Assistant Professor

Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University

Email: ran.sun at usu dot edu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ransun-68/

Google Scholar

About

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University. I received my Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Transportation Systems) from the University of California, Davis. I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Mcity at the University of Michigan.

My research area is in the intersection of intelligent transportation networks and systems, high-dimensional machine learning and operations research. Specifically, I establish methodologies in high-dimensional statistical learning and applications in network modeling with new data (e.g. trajectory, image, lidar) and new technology (CAV, multi-modal sensors):

• I establish new methodologies to solve the challenges in high-dimensional transportation systems:
  • Critical information from application-driven representation learning using manifold optimization
  • Interpretable and scalable nonnegative Tucker-like tensor deposition to understand taxi ride demand
  • Continuous time Markov chain based filtering on directed sensor networks
• I propose estimation methods to understand demand and traffic flow in stochastic transportation networks:
  • Decomposition based OD demand estimation under stochastic programming framework
  • Automatic trajectory-based calibration of traffic simulation
  • Travel demand heterogeneity during and after the pandemic
• I develop cutting-edge methods to improve CAV operation with onboard and roadside perception systems:
  • Lidar-based and camera-based object detection and tracking
  • Sensor fusion for CAV safety assessment

In my free time I enjoy playing tennis (Vamos Rafa!) and hiking in parks with families.

🎞️  CV

CV_2025_RanSun.pdf

💼 Working experience

• Assistant Professor at Utah State University, August 2025 - Present
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, September 2023 - July 2025
  • Supervisor: Prof. Henry Liu, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mcity
  • Perception models for autonomous driving in connected urban environment
  • Trajectory based mesoscopic traffic models
• Research Scientist Intern at Amazon - Modeling and Optimization team, June 2022 - September 2022
  • Weather-aware resilient supply chain planning and operation for Amazon middle mile networks
• Data Scientist Intern at Amazon - Modeling and Optimization team, June 2021 - September 2021
  • Predictive models for delivery estimate accuracy for Amazon last-mile logistics

🗺️Representative Research