Xu Sun will join the faculty of the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Florida as an assistant professor in July of 2019. His research is focused on data analytics and applied operations research.

Upon joining UF, Sun will continue to advance his research in areas such as performance analysis and optimization of stochastic service systems, the theory of stochastic-process limits, systemic risking modeling, and network design and control of sustainable urban transport systems.

“Xu Sun has a very strong background in queuing analysis in the context of service systems. He will contribute to our health systems engineering team and bring new research results to the classroom,” said David Kaber, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering.

Currently, Sun is working on developing a network design system for future urban mobility systems. The overarching goal of this project is to ensure that shared autonomous electric vehicles are able to transport passengers in urban environments and have the capability to organize themselves for proper service availability coverage throughout the network.

Sun said, “The rapid growth in development of innovative smart cities and adoption of alternative fuel technologies brings a constant stream of new research problems, which has led me to focus my efforts on promising areas”.

Sun received his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Dalian University of Technology in China, a master’s degree in probability and statistics from Zhejiang University, as well as a master’s degree in applied operations research from the University of Waterloo, and his doctoral degree in operations research from Columbia University. He is a recent recipient of the 2018 Institute for Mathematics and its Applications Travel Award and the 2017 Engineering Graduate Student Council Professional Development Scholarship from Columbia University.