News

Dr. Xu has been recognized with the Paper of the Year Award in Traffic, Demand, and Network Analysis by Transportation Science, the foremost scientific journal in transportation analysis. It is a great honor to have our research acknowledged by the journal’s editorial board. The award recognizes the paper titled “Economic Analysis of On-Street Parking with Urban Delivery” [URL], in which we develop continuum models of curb parking systems and conduct analytical analyses to understand their dynamics and steady-state properties under the growing influence of urban deliveries.

In addition, Dr. Xu has been selected by the Transportation Science editorial board to receive a Meritorious Service Award, recognizing his dedicated efforts as a reviewer for the journal. This marks his fourth consecutive year receiving this honor.

Dr. Xu is also transitioning from his previous role as Vice Chair of the TSL Cluster to serve as the Chair for the next cycle of the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. He looks forward to continuing his service to the TSL community and to collaborating with the Cluster Vice Chair and TSL SIG Chairs to design innovative, well-curated session offerings that create a meaningful and engaging experience for all participants.

At the Annual Meeting, Dr. Xu also delivered an oral presentation titled “A Queueing-Theoretic Approximation of Truck–Drone Collaborative Delivery.” This work was initiated by Linxuan, who currently works at Amazon, and will continue to be developed by Xi. The research aims to establish a novel queueing-based analytical framework to approximate system performance in hybrid truck-drone delivery operations. Stay tuned for future updates!

We are delighted to welcome two new PhD students, Xi and Dinghao, to the SUM Lab! We look forward to their contributions and wish them a rewarding and memorable journey in the lab over the coming years.

Dr. Xu was invited by Dr. Xiaotong Sun to deliver a talk at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) on July 21, 2025. His presentation, Modeling and Analysis of Transshipment in Urban Meal Delivery, highlighted the group’s recent insights into two novel transshipment strategies designed for meal delivery operations in urban and suburban contexts, respectively.

Dr. Xu has been newly appointed as a member of the Freight and Logistics Committee of the ASCE Transportation & Development Institute. He is excited to contribute to the initiatives and activities of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The first-ever Transportation and Logistics Early-Career North American TALENT Workshop 2025 was successfully held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. This single-track workshop featured 29 engaging sessions and provided meaningful networking opportunities for early-career researchers.

Dr. Xu presented ongoing research conducted with Linxuan on the analysis of transshipment strategies in three-sided meal delivery services via microhubs [URL].

We’re deeply grateful to the organizers for hosting this valuable event for junior researchers in the TSL community. It was a truly enriching and enjoyable experience to participate!

Dr. Xu has been newly appointed as secretary of the Standing Committee on Innovative Public Transportation Services and Technologies (AP020) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). In this role, he will be responsible for the committee’s communications and assisting with the planning of committee activities.

In addition, Dr. Xu is a member of the TRB Standing Committee on Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics (AT015). He is pleased to contribute to advancing the state of the art in freight planning and logistics alongside a group of peers and experts.

Dr. Xu has been honored with the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious recognitions for early-career faculty!

The research will target and innovate system design and operational problems involved in the last segment of urban delivery, known as the “final 50 feet”. This segment, driven by the rapid growth of urban delivery, places new and significant demands on already crowded urban city streets and curbs, causing spillover effects such as extensive cruising, illegal parking, and street blockages in busy urban neighborhoods. The project will conduct economic and system-level analyses to characterize the “final 50 feet” problem in urban environments, identify the key drivers of critical issues, and evaluate the effectiveness of new policies, designs, and operations intended to address these challenges. Stay tuned!