AWWA Water Science Author Spotlight

Abstract

Having recently published an article in AWWA Water Science, Hongfang Lu answered questions from the publication's editor-in-chief, Kenneth L. Mercer, about the research. A Hybrid Model for Monthly Water Demand Prediction: A Case Study of Austin, Texas Hongfang Lu, John Matthews, and Shuai Han I am now an associate professor at Southeast University in China. My current research focuses on trenchless technology and buried pipeline health monitoring. My research has been going on for nearly a decade, and my projects are all about pipelines. Since I have a background in oil and gas engineering, my initial research was on oil and gas pipelines. During my PhD program, I also did some research on water pipelines. During my PhD program, I was involved in a Water Research Foundation project on water pipeline condition assessment. During that time, I did some research on water. In addition, trenchless technology is more widely used in the water field. During his summer vacation in 2018, Hongfang went to New York City with one of his teachers and her family. So far, three teachers have greatly influenced my career. In chronological order, the first one is Professor Xiaonan Wu from Southwest Petroleum University (Chengdu, China), who was my tutor at the master's degree stage. She told me to have the courage to challenge complex problems in research. The second is my PhD research advisor, Dr. Tom Iseley, a professor at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.) and a leader in the trenchless industry. He told me to keep an open mind in research and be mindful of the intersections between disciplines. The third is my current team leader, Professor Zhao-Dong Xu from Southeast University. He often reminds us to combine theory with practice and do research that is meaningful to people. This research is related to water demand prediction using machine learning methods. The motivation is to establish a hydraulic calculation model of the water supply network through the prediction of water demand. Many buried pipelines worldwide are aging or about to enter the aging stage. Health monitoring and trenchless repair of pipelines are essential; therefore, my research direction is related to these two points. Personally, I am very interested in the structure of pipes. Although pipeline structure is relatively simple compared with other forms, it also involves many scientific problems. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 has triggered a lot of thinking among scholars. But even before the onset of its public health problems, using limited samples to predict future conditions and then using those results to take public measures was an important challenge in research. In June 2021, Hongfang participated in the biennial badminton competition at Southeast University, Nanjing, China. I was born in Nanyang, Henan Province, China, a place with abundant oil resources at that time. So I have been relatively familiar with oil since I was a child. When I was in college, my major was oil and gas storage and transportation engineering. In studying, I was very interested in pipelines, the vehicle for oil and gas resource transportation. To learn more about Hongfang's research, visit the article, available online at https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1175.