Xueping Li

Xueping Li is a Professor and Dan Doulet Faculty Fellow in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also serves as Co-Director of the Health Innovation Technology and Simulation (HITS) Lab and Director of the Ideation Laboratory (iLab).

• University: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• College: Tickle College of Engineering
• Department: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Education:

• PhD in Industrial Engineering – Arizona State University
• MS in Computer Science – Nankai University
• BS in Automatic Control & Computer Science – Nankai University

Research Interests:

Dr. Li's research spans a broad spectrum of systems engineering, with a focus on complex systems modeling, simulation, and optimization. His work is applied in healthcare systems engineering, digital twins, cyber-physical systems, and supply chain logistics. His recent work integrates machine learning and AI into real-world systems such as predictive maintenance, drone delivery networks, and energy microgrids.

Scientific Awards & Honors:

• Chancellor’s Research and Creative Achievement Award, UTK (2023)
• Fellow, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) (2023)
• Harvey J. Greenberg Research Award, INFORMS Computing Society (2022)
• Dan Doulet Faculty Fellow (2021)
• Fellow, Center for Transportation Research, UT (2018)
• Best Paper Awards at IISE and ISERC conferences (2018, 2015)
• Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Engineering, UT (2016)

Research Funding & Leadership:

Dr. Li has led or co-led over 30 externally funded projects totaling more than $15 million from agencies such as the NSF, NIH, DOE, HRSA, and ARPA-E. He currently directs projects on digital twins for nuclear maintenance, AI-driven freight transportation, and mHealth immunization systems.

• PI: "RECOIL" – ARPA-E Cognitive Freight Digital Twin ($1.9M)
• PI: "EMRAA" – DOE Predictive Maintenance Analytics ($1.2M)
• Co-PI: "SmartSHOTS" – TN Dept. of Health mHealth Initiative ($1.29M)

Labs & Teams:

• HITS Lab: Health Innovation Technology and Simulation Lab – Co-Director
• iLab: Ideation Laboratory – Director