Advances in Digitalization and Machine Learning for Integrated Building-Transportation Energy Systems

Yuekuan Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Energy and Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China. His research aims at achieving smart zero-energy and zero-carbon district energy systems for carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation, via cleaner power production, energy-efficient system design and operation, innovation in smart energy integration, multi-objective optimization on nonlinear dynamic behaviours with artificial intelligence. Asst. Prof. Zhou has published more than 80 papers on these topics in international, peer-reviewed journals. His current research interests include latent thermal storage, electrochemical battery, hydrogen and pumped hydro storages in zero-energy buildings, life-cycle carbon-neutral buildings, peer-to-peer energy trading and inter-city energy migration energy network with a hydrogen economy.

Prof. Jinglei Yang is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). For more than 20 years, he has conducted research in the fields of materials science and mechanics of materials. He has also worked on nano- and micro-encapsulation for a variety of applications, including self-healing materials, thermal regulating materials, and antibacterial and wear-resistant/self-lubricating polymers, FRP composites, fiber-metal laminates, nanocomposites, stimuli-responsive polymers, and mechanics. He has multidisciplinary expertise in a variety of fields, including chemical synthesis, production, thermal analysis, and mechanical characterization. He has developed a novel technique to microencapsulate different chemicals and reagents for multipurpose applications. His most recent accomplishments include being named to the Top 1 percent of international materials scientists from the Stanford-Ranking List for the year 2020 and being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Aeronautical Society in 2021. He is currently in charge of more than 30 team members and has completed or is managing more than 30 projects.

Prof. Zhang was the national candidate of the New Century Talents project, an innovative promotion plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. His areas of expertise include indoor air quality, district energy systems, and high-quality, sustainable construction, and his work has received recognition at a national and international level. Prof. Zhang is the founding scientist of the China Construction 4.0 – Sustainable Urbanization and Construction Innovation Platform, but also serves as Dean of the Institute of Sustainable Urbanization and Construction Innovation at Hunan University and as Director of the National Center for International Research Collaboration in Building Safety and Environment of the People’s Republic of China.

Peter Lund is Professor in Advanced Energy Systems at Aalto University, Finland. He has about 40 years of experience in energy technology, innovations, systems, and policy. Dr. Lund has worked as a visiting professor at Southeast University, Technical University of Dresden (Germany), and Hubei University (Wuhan) (Nanjing). He served as the chair of the European Commission's Energy Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006. He also serves as the chair of the Energy Steering Panel of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and is a participant in the Euro-CASE and European University Association energy platforms (European Council of Applied Sciences Technologies and Engineering). Prof. Lund has provided advice to numerous companies and international energy programs, including the International Energy Agency. He is a member of the Swedish Engineering Academy in Finland and the Editor-Europe of the journal Energy Research and Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment. He regularly gives lectures on energy all over the world and has published more than 500 research publications. He has received several awards from around the world, most recently the Jinling Award in 2016.