Zhang Lei, Professor at the School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, and a National High-Level Talent jointly appointed by the university and enterprise.

Between 2006 and 2020, he served as a tenured full professor at the University of Maryland, USA, and as the Director of the Maryland Transportation Institute. During this time, he led 66 major research and technology implementation projects. The institute he managed had an annual research funding exceeding $40 million. In the fields of transportation, urban big data, and agent systems, he has authored six monographs, published over 140 papers in top international journals, and contributed to more than 200 academic papers.

Since 2020, he has served as Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, Senior Researcher, and Chief Scientist for Industry AI. In this role, he oversees the core technology and product R&D for industry AI (AI for Industry), including City Brain and Industrial Brain, and manages the overall business operations and strategy for the transportation and logistics sector. The solutions have been implemented in over 140 cities worldwide, serving more than 1 million clients. Furthermore, they have supported six out of the thirteen pilot projects under China's national initiative to build a leading transportation country, significantly advancing the industrial application of intelligent transportation, smart vehicles, and the low-altitude economy.

Leveraging the platform of his joint university-enterprise appointment as a National High-Level Talent, his current focus spans interdisciplinary research and technological innovation at the intersection of AI infrastructure and intelligent vehicles, low-altitude aircraft, and embodied intelligence. He is dedicated to fostering industry-university-research collaboration between Tsinghua University and Alibaba Cloud, and promoting the industrial application of AI + high-end equipment manufacturing.

September 2002 – February 2006, University of Minnesota, USA,Doctor of Engineering

September 2000 – July 2002, University of Minnesota, USA, Master of Engineering / Master of Economics

September 1996 – July 2000, Tsinghua University, China, Bachelor of Engineering

May 2025 – Present, Tsinghua University, National High-Level Talent Jointly Appointed by University and Enterprise

June 2020 – Present, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, Vice President, Chief Scientist for Industry AI

September 2016 – June 2020, University of Maryland, USA, Full Professor, A.J. Clark Chair Professor, Director of the Transportation Institute

September 2012 – July 2016, University of Maryland, USA, Associate Professor, H. Rabin Distinguished Professor

September 2008 – July 2012, University of Maryland, USA,Assistant Professor

AI-Driven Intelligent Transportation Systems

Low-Altitude Logistics and Mobility

Air-Ground-Cloud Integrated Systems; AI Infrastructure

Dedicated to advancing transportation and mobility optimization, he integrates cutting-edge expertise from artificial intelligence, automotive, and aviation fields. His work focuses on the optimization of urban intelligent transportation systems, low-altitude mobility services, logistics and transportation, as well as vehicle-road-cloud integrated systems. His academic team has cumulatively secured over 350 million RMB in research funding, 90% of which was obtained through competitive grants from major national and international research programs.

1. Xia, Y., Geng, M., Chen, Y., Sun, S., Liao, C., Zhu, Z., Li, Z., Ochieng, W.Y., Angeloudis, P., Elhajj, M., Zhang, L., Zeng, Z., Zhang, B., Gao Z. and Chen X. Understanding common human driving semantics for autonomous vehicles. Cell (Patterns), 2023.

2. Liu, J., Li, J., Chen, Y., Lian, S., Zeng, J., Geng, M., Zheng, S., Dong, Y., He, Y., Huang, P., Zhao, Z., Yan, X., Hu, Q., Wang, L., Yang, D., Zhu, Z., Sun, Y., Shang, W., Wang,D., Zhang, L., Hu, S.* and Chen X. Multi-scale urban passenger transportation CO2 emission calculation platform for smart mobility management. Applied Energy, 2023.

3. Zeng, J., Yu, Y., Chen, Y., Yang, D., Zhang, L. and Wang, D. Trajectory-as-a-Sequence: A novel travel mode identification framework.Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 2023.

4. Yang, M., Pan, Y., Darzi, A., Ghader, S., Xiong, C. and Zhang, L. A data-driven travel mode share estimation framework based on mobile device location data. Transportation, 2022.

5. Xiao, Y., Yang, M., Zhu, Z.*, Yang, H., Zhang, L. Modeling indoor-level non-pharmaceutical interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pedestrian dynamics-based microscopic simulation approach. Transport Policy, 2021.

6. Xiong, C., Hu, S., Yang, M., Luo, W. and Zhang, L. Mobile device data reveal the dynamics in a positive relationship between human mobility and COVID-19 infections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020.

7. Xiong, C., Yang, D., Ma, J., Chen, X. and Zhang, L. Measuring and enhancing the transferability of hidden Markov models for dynamic travel behavioral analysis. Transportation, 2020.

8. Pan, Y., Darzi, A., Kabiri, A., Zhao, G., Luo, W., Xiong, C., and Zhang, L. Quantifying human mobility behaviour changes during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Scientific Reports, 2020.

9. Lee, M., Zhao, J., Sun, Q., Pan, Y., Zhou, W., Xiong, C. and Zhang, L. Human mobility trends during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. PLoS One, 2020.

10. Sun, Y., Chen, Z.L. and Zhang, L. Nonprofit peer-to-peer ridesharing optimization. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2020.