Conference Information

Sponsor: Ningbo University

Organizer: National “111” Centre on Safety and Intelligent Operation of Sea Bridge

Location: Ningbo, China

Dates: November 21–22, 2025

Background

As a key transportation hub connecting bay areas and promoting economic integration, the construction and operation of sea-crossing bridges involve complex transportation-engineering and marine-environment challenges. Ensuring their long-term safety, improving operational efficiency and achieving sustainable development have therefore become common concerns in the global engineering community.

Against this background, the 4th International Conference on Cross-Sea Bridges aims to provide a high-level platform for scholars, engineers and industry experts worldwide. Focusing on two major areas—intelligent transportation operations and cutting-edge ocean-engineering technologies—the conference will examine key issues in the planning, design, operation and safety of sea-crossing bridges, promote international cooperation and technological innovation, and contribute to the intelligent and green development of future sea-crossing corridor projects.

Topics: (1) Operations in Intelligent Transportation; (2) Safety of Ocean Engineering

Time: November 21–22, 2025

Venue: Bailu Auditorium, Tianwei Wenbo Hotel, Ningbo University, No. 818 Fenghua Road, Jiangbei District, Ningbo, Zhejiang

Sponsor: Ningbo University

Organizer: National “111” Centre on Safety and Intelligent Operation of Sea Bridge

Schedule

November 21, 2025 — Conference Registration

November 22, 2025, 09:00–12:00 — Topic 1: Operations in Intelligent Transportation

Host: Prof. Pengjun Zheng

November 22, 2025, 13:30–17:30 — Topic 2: Safety of Ocean Engineering

Chair: Prof. Yonggang Wang

Introduction of the Speakers (in Order of Presentation)

Professor Markos Papageorgiou

Professor Markos Papageorgiou is an internationally leading scholar in transportation, specializing in automatic control and optimization theory and their applications in transportation systems and other domains. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part C and as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He led the development of METANET, the most widely used macroscopic traffic-flow model to date, which has been adopted by more than 300 transportation agencies involved in research, management and planning worldwide. He pioneered ALINEA, the world’s first feedback-based local ramp controller; the AMOC coordinated optimal-control strategy and system for multiple ramps; and HERO, a feedback-coordinated ramp-control system. Together, these established a standard technical paradigm for local ramp control that has been implemented in more than 450 traffic-management systems. He also introduced the TUC adaptive urban traffic-signal control system, which has been successfully deployed in Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece and other countries. He has published more than 500 academic papers in internationally recognized transportation journals and conference proceedings, led more than 50 research projects—including projects funded by the European Union—and received two consecutive European Research Council Advanced Grants.

Professor Ioannis Papamichail

Professor Ioannis Papamichail received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2002 and currently works at the Technical University of Crete in Greece. He is also an editorial-board member of the leading transportation journal Transportation Research Part C. His principal research areas are decision science, nonlinear programming, global optimization and optimal freeway traffic control. He has led or participated in 16 research projects, published 53 journal papers and 89 conference papers, and received the TRB Freeway Operations Best Paper Award and the TRA2012 Best Paper Award. As a core member of Professor Markos Papageorgiou’s research team on dynamic systems and simulation, he specializes in the overall planning and automated control of traffic-flow organization for sea-crossing bridges, with particular emphasis on planning and nonlinear-control strategies for such traffic systems.

Dr. Elia Vardaki

Dr. Elia Vardaki received her PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford. She also holds an MSt in anthropological archaeology from Oxford and a BA in archaeology and history of art from the University of Crete. She has taught extensively at Greek universities, including the University of Ioannina, the University of Crete and the Technical University of Crete, and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. She has worked as a research associate on international and interdisciplinary projects, including KIP at University College London in England and the EU-funded Med-Voices project at the University of Crete. She is currently a senior research associate with TRAMAN21. Her research examines the social and cultural implications of the emerging era of vehicle automation. Dr. Vardaki has published in internationally recognized journals and edited books and has reviewed for South European Society and Politics. Her interests in cultural anthropology and material culture include spatial analysis, heritage politics, technology and social transformation.

Professor Agustí Martin Mallofré

Professor Agustí Martin Mallofré is a Merchant Navy captain. He obtained a doctorate in Civil Navy studies and a master’s degree in Occupational Risk Prevention from UPC. He has been a professor in the Department of Nautical Science and Engineering since 2001 and has served on the management team of the Barcelona School of Nautical Studies since 2011, when he became Vice-Dean for Institutional Relations and Promotion. He previously coordinated the school’s navigation and maneuvering simulators. He teaches coastal navigation and astronomical navigation in undergraduate programs, teaches in the Master’s Degree in Nautical Science and Maritime Transport Management, and is a senior instructor for the school’s navigation simulator. His research has included European projects such as Sea Traffic Management, Sea Beyond and GreenShip—Towards Zero Ship Emissions. He has participated in national and international maritime and port conferences and authored articles in scientific and professional journals. In February 2020, he was appointed a Maritime Ambassador of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), joining 40 other IMO ambassadors worldwide. Before his teaching and research career, he spent a substantial part of his professional life aboard ships as an officer and captain and worked at the Port of Barcelona as a damage commissioner. Until 2007, he worked for the German multinational BASF as a technician for quality, safety and environmental management systems and served on the company’s Executive Committee.

Professor Pengjun Zheng

Professor Pengjun Zheng received his PhD from the University of Southampton and is a Bao Yugang Chair Professor at Ningbo University. He leads the National “111” Centre on Safety and Intelligent Operation of Sea Bridge and directs the Ningbo University branch of the National Engineering Research Center for Road Traffic Management. He is a member of the Navigation Technology Subcommittee of the Ministry of Education’s Teaching Steering Committee, a member of the China Navigation Society, an expert in the Ministry of Transport’s Water Transport Industry Expert Database, and an expert in navigational safety assessment for the Ministry of Transport. He is recognized as a leading top-tier talent in Ningbo. He currently heads the first-level master’s discipline in Transportation Engineering and the second-level doctoral discipline in Fishery Facilities and Equipment. His research covers intelligent transportation systems, navigational safety and the environment, connected and autonomous vehicles, and unmanned-driving systems. He has led more than 100 projects, including a National Key R&D Program project, an EU Horizon 2020 project, projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, an 863 Program subproject, projects of the National Maritime Administration, Zhejiang provincial science and technology R&D projects, Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation projects, and government–industry collaborative projects. He has published more than 200 papers in major international journals and received first prize in the Zhejiang Teaching Achievement Award, first prize in the Zhejiang Navigation Science and Technology Award, and second prize in the Science and Technology Award of the China Intelligent Transportation Systems Association.

Professor Torgeir Moan

Professor Torgeir Moan received his PhD in Civil Engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1975. He is a member of the Royal Norwegian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters; a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; and a globally renowned scholar in marine engineering. His recent research has focused on fatigue-resistant structures for large-span sea-crossing bridges, the long-term effects of high-density ship traffic on bridge-pier structures, the mechanisms by which nonlinear loads such as earthquakes and typhoons damage sea-crossing bridges and submerged floating tunnels, and large-span submerged floating-tunnel technology. His projects have been supported by organizations including the European Union, United States government agencies, the United Kingdom Department of Energy, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the American Bureau of Shipping, the United States Navy and DNV. Professor Moan also maintains long-term collaborations with major marine-equipment and energy companies worldwide, including Joint Oil Company, BP, Fred. Olsen, Shell and others, and has extensive experience in research and development, design and technology transfer for practical engineering. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Marine Structures and on the editorial boards of several other internationally recognized journals. He has published more than 700 academic papers and 19 monographs and co-authored books, participated extensively in the development of industry standards, and received numerous honors, including MIT’s inaugural Bruce Wallace Award, the Norwegian National Petroleum Research Award, the ASME James W. Rice Award, the Houston Marine Energy Center Hall of Fame Award, the SNAME Davidson Medal, the SOBENA Award, the ISOPE Award, the PSA Safety Award, and multiple Best Paper Awards.

Professor Ling Wan

Professor Ling Wan is Academic Vice-Dean of Ningbo University Faculty of Maritime and Transportation. He has been selected for Zhejiang Province’s Overseas High-Level Young Talent program and as a Ningbo Yongjiang Young Innovative Talent. He received his PhD from the Department of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2016. In recent years, he has published more than 30 papers. He has led a flagship international-cooperation project under the National Key R&D Program, a Zhejiang Provincial Key R&D “Vanguard” Project, a Ningbo Municipal Key R&D Project, a Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation project and a Ningbo Yongjiang Talent project, among others. He has also participated in a National Natural Science Foundation of China project for overseas senior scholars, an EU Marie Curie Seventh Framework Programme project and a Singapore National Research Foundation project. He has served as a marine-sector expert for the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology; an editorial-board member of Chinese Journal of Ship Research; a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, the UK Higher Education Academy and the Singapore Association of Floating Structures; and a reviewer and guest editor for several high-level journals. He has applied for or received authorization for more than ten invention patents.

Professor Jeom Kee Paik

Professor Jeom Kee Paik is a doctoral supervisor in the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Ningbo University Faculty of Maritime and Transportation. He is also a tenured professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. A leading scholar in marine engineering, he founded and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ships and Offshore Structures. Professor Paik has published more than 500 papers, including 250 papers in SCI/SCIE-indexed international journals, authored more than ten monographs, and holds more than 50 patents in countries including South Korea. He has led more than 70 national-level research projects. He has also served as a Fellow and Council member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, a Fellow and Vice-President of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in the United States, Chairman of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea, and a Director of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Research Centre of Excellence in South Korea. Professor Paik has conducted teaching and research in naval architecture and ocean engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, the University of California, Berkeley, Virginia Tech and the University of Newcastle, Australia, and has extensive research and engineering experience.

Professor Ling Zhu

Professor Ling Zhu has served as a Distinguished Professor at Wuhan University of Technology and as a Hubei Provincial Distinguished Expert since 2013. His research focuses on the safety and reliability of ships and offshore structures, impact mechanics, and applications of advanced materials. He received his PhD from the University of Glasgow in 1990 and subsequently worked as a research fellow at the Universities of Glasgow, Liverpool and Reading. He later spent many years as a Lead Specialist at Lloyd’s Register in the United Kingdom, working on rule development and accident investigation.

After returning to China in 2013, he established the Impact and Fluid–Structure Interaction Laboratory and successively served as Dean of the School of Transportation and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Transportation Engineering at Wuhan University of Technology. He is a Council Member of the Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vice-Chair of its Ship Mechanics Committee, and head of the Subcommittee on New Material Applications. He has been recognized as an Excellent Graduate Supervisor at Wuhan University of Technology and was included in Stanford University’s list of the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists for career-long impact.

Professor Zhu is a member of the Academic Committee of the Ship and Offshore Equipment Safety Laboratory of the China Classification Society, a member of a Technical Committee of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC), and Chair of the 10th International Conference on Collision and Grounding of Ships and Offshore Structures (ICCGS 2025). He has published more than 200 journal papers and holds more than 30 invention patents. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Wuhan University of Technology (Transportation Science and Engineering Edition) and serves on the editorial boards of several Chinese and international journals.

Dr. Xin Wang

Dr. Xin Wang is an Associate Professor and doctoral supervisor at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He heads the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering cluster and is a member of Singapore’s Maritime and Offshore Technical Standards Committee. His principal research areas include nonlinear-response calculations for floating bodies in waves, dynamic simulation of ship hulls and systems, and ship energy-saving equipment. Projects he currently leads include simulation-based design and optimization for zero-emission ships, simulation modeling of electric-ship design, and modeling of marine traffic in the Malacca and Singapore Straits.

Professor Yonggang Wang

Professor Yonggang Wang received his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from the China Academy of Engineering Physics. His recent research focuses on the dynamic response of materials and structures under impact, bridge-safety protection technologies, and transient-dynamics numerical simulation of material and structural impact responses. He has led five National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, two National Defense Basic Research projects, one Science Challenge Program project of the China Academy of Engineering Physics, and several provincial and municipal projects, with total research funding exceeding RMB 6 million. He has published more than 60 papers in leading Chinese and international journals. He received first prize in the Ningbo Science and Technology Progress Award as the third-ranked contributor and second prize as the first-ranked contributor. In 2009, he was selected for the third tier of Zhejiang Province’s 151 Talent Project. In 2013, he was selected for cultivation as a young and middle-aged academic leader in a Zhejiang higher-education institution. In 2015, he entered the second tier of the Ningbo Leading and Outstanding Talent Project.

How to Reach the Venue

By car: Navigate directly to Ningbo University.

By public transportation: Take Metro Line 2 to Ningbo University Station and walk approximately 600 metres to the venue.

Sincerely welcome!