Research Group

Name of Research Group:Digital design and intelligent optimization for railway alignments
Description of Research Group:Alignment design is the first step in railway construction. Its basic task is to plan the railway location, determine technical standards, design the spatial alignment geometry and configure complex structures. It is of great significance and far-reaching influence. It mainly faces the very difficult problem of "multi-dimensional environmental factors + multi-objective evaluation objectives + multiple coupling constraints". How to quickly generate an alignment solution that satisfies multiple constraints and performs well with respect to multiple objective functions in a multi-dimensional environment is recognized as a NP-hard issue. To solve this problem, our team has carried out successively studies for nearly half a century.
The team was founded by Professor Zhan Zhenyan, a famous domestic alignment design expert, in the late 1970s. It has been long engaged in the digital and intelligent design of alignments and stations. It is the earliest-started and longest-lasting research team in this field in China. As an important support for high-quality platforms such as the national key discipline of road and railway engineering, the first-class national key discipline of transportation engineering, and the National Engineering Laboratory for High Speed Railway Construction Technology of Central South University, this team has always adhered to the scientific research spirit of "indomitable". We not only paid great attention to theoretical and methodological research (we have published 7 papers continuously on the prestigious CACAIE journal, the world's No. 1 journal in civil and transportation engineering) but also to being down-to-earth engineering applications: Up to now we developed over 30 software systems for the full-stage and full-type railway design requirements of digital alignment design, digital station yard design and intelligent alignment optimization. Those software productions have been popularized and applied in more than 80% of Railway Survey and Design Companies in China, assisted in the design of more than 60,000 km of ordinary speed railways, more than 30,000 km of high-speed railways and more than 10,000 km railways overseas, which significantly improved the efficiency and technical level of railway designs in China. The team has 3 gold awards and 2 silver awards of National Excellent Engineering Design Software, as well as 2 special awards, 2 first awards and 8 second awards of Provincial and Ministerial Awards for Scientific and Technological Progress. So far, the team has trained more than 100 master's and doctoral students, and transported a large number of high-quality talents for domestic railway, highway survey and design institutes, Autodesk, Huawei and other large enterprises and universities at home and abroad. Many graduates have become chief engineers, professors and technical leaders of national key railway projects. Numerous technologies of this team related to digital alignment design have been identified as the international leading level by domestic peer experts. International authoritative experts in civil and transportation engineering highly recommended the team's achievements as "The Best in the World on Railway Alignments".
The team has established long-term friendly cooperative relations with all domestic railway survey and design companies, the University of Maryland and other famous foreign universities. All graduate students can get the joint guidance of top experts in the field of international transportation and senior experts of enterprises, which can lay a good foundation for studying abroad or job hunting in the future.
Students who are interested in the relevant direction of digital and intelligent alignment/station design and love scientific studies are welcome to join us. Interested students please send your resume and other materials helpful to the application (such as recommender information, summary of scientific research achievements, etc.) to haopu@csu.edu.cn.

Research Focus

Personal Information

Hao Pu (male) was born in May 1973. He is a Ph. D., Level-2 professor(professors in China fall into 4 levels), and doctoral supervisor at the Department of Railway Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Central South University.

In 1994, he graduated from the Changsha Railway University as a bachelor majoring in Railway Engineering and stayed in that university to teach as a Lecturer. In 2002, he graduated from the Central South University as a doctor majoring in Road and Railway Engineering and, then, was unconventionally promoted to be an Associate Professor. In 2005, he was unconventionally promoted again to be a Full Professor and a doctoral supervisor. From 2005 to 2019, he served as the Department Director (Head/Chair) of Railway Engineering in Central South University. In 2013, he become the director of the Digital Construction Laboratory of National Engineering Laboratory for High Speed Railway Construction Technology. From 2013 - 2014, he was a Visiting Researcher of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland (USA). He also serves as the deputy director of Railway Alignment Professional Committee of China Railway Society, the fellow of the Standardization Professional & Technical Committee (w.r.t. railway alignments and stations) of China Railway Society, and the editorial board member of the Journal of Railway Science and Engineering. He has been awarded the Young Backbone Teacher of Colleges and Universities in Hunan Province, the first 121 Talent Engineering Experts in Hunan Province, the Mao Yisheng Special Scientific Research Award, the 9th Zhan Tianyou Railway Science and Technology Award (Youth Award), and the 7th Hunan Youth Science and Technology Award.

He has been long engaged in the research on digital and intelligent design for railway alignments and station yards. He has completed a lot of basic and pioneering work in the fields of computer-aided alignment design, intelligent alignment optimization, digital design of station yards, integrated design and collaborative optimization of alignments and stations, digital construction, operation as well as maintenance of virtual environment, BIM of transportation infrastructure, etc. He is the leader of the research on digital and intelligent railway alignment design in China. He hosted over 4 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and more than 80 provincial and ministerial scientific research projects or joint key research projects of enterprises. The research team led by him has developed the railway alignment information model, proposed the railway alignment reference relation model, promoted the research on intelligent optimization of railway alignments in complex environment, solved the 3-dimensional real-time interactive visualization of large-scale railways. In addition, he hosted and developed over 30 software systems for the full-stage and full-type railway design requirements of digital alignment design, digital station yard design and intelligent alignment optimization. Those software productions have been popularized and applied in more than 80% of Railway Survey and Design Companies in China, assisted in the design of more than 60,000 km of ordinary speed railways, more than 30,000 km of high-speed railways and more than 10,000 km railways overseas, which significantly improved the efficiency and technical level of railway designs in China. Those research outcomes promote the transformation of alignment design technology from 2-dimensional manual design to 3-dimensional digital and intelligent design. Numerous technologies of him related to digital alignment design have been identified as the international leading level by domestic peer experts. International authoritative experts in civil and transportation engineering highly recommended the team's achievements as "The Best in the World on Railway Alignments".

His research achievements include 3 gold awards and 2 silver awards of National Excellent Engineering Design Software, as well as 2 special awards, 2 first awards and 8 second awards of Provincial and Ministerial Awards for Scientific and Technological Progress. He has 10 national authorized invention patents and 36 software copyrights. He has published over 90 research papers and 5 academic monographs in many important journals, such as the Computer-aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Transportation Research Part C.

Professor
Supervisor of Doctorate Candidates
School/Department:School of Civil Engineering
Business Address:Room 617, No.1 Building, National Engineering Laboratory for High Speed Railway Construction, Railway Campus, Central South University
Contact Information:haopu@csu.edu.cn
Academic Titles:Level-2 professor
Alma Mater:Central South University

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