Invited talks

Title: Data-driven approach to demand dispatching for emerging on-demand services

Abstract

Recent on-demand services, such as Uber and GoGoVan in Hong Kong, provide a platform for users to request services on the spot and for suppliers to meet such demand. Future energy systems can also be considered as on-demand services, as multiple suppliers compete to satisfy energy demand from their customers. In this talk, I will describe the fundamental problem of demand dispatching in these emerging on-demand services, with the objective of maximizing supplier profits and saving user costs. Due to the autonomy of the suppliers, traditional optimization approaches are no longer applicable. We adopted a data-driven approach, the upshot of which is that the time-varying pattern of the supply-demand distribution and the pattern of suppliers in accepting user demand can be predicted using historical service data, and such predictions can be used online algorithms to optimize demand dispatching in terms of response times and service costs. I will focus on real-world scenarios in the GoGoVan system, an online logistic platform providing shipping services to customers in Hong Kong.

Short Bio

Dr. Cao is currently a Chair Professor of Department of Computing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He is also the director of the Internet and Mobile Computing Lab in the department and the director of University’s Research Facility in Big Data Analytics. He was the head of the department 2011-2017. Dr. Cao’s research interests include parallel and distributed computing, wireless sensing and networks, pervasive and mobile computing, and big data and cloud computing. He has co-authored 5 books, co-edited 9 books, and published over 600 papers in major international journals and conference proceedings. He received Best Paper Awards from conferences including IEEE DSAA 2017, IEEE SMARTCOMP 2016, IEEE ISPA 2013, IEEE WCNC 2011, etc. Dr. Cao served the Chair of the Technical Committee on Distributed Processing of IEEE Computer Society from 2012 to 2014, a member of IEEE Fellows Evaluation Committee of the Computer Society and the Reliability Society, a member of IEEE Computer Society Education Awards Selection Committee, a member of IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee, and a member of Steering Committee of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. He has also served as chairs and members of organizing and technical committees of many international conferences, and as associate editor and member of the editorial boards of many international journals. Dr. Cao is a fellow of IEEE and ACM distinguished member. In 2017, he received the Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award from China Computer Federation.