{"id":71587,"date":"2025-02-25T08:12:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/?p=71587"},"modified":"2025-02-28T16:56:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T21:56:32","slug":"driving-the-future-yang-advances-transportation-engineering-through-ai-and-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/driving-the-future-yang-advances-transportation-engineering-through-ai-and-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving the future: Yang advances transportation engineering through AI and education"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Growing up, nothing fascinated Jidong Yang more than how things were built.<\/p>\n

It began when he learned about the Great Pyramid of Giza. He marveled at how such a large structure was built with so little technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so curious about the process, and it sort of became my motivation,\u201d said Yang, associate professor in the University of Georgia\u2019s College of Engineering.<\/a> \u201cI began to look at structures and wonder how they were built.\u201d<\/p>\n

From buildings to bridges, and nearly every human-made structure throughout civilization, Yang wondered how they were designed, constructed, and integrated into the natural world. From that moment, he knew he wanted to study engineering.<\/p>\n

Yang received his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of South Florida. In the years following, he worked in both private and public sectors, conducting design and operational analysis of transportation networks and investigating safety for roads and bridges.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe transportation side of engineering isn\u2019t just infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt requires a systems-level approach: optimizing traffic flow across the network under both normal conditions and disruptions, such as hurricanes, while assessing and mitigating the risk of accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past six years, Yang has researched at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and transportation. For example, an ongoing challenge in autonomous vehicle development is ensuring this evolving technology can adapt to diverse weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Autonomous vehicles perceive their surroundings through cameras and sensors that continuously scan the road, identifying pedestrians, other vehicles, traffic signs, and potential hazards. Advanced AI algorithms process this visual data in real time, enabling split-second driving decisions\u2014just like a human but with faster reflexes and no distractions.<\/p>\n

However, the technology isn\u2019t foolproof.<\/p>\n

Self-driving cars often struggle in rainy conditions because precipitation obstructs and impairs their \u201cvision.\u201d \u00a0To address this challenge, Yang\u2019s team has developed deep-learning-based vision models that process live images from the vehicle\u2019s cameras, removing rain-induced visual hindrances and generating images that resemble clear, rain-free scenes.<\/p>\n

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To train this system, researchers used the Car Learning to Act (CARLA) simulation, a virtual driving environment, to collect images of roads in both clear and rainy conditions. The AI model was designed to function like an image translator, removing rain-related noise and restoring clear visuals. A unique training method helped the model distinguish between raindrops, which change quickly, and the actual road scene, which remains more stable as vehicles navigate.<\/p>\n

The system could enhance the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles overall, improving the likelihood of future widespread deployment and adoption.<\/p>\n

In addition to enhancing the safety of autonomous driving, Yang’s team has leveraged foundation models, such as Multimodal Large Language Models, to improve safety reasoning and enable causal analysis and inference.<\/p>\n

With the growing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), Yang\u2019s team has also studied network optimization for charging stations. When your gas tank runs low, it\u2019s usually simple to find a nearby filling station. But if you\u2019re driving an electric car, finding a charging station nearby can prove more difficult.<\/p>\n

Yang\u2019s team collects data on charging station locations and explores smart system concepts to facilitate seamless cooperation between charging stations and EVs . This could help local governments and businesses identify ideal sites for new charging stations, ensuring efficient infrastructure deployment.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section css=”.vc_custom_1567710408463{background-color: #e4ddc7 !important;}” el_class=”fw-polygon”][vc_row equal_height=”yes” bg_type=”bg_color”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1567710326062{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}” el_class=”polygon-wrapper”][vc_raw_html css=”.vc_custom_1740413285529{background-image: url(https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/02\/jidong-yang-1-scaled-e1740412359907.jpg?id=71595) !important;}” el_class=”polygon”]JTNDJTIxLS1sZWF2ZSUyMHRoaXMlMjBlbXB0eS0tJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ el_class=”polygon-content”][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”testimonial”]<\/p>\n

\u201cI strive to weave my industry experiences into my teaching. I try to design my material in such a way that a student can easily absorb it and relate it to their own experience. Teaching and research are inseparable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2013 Jidong Yang, associate professor in the College of Engineering<\/p>\n

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EV infrastructure is rapidly growing nationwide, with Georgia leading the Southeast in both number of registered EVs and EV charging stations. For more than 30,000 EV drivers on the road, there are currently 2,144 stations housing 5,749 charging ports in the state, according to Georgia.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

While research and development continue to be a deep passion for Yang, he\u2019s found a profound sense of purpose educating students and shaping the College of Engineering\u2019s curriculum and strategic direction. Looking back on his years in industry, he recognizes the value of that experience in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strive to weave my industry experiences into my teaching,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to design my material in such a way that a student can easily absorb it and relate it to their own experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeaching and research are inseparable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang constantly updates his teaching material with his own research, as well as the latest developments in the field. While his expertise has deepened over time, the rapid advancements in AI and emerging technologies have reshaped his perspective, fueling a renewed curiosity about their transformative impacts on engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s AI, driven by large foundation models, is incredibly powerful, particularly their general knowledge and reasoning abilities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has laid a new foundation for how we approach problems. So now, in both my courses and research, I\u2019m looking at how we can build upon that foundation and push the boundaries of AI-Human collaboration and synergy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”] Growing up, nothing fascinated Jidong Yang more than how things were built. It began when he learned about the Great Pyramid of Giza. He marveled at how such a large structure was built with so little technology. \u201cI was so curious about the process, and it sort of became my motivation,\u201d … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Driving the future: Yang advances transportation engineering through AI and education”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":71695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"feature-single.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[],"post_medium":[691,314],"publications":[],"authors":[801],"photographers":[],"video_credit":[],"takeaways":[],"class_list":["post-71587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering","post_medium-feature","post_medium-read","authors-olivia-randall","entry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"post_medium","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_medium?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"photographers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photographers?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"video_credit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/video_credit?post=71587"},{"taxonomy":"takeaways","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/takeaways?post=71587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}