Research Fellow, University of Birmingham

Qian Fu is a Research Fellow in Big Data and Analytics at the University of Birmingham, with a strong track record in multidisciplinary research, particularly in transport studies. Over the course of his career, Qian has developed a robust skill set and gained extensive experience leading and contributing to projects that address critical transport-related challenges, including weather-related incidents, data quality, asset management systems and transport network resilience.

One of Qian’s notable achievements includes the development of a prototype computational tool to assist rail engineers in analysing and predicting railway track movements over time. This innovative tool integrates huge datasets of rail infrastructure and local environmental factors, powered by a three-module Python package he designed for streamlined workflow implementation.

Qian has also made significant contributions to open-source software, having created three Python packages that have proven instrumental in enhancing the utilisation of open data resources in broader multimodal transport. These tools reflect his commitment to making research accessible and practical for the wider community. His vision is to create an open-source Python tool that integrates large-scale data efficiently, empowering researchers to run complex models that support urban planning and disaster mitigation.

“CoSeC’s mission to support collaborative computational communities aligns with my belief in the power of interdisciplinary research and open-source software”, says Qian. “I see this Fellowship as an opportunity to enhance my current work on large-scale transport network modelling, which involves analysing the impact of extreme weather on transport resilience and people’s travel behaviours.”