J., Zhang, F. Towards green logistics: Robust planning of electric truck charging infrastructure integrating vehicle-to-grid technology under dual-layer uncertainty.
• Zhen, Y., Zhang, F., Kuo, Y.H., Ji, K. Routing, Scheduling, and Synchronization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Bus Hitchhiking for Last-mile Parcel Delivery.

Invited talks

• Truck-and-drone routing problems for multi-type rescue services in disaster response. National University of Singapore (NUS). Singapore, 16 June 2025.
• Mechanism design and collaborative routing for urban crowdshipping systems. Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Singapore, 16 June 2025.
• Collaborative passenger and freight transportation: modeling, analysis, and optimization. George Washington University. Washington DC, US, 9 January 2025.
• Synchronization of Integrated Passenger and Freight Transportation Systems. Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hong Kong, 28 October 2024.
• Urban co-modality: Transforming the future of passenger and freight transportation. The 24th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP 2024). Shenzhen, China, 25 July 2024.
• Urban co-modality: Transforming the future collaborative passenger and freight transportation. TechTalk, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, China, 20 June 2024.
• Modeling and optimization of urban crowdshipping services. Greater Bay Area Symposium on Smart Transportation Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). Guangzhou, China, 4 May 2024.
• Modeling and optimization of crowdshipping service. Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, 30 March 2024.
• Urban co-modality: Synergize passenger and freight transportation. The 4th Symposium on Travel Behavior and Transportation Science, co-organized by North China University of Technology, Beihang University, and Beijing Jiaotong University. Beijing, China, 28-30 July 2023.
• A spatiotemporal analysis of the robustness of high-speed rail network in China, International Symposium on High-speed Railway and Environment, organized by Shijiazhuang Tiedao University and Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 26 September 2020.
• Quantifying Demand and Impacts of High-speed Rail System. School of Economics and Management, Beihang University. Beijing, China, 11 September 2019.
• Quantifying Demand and Impacts of High-speed Rail System. College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology. Beijing, China, 10 September 2019.
• Unlock the sharing economy in the parking sector for recurrent commuting trips. School of Economics and Management, Beihang University. Beijing, China, 15 October 2018.
• The substitution and complementary effects between high-speed rail and air transport. School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University. Beijing, China, 15 October 2018.
• Quantifying complex interactions between high-speed rail and air transport. Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Shanghai, China, 19 June 2018.
• Multimodal transport systems – modelling, analysis and management. College of Transport & Communications, Shanghai Maritime University. Shanghai, China, 17 June 2018.
• Impact Assessment of Condition-Based Maintenance for metro lines in Bangkok and London. Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University. Salaya, Thailand, 26 January 2018.
• Economic Modelling and Analysis of Transport Systems. College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University. Changsha, China, 27 December 2017.
• Modelling and Analysis of Multimodal Transport Systems. School of Engineering, Sun-Yat Sen University. Guangzhou, China, 16 June 2017.

Academic services

Editorial Services

• Associate Editor, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (JTEP)
• Editorial Advisory Board, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
• Editorial Advisory Board, Transportation Planning and Technology
• Guest Editor, Special Issue of Transportmetrica B on “Advances in Air Transportation Management”
• Guest Editor, Special Session of TSTE 2019 conference on “High-speed rail and air transport”

Journal Reviewer

• Transportation Science
• Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
• Transportation Research Part B: Methodological
• Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
• Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
• Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
• Transportmetrica A: Transport Science
• Transportmetrica B: Transport Dynamics
• Transport Policy
• Travel Behaviour and Society
• Networks and Spatial Economics
• IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
• International Journal of Logistics
• Transportation Planning and Technology
• Transportation Research Record
• Journal of Advanced Transportation
• Journal of Transport Economics and Policy
• Journal of Transportation Engineering
• Journal of Management Science and Engineering
• Regional Science, Policy and Practice
• Research in Transportation Economics

Conference and Public Report Reviewer

• International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory (ISTTT)
• Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB)
• International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS)
• International Conference on Vehicle Technology andIntelligent Transport Systems (VEHITS)
• International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP)
• International Conference on Transportation and Space-time Economics (TSTE)
• IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (IEEE ITSC)
• Government Office for Science of the UK