Dr Ji Li BEng, PhD, MIEEE, FHEA, CEng, MIMechE

Dr Ji Li

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Assistant Professor
Deputy Head of CASE Automotive Research Group
Manager of Birmingham CASE Automotive Research and Education Centre

Contact details

Address
Birmingham CASE Automotive Research and Education Centre
School of Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Ji Li is an Assistant Professor in Control and Automation, Deputy Head of CASE Automotive Research Group and Manager of Birmingham CASE Automotive Research and Education Centre. Prior to being appointed to this position, he spent two years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and one year as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

His research vision centralizes on the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping the future of automotive technology. Within this framework, the focus covers three key domains: multi-objective control, human-machine interaction, and cyber-physical systems, all oriented toward achieving net-zero and trustworthy engineering solutions.

Qualifications

  • Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 2026
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), 2025
  • PhD in Mechanical Engineering, 2020
  • BEng in Automotive Engineering, 2015

Biography

Ji Li received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2020. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Control and Automation at the University of Birmingham, Manager of the Birmingham CASE Automotive Research & Education Centre, and Deputy Head of the CASE Automotive Research Group. Prior to this appointment, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Birmingham.

His research focuses on AI-enabled control and electrified mobility, with particular interests in learning-based control, human–machine interaction, and sustainable propulsion systems. He has led and contributed to government- and industry-funded research projects totalling more than 800k GBP, supported by organisations including the Royal Society, Innovate UK, BYD Auto, the European Commission Joint Research Centre, and other research and industrial partners.

He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters in automotive AI, control, and electrification. As of September 2026, his work has received more than 1,700 citations with an h-index of 22 on Google Scholar. He has received four international Best or Outstanding Paper Awards, including an SAE International Outstanding Technical Paper Award.

Teaching

Lecture

  • LH Powertrain and Vehicle Engineering (Year 3 BEng)
  • LM Advanced Vehicle Engineering (Year 4 MEng/MSc) - module lead.

Mentorship

LI Integrated Design Project 2 (Year 2 BEng)

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in multidisciplinary research at the intersection of AI, control and sustainable mobility. Current areas of interest include learning-based control and autonomy, human–machine systems, data-driven and physics-informed modelling, and sustainable propulsion and energy systems.

Applications are welcome from candidates seeking funded or self-funded PhD opportunities. I am particularly happy to support strong applicants for competitive funding schemes, including University of Birmingham and UKRI/EPSRC studentships, China Scholarship Council (CSC) schemes, Commonwealth Scholarships, and other national or international scholarship programmes.

Prospective students are encouraged to contact me at j.li.1@bham.ac.uk with a CV, brief research interests/proposal, and details of any funding scheme they intend to apply for.

Research

His research focuses on AI-enabled control and sustainable mobility for future vehicle and transport systems. His work brings together artificial intelligence, control, optimisation and physical-domain knowledge to develop intelligent methods for vehicle control, autonomy and decision-making, with particular interests in learning-based control, human–machine collaboration, foundation models, and multi-agent systems, ultimately contributing to responsible and sustainable next-generation mobility.

The overarching aim is to develop future mobility systems that are intelligent, sustainable and responsible, enabling vehicles and transport systems to adapt, cooperate and operate efficiently across different levels of the mobility ecosystem and across the following four observation scales:

Lv.1 Power-unit: engine/battery/fuel cell

  • Physics/data-enhanced robust modelling
  • Transient calibration and autonomous calibration

Lv.2 Powertrain: series/parallel/power-split hybrid

  • Many-objective modular design
  • Learning-based energy management

Lv.3 Human-Vehicle: driver/vehicle/interaction

  • Driving behaviour classification and recognition
  • Human-machine interaction and shared control

Lv.4 Fleet: platoon/road/traffic

  • Car-following behaviour characterisation
  • Driving scene reconstruction

Research Grants Secured:

  • Development of an Electric Baggage-Towing Tractor System for Civil Airport Operations, Dalian Fulai Machinery Equipment Co. Ltd, GBP 44,345. 2026–2028.
  • Decarbonising Marine Propulsion Systems For Vessels And Ports Services. Innovate UK, GBP 427,866. 2025-2026.
  • Battery-aware Multi-Agent Learning-Based Control Framework for Electric Vehicular Platoon. Royal Society, GBP 11,863. 2025-2027.
  • Education Enhancement Funding: Early Career Fund, 2024, University of Birmingham, GBP 1,000. 2024-2025.
  • Development of Dual-mode Engine AI Emission Prediction and Knock Detection, 2023, BYD Auto Company, GBP 220,000. 2023 – 2025.
  • Research on Real-time Optimisation System for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle based on Artificial Intelligence Digital Twin Technology, 2022-2024, Jiangsu Industry Technology Research Institute, CNY 4,200,00.
  • AI Strategy for Hybrid Engine Development, 2020-2024, BYD Auto Company, GBP 180,000.

Industrial Partnership:

  • BYD Auto Company, Mahler, Changan UK, London Electric Vehicle Company, Joint Research Centre, Lotus Cars Limited, IPG Carmaker, National Instrument, AVL Advanced Simulation Technologies, etc.

Other activities

Academic services in the past three years:

  • Board Member of IMechE Automobile Division (2024-)
  • Board Member of IEEE VTS Committee on Autonomous Vehicles (2024-)
  • Board Member of SAE International Committee (2022-)
  • Board Member of UK-China Society of Automotive Engineers (UKCSAE) (2023-)
  • Oversea Expert Fellowship, Chongqing University of Technology (2022-)
  • Editor assistant for Applied Energy (2020-)
  • Editor assistant for International Journal of Powertrains (2023-)
  • Guest Editor for ‘Vehicle Emissions.’ Chemosphere (2022)
  • Guest Editor for ‘Enabling Technologies for Zero-Emission Road Vehicles.’ International Journal of Powertrains (2022)
  • Guest Editor for ‘Sensing, Optimization, and Navigation on Vehicle Control’. Sensors (2022)
  • Guest Editor for ‘Integrated Control and Sensing Technology for Electric vehicles.’ Sensors (2023)
  • Session Chair for the 6th CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (CVCI2022)
  • Associate Editor for the 7th CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (CVCI2023)
  • Technical Track Chair for IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC) 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
  • Technical Chair for International Workshop on the Bees Algorithm and Its Applications 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
  • Session Chair of ‘Collaborative Control and Management of EV Powertrains based on Intelligent Transport Systems’. The 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
  • Session Chair of ‘Smart&Sustainable Enabling Technologies for eMoblity’, The 7th CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (CVCI2023), 2023
  • Session Chair of ‘2024 Association of British Chinese Professors (ABCP) Annual Conference – Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability forum’. Birmingham, UK. 2024.
  • Session Chair of ‘18th UK Heat Transfer Conference,’ Birmingham, UK. 2024
  • Vice Chair of 2024 Birmingham International Scholars Forum. Birmingham, UK. 2024

Publications

Recent publications

Article

He, X, Li, J, Wang, B, Lu, G & Xu, H 2026, 'Evolution-Dual-Discriminator Generative Adversarial Networks for Imbalanced Feature Capture in Engine Knock Detection Model', IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica. https://doi.org/10.1109/JAS.2026.126191

Wu, D, Qu, S, He, X, Xu, H & Li, J 2026, 'Game‐Theoretic Multi‐Agent Dynamic Traffic Assignment Using Congestion‐Aware Adaptive Learning', IET Intelligent Transport Systems, vol. 20, no. 1, e70242. https://doi.org/10.1049/itr2.70242

Wu, Y, He, D, Xing, K, Li, J, Zhou, Q & Xu, H 2026, 'Transferable Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Vehicular Platoon Control', IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2026.3666224

Wu, Y, He, D, Li, J, Zhou, Q & Xu, H 2026, 'Transfer Learning-Enhanced Multi-objective Predictive Control for Electric Vehicular Platoon', IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2026.3665598

Guo, S, Zheng, S, Li, J, Zhou, Q & Xu, H 2025, 'A lightweight social cognitive risk potential field model for path planning with dedicated dynamic and static traffic factors', IET Intelligent Transport Systems, vol. 19, no. 1, e12595. https://doi.org/10.1049/itr2.12595

He, X, Li, J, Hu, C & Liu, M 2025, 'Dual-Discriminator Generative Adversarial Network With Long-Tail Feature Capture for Extreme Scenarios in Human–Machine Shared Driving', IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2025.3646161

Wu, Y, Zuo, Z, Wang, Y, He, D, Li, J, Zhou, Q & Xu, H 2025, 'Dynamic Source-Aware Transfer Learning for Vehicular Platoon Predictive Control', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2025.3639826

Li, J, Li, Z, Wen, C, Wu, Y, Dixon, R, Hu, X & Xu, H 2025, 'Experience-Shared Variable-Step Predictive Control of Range-Extended Electric Vehicles Using Transferable Driver Model', IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 1123-1133. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2024.3489018

Li, Y, Hu, J, Li, J, Xu, H, Wu, Y, Cai, Z, Lin, Y, Wu, H & Li, Z 2025, 'Experimental study on electrically heated catalyst coupling strategies for ultra-low emissions and energy-efficient thermal management in diesel engines', Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 280, no. Part 4, 128450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.128450

Wen, C, Li, J, Wang, B, Lu, G & Xu, H 2025, 'Expertise-guided NOx emission modeling of hybrid vehicle engines via peak-valley-enhanced Gaussian process regression', Energy, vol. 322, 135166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2025.135166

Zhang, F, Zhou, Q, Zhang, C, Hua, M, Du, S, Duan, Y, Li, J, Williams, H & Xu, H 2025, 'Meta-Heuristic Adaptive Equivalent Consumption Minimization of a Fuel Cell Vehicle Incorporating Fuzzy Inference and Particle Swarm Optimization', IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 5237-5248. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2024.3478187

Zhang, F, Yan, Y, Wang, S, Hua, M, He, X, Zhang, C, Li, J, Zhou, Q, Duan, Y, Williams, H, Du, S & Xu, H 2025, 'Optimal sizing and energy management for fuel cell electric vehicles with 3D-ordered MEAs: A pareto frontier study', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 189, 152206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.152206

Chapter

Li, J, Zhou, Q, Wu, Y & Xu, H 2025, Driver Behavior Prediction and Driver-Oriented Control of Electric Vehicles. in H Zhang & Q Zhou (eds), Big Data and Electric Mobility. 1st edn, CRC Press, pp. 171-189. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003302827-12

Conference contribution

He, X, Li, J, Pham, DT, Wang, B & Lu, G 2025, Knock-Tolerant Integrated Energy Management in Series-Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicle Using Bees-Inspired Adaptive Optimisation: Submit in the Special Session AI-Enhanced E-Mobility and Electrification of Propulsion Systems for Low-Carbon Transportation Applications. in 2025 Energy Conversion Congress & Expo Europe (ECCE Europe)., 11238986, European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2025 Energy Conversion Congress & Expo Europe (ECCE Europe), Birmingham, United Kingdom, 31/08/25. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE-Europe62795.2025.11238986

Yan, S, Shah, MH, Li, J, O’Connor, N & Liu, M 2024, A Review on AI Algorithms for Energy Management in E-Mobility Services. in 2023 7th CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (CVCI)., 10397371, Conference on Vehicle Control and Intelligence (CVCI), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2023 7th CAA International Conference on Vehicular Control and Intelligence (CVCI), 27/10/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/CVCI59596.2023.10397371

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