The urban transportation system catalyzes disease outbreaks since it provides the general public the mobility to participate in intensive urban activities. And the high passenger volume and long commuting time of the transportation system further facilitate the spread of infectious diseases. This talk will discuss the spreading dynamics of infectious diseases in urban transportation systems based on mathematical modeling, complex network theory, and validation with real-world trip data. Topics that will be covered in this talk include (1) the metapopulation model for understanding and control disease outbreaks by considering activity and travel contagions, (2) the linkage between disease dynamics and the structure of physical contact networks, and (3) the role of information dissemination in impeding the spread of infectious diseases in a multiplex network setting. Case studies will also be presented for the early outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City and the contact networks of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen metro systems. BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Xinwu Qian joined the University of Alabama as an assistant professor in Fall 2020. Before that, he worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University, where he led the DOE-funded project on developing energy optimal transportation platform for urban transportation hubs with autonomous and electric vehicles.

His research focuses on promoting efficient and sustainable urban mobility with multi-source mobility data. He develops network models to understand the system dynamics of emerging mobility markets and builds operation algorithms to optimize the efficiency of large-scale mobility systems. He also investigates the structural and functional dynamics of urban mobility networks, where his Ph.D. dissertation explained how communicable diseases propagate in urban transportation systems. He has over 15 publications in premier academic journals and over 20 peer-reviewed conference proceedings.