Dr Zhiyuan Lin

Profile

I have a background in Operational Research (OR) and Computer Science. Before joining ITS, Leeds, I was a research fellow at School of Computing, University of Leeds, and then a lecturer at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.

I belong to the Spatial Modelling and Dynamics (SMaD) group of ITS.

I’m a memeber of the UK Operational Research Society (https://www.theorsociety.com/) and a committe member of its Yorkshire and Humberside group, the Italian Operations Research Association (AIRO, https://www.airo.org/) and the Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre, University of Manchester (honourary).

Responsibilities

• Module lead of TRAN5510M Railway Operations and Management

Research interests

Key research interest:

• Railway scheduling, including timetabling, rolling stock scheduling and crew scheduling
• The application of Operational Research (OR) and optimisation (esp. combinatorial optimisation, multiobjective optimisation and network flow problems) in transport planning, scheduling, routing and operations
• Advanced algorithms for integer linear programming, including both exact and meta/hybrid heuristic methods
• Machine learning based approaches for transport optimisation

Researh projects:

• EPSRC-IAA “Train unit capacity strengthening” (2023-2024) – PI
• National Highways: “Tipping points of delays” (2023-2024) – PI
• N8 Network for Innovative Sustainable Transportation Co-Simulation (NIST-CS) (2023-2024) – PI
• Innovate UK / RSSB “Assisted Very Short-Term Planning” (2020-2023) – Co-I
• EU Horizon 2020 “RAILS (Roadmaps for A.I. Integration in the Rail Sector)” (2019-2023) – Co-I
• Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain: Mathematical Optimization in Network Location and Planning Problems (2020-2022) – Co-applicant 
• EU and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government: Structural analysis of mathematical models for optimization in location and transportation planning (2016-2019) – Co-applicant

PhD student supervision:

• Li Lei (School of Computing, completed)
• Ruifan Tang (2020 – )
• Jinyi Pan (2022 – )
• Youxin Lin (School of Civil Engineering, 2022  – )
• Chuhan Yin (2023 – )
• Yunjian Luo (2023 – )

Visiting PhDs/scholars:

• Enze Liu (2022 – 2023)
• Peiyang Wu (2022 – 2023) 
• Fei Han (2022 – 2023)
• Xue Wu (2022 – 2023)
• Shaojie Jin (2023 – 2024) 
• Bowen Nie (2023 – 2024) 

• Network for Innovative Sustainable Transportation Co-Simulation (NIST-CS) - Second Stage
• Tipping points of traffic delay
• Train unit capacity strengthening optimisation using RS-opt

Qualifications

• PhD Computer Science, School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK

Professional memberships

• The UK Operational Research Society (https://www.theorsociety.com/) and a committe member of its Yorkshire and Humberside group.
• The Italian Operations Research Association (AIRO, https://www.airo.org/).
• Honorary member of Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre, University of Manchester

Student education

• I presently teach modules:
  • TRAN5510M Railway Operations & Management (module lead)
  • TRAN5550M Railway Signalling and Control
  • TRAN5020M Principles of Transport Modelling
• TRAN5912M Transport Integrated Project (TIP): Student mentor and area expert
• MSc student project supervisor and academic personal tutor

Research groups and institutes

• Spatial Modelling and Dynamics

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ruifan Tang