{"id":102637,"date":"2024-11-19T10:56:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T16:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/?p=102637"},"modified":"2024-11-25T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T19:23:13","slug":"a-deeper-dive-on-why-transportation-with-xinzhi-zhong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/blog\/a-deeper-dive-on-why-transportation-with-xinzhi-zhong\/","title":{"rendered":"A deeper dive on &#8216;why&#8217; transportation with Xinzhi Zhong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a student focusing her studies in the realm of transportation, Xinzhi Zhong, fourth-year PhD student in the <a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/departments\/civil-environmental-engineering\/\">Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering<\/a>, has found an abundance of opportunities and friendships that continue to support her research journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this video, Zhong highlights her start in transportation, current research focus on human-centered transportation, collaboration with peers within the <a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/\">College of Engineering<\/a>, and advice for new and current graduate and undergraduate students.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"acf-video-inline block_284ec1d0b29fc2d9b0b7be58f806c074 position-relative bg-dark track-video-inline my-5\"  style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/XZ3.avif);background-position: center;\" >\r\n    \r\n        <div class=\"collapse show collapse_block_284ec1d0b29fc2d9b0b7be58f806c074\" id=\"collapse_block_284ec1d0b29fc2d9b0b7be58f806c074\">\r\n            <div class=\"d-flex flex-column flex-md-row justify-content-center align-items-center col-12 col-lg-9 mx-auto p-5 my-lg-5\">\r\n                <div class=\"text-center text-md-end \">\r\n                    <h2 class=\"h2 text-white\">Inside the Lab: Connecting humans to transportation with Xinzhi Zhong<\/h2>                <\/div>\r\n                   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Connecting humans to transportation with Xinzhi Zhong\",\n    \"description\": \"Xinzhi Zhong is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\\n\\nIn this video, Zhong highlights her start in transportation, current research focus on human-centered transportation, collaboration with peers within the College of Engineering, and advice for new and current graduate and undergraduate students.\\n\\nFor more news or to visit our other social media channels, please check out our LinkTree at linktr.ee\/uwmadisoncee\",\n    \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/FoibE3b49cw\/default.jpg\",\n    \"uploadDate\": \"2024-11-25T19:19:47+00:00\",\n    \"duration\": \"PT1M32S\",\n    \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FoibE3b49cw\",\n    \"embedUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FoibE3b49cw\"\n}            <\/script>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n\r\n<script>\r\n    if (typeof YT !== 'function') {\r\n  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event.target.playerInfo.videoUrl) {\r\n                            player.stopVideo();\r\n                        }\r\n                    }\r\n                }\r\n            }\r\n        }\r\n    }\r\n<\/script>\n\n\n<p><em>Below are excerpts from audio transcriptions from conversation with Zhong.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>With many schools and colleges to choose from, what brought you to UW-Madison<\/strong>?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>To be honest, the primary reason is my supervisor, professor <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.engr.wisc.edu\/cee\/Faculty\/Ahn_Soyoung\/\">Sue Ahn<\/a>. She is an inspiring role model in the traffic flow theory and operations. I already read a lot of her papers, and I really appreciate her outstanding reputation, both as a mentor and as a researcher. She is a primary reason [why] I choose UW-Madison. The second reason is because UW-Madison is a top-tier university in the world and there is a lot of like resources for me to do the research that I&#8217;m interested in. And there is a lot of outstanding researchers from different expertise and backgrounds I can collaborate with. I think the third reason is because Madison is a peaceful place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is it like working with Sue Ahn?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>She&#8217;s a really nice mentor who is very flexible with students. I like work[ing] with her because she&#8217;s patient, she&#8217;s nice, and she&#8217;s super supportive. Sometimes I feel she&#8217;s like my family member instead of like my mentor because she would provide me with guidance in my research, and she\u2019ll provide me some emotional support when I get stuck on a challenge. I didn&#8217;t find that my PhD is super challenging because of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is unique or fun about being a student here?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>I think for me it&#8217;s the collaboration, especially with like the talented researchers, and it&#8217;s not only the fact that we can collaborate, working on very super interesting, meaningful research, but I am able to build a lasting friendship with them. That\u2019s very unique here and makes me happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>So, what excites you about your work and your research?<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>The exciting thing I feel [with] my work is that it could outwardly contribute to the system that shapes people\u2019s everyday mobilities for millions of people. I feel it\u2019s super meaning as one day, I\u2019d like for people to say when using transportation systems, they feel it\u2019s good and I can say, oh, I contributed a bit to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a student focusing her studies in the realm of transportation, Xinzhi Zhong, fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has found an abundance of opportunities&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":102740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2574,2500,2501,2573],"tags":[2735,2576,2588,2699,2552,2476,2541],"department":[2387,2390],"class_list":["post-102637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-graduate","category-research","category-students","category-undergraduate","tag-cee","tag-civil-and-environmental-engineering","tag-civil-engineering","tag-graduate-students","tag-industrial-and-systems-engineering","tag-research","tag-uw-madison","department-civil-environmental-engineering","department-industrial-systems-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102637"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103070,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102637\/revisions\/103070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102637"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=102637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}