Wenlong Li

Ph.D. Student · University at Buffalo

Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

I study how mathematical models can help build more efficient, reliable, and sustainable public transportation systems. I am a Ph.D. student in Transportation Engineering at the University at Buffalo, advised by Dr. Ziqi Song. My research focuses on transportation electrification, system optimization, and network modeling.

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Buffalo, New York

01 / FOCUS

Research

I work on the decisions that make public transit cleaner, more reliable, and easier to operate.

Transportation electrification

Charging infrastructure and battery planning for electric buses.

System optimization

Linking strategic planning with day-to-day charging schedules.

Network modeling

Mathematical models for efficient and resilient public transit.

02 / WRITING

Publications

Google Scholar

2024JOURNAL ARTICLE

Planning dynamic wireless charging infrastructure for battery electric bus systems with the joint optimization of charging scheduling

Wenlong Li, Yi He, Songhua Hu, Zhengbing He, Carlo Ratti

Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies · 159, 104469

Paper / DOI Abstract Research details

PRESENTATION & POSTER · 2024

Related research presented at the 103rd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, AP050 Committee on Bus Transit Systems, Washington, DC.

View conference photo

03 / IN PRACTICE

Projects

Dynamic wireless charging infrastructure along an electric bus route

FEATURED RESEARCH · JUL 2022 – DEC 2023

Integrated optimization of electric bus systems

Jointly planning dynamic wireless charging facilities, battery capacity, and charging schedules. Evaluated using Beijing bus routes 19, 59, and 65.

Dynamic wireless chargingMINLPTransit planning

Explore the research

JUN 2025 – PRESENT

Resilient optimization of battery electric bus systems

Developing a framework for reliable and efficient electric bus operations under uncertainties arising from real-world disasters.

Supervised by Dr. Ziqi Song

Ongoing

JUL 2024 – MAR 2025

Robust optimization of electric bus systems

Accounting for uncertain battery state of charge and unpredictable energy consumption to bring optimization models closer to real-world operations.

04 / BACKGROUND

Experience

Education & research

AUG 2025 — PRESENT
University at Buffalo, SUNY
Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Ziqi Song
SEP 2022 — JUN 2025
Beijing University of Technology
Master’s in Transportation Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Zhengbing He
Thesis: Integrated Optimization Research on Electric Bus Systems under Dynamic Wireless Charging Mode
SEP 2018 — JUL 2022
East China Jiaotong University
Bachelor’s in Transportation Engineering

RECOGNITION

Selected honors

2025
Outstanding Graduate Thesis AwardBeijing University of Technology
2024
China National ScholarshipMinistry of Education
2024
Graduate Technological Innovation AwardBeijing University of Technology
2022
Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis AwardEast China Jiaotong University

05 / AT A GLANCE

Curriculum vitae

The complete academic record.

Education, research experience, publications, and awards.

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From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

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Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

— Carl Sagan

The Pale Blue Dot