Current Team Members 

Feng Wang, Ph.D., PE, Professor

Dr. Feng Wang recently became a Professor and Program Coordinator of the Civil Engineering Program of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. From 2007 through 2018, he was a faculty member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. Feng received his Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has conducted research, teaching, and service in Transportation Engineering for more than 20 years. Since 2010, Feng was awarded several major projects of over $1.6M at state and federal levels to conduct research in Pavement Management Systems using questionnaire surveys, statistical analysis, optimization modeling, and decision modeling to investigate highway pavement management problems and data collection methods, especially image-based technologies.

Feng Hong, Ph.D., PE, Associate Professor of Practice

Dr. Feng Hong is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Civil Engineering program at Texas State University. Before joining TXST in 2022, he worked at Texas Department of Transportation – TxDOT for 15 years. He started with engineering assistant, then was promoted to different positions including transportation engineer, lead engineer, and the State Pavement Management Engineer/Pavements Branch Manager, overseeing 200,000 lane miles pavement network management. His technical work is involved with both practice and research including non-destructive testing, pavement design and analysis, pavement maintenance and rehabilitation, and transportation asset management, planning, and resilience. Feng Hong obtained his PhD degree in Civil Engineering with a Transportation focus from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. He received multiple academic and service awards from graduate study throughout his professional career. He is a licensed engineer in the State of Texas.

Xiaohua (Nemo) Luo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Instruction

Dr. Xiaohua Luo is currently a lecturer in the Civil Engineering Program of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. She received her Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering in May 2019 from Jackson State University in Mississippi. Her doctoral research was focused on performance evaluation, threshold updating, and decision modeling of the pavement warranty program in Mississippi. She has conducted research and service in Transportation Engineering for more than 8 years since receiving her BS degree. Her current research activities and interests include pavement condition data analysis, decision support modeling for pavement management systems, automated pavement condition evaluation using AI, and pavement warranty programs.

Yongsheng Bai, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr. Yongsheng Bai is a Postdoctoral Researcher of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. Before joining Texas State, he had been a Research Scientist of generative AI in a company for one and a half years. Dr. Bai received his PhD in Civil Engineering from Ohio State University in 2022.  He obtained master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Southeast University and Wuhan University of China. Before his PhD, he had worked as a Structural Engineer for 15-plus years designing various structures for multi-story or high-rise buildings. Dr. Bai’s research interests include vision-based Structural Health Monitoring technologies, generative AI, structure design for buildings and bridges, and AI applications in pavement condition assessment and management.

Gauri Ravikant Mahajan, Ph.D. Student, Graduate Research Assistant 

Ms. Gauri Mahajan is a doctoral student in the Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization program at Texas State University since August 2023. Before joining the doctoral program, Gauri worked as a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI)- A Government Autonomous Institute in Mumbai, India.  She obtained her Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (DBATU) in 2015 at Lonere in India. Further, she received her Master of Engineering with a specialization in Transportation Engineering from Samrat Ashok Technological Institute (SATI) in 2017 at Vidisha in India. Gauri’s research interests include pavement management systems and automated pavement condition evaluation. Besides academics, Gauri enjoys cooking, listening to music, and drawing.

Carlos Sanchez, M.S. Student, Graduate Research Assistant

Andrew Scouten, M.S. Student, Graduate Research Assistant

Mr. Andrew Scouten is a graduate student pursuing a M.S. Degree in Computer Science at Texas State University. He began his research in Computer Vision in early 2023 during his undergraduate career at Texas State, where he developed AI systems to detect bacterial adhesion and corrosion using data from NASA’s International Space Station.  Currently, he is working as a research assistant on projects funded by the Texas Department of Transportation, focusing on the application of artificial intelligence for pavement condition assessment. Andrew’s research interests include the interdisciplinary applications of AI and deep learning as well as explaining and improving existing AI systems. Beyond research, Andrew enjoys spending time with his friends & family, modding popular video games, and helping others understand AI concepts through volunteer workshops.

Aashima Pokharel, M.S. Student, Graduate Research Assistant

Ms. Aashima Pokharel is a graduate student pursuing her Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering at Ingram School of Engineering, Texas State University since August 2024. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Pokhara University, Nepal in 2022. Her research interests include pavement management systems and automated pavement condition evaluation.

Sadia Bhuiyan Shampa, M.S. Student, Graduate Research Assistant

Ms. Sadia Bhuiyan Shampa is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.) (Concentration: Civil Engineering) program at the Ingram School of Engineering, Texas State University. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in September 2017. After completion of her undergrad, she worked as a civil engineer in Bangladesh Water Development Board, one of the leading government organizations of Bangladesh. Sadia’s research interests include pavement management systems, traffic safety, and intelligent transportation system. As for her hobbies, she loves travelling.

Ms. Anannya Ghosh Tusti is a graduate researcher and Master’s student in Civil Engineering at Texas State University, specializing in transportation safety and data-driven modeling. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2023, where she served as a research assistant and gained early experience applying spatial and statistical methods to infrastructure projects of national importance, including the Border Road Project in Bangladesh. At Texas State, Anannya worked as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Lab (2024-2025). Her contributions span national and state-level initiatives such as the NCHRP 17-113 project on Safe System integration, the NCHRP Synthesis 20-05/Topic 56-05 on non-motorized traffic analysis, and NSF-funded studies on emerging mobility technologies. In these roles, she has conducted GIS-based spatial analyses, econometric and machine learning modeling, and authored technical memoranda, literature syntheses, and implementation-oriented reports. Beyond research, Anannya has demonstrated leadership as Project Coordinator (2024) and Vice President (Technical) (2025) of the ITE TXST chapter, where her role defined project coordination, team management, and strengthening student engagement. She is also an active member of professional organizations, including the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Heart of Texas (HOT) Chapter. With a commitment to bridging research and practice, she aims to expand her work into pavement design, aiming to integrate safety-focused, data-driven methods with infrastructure performance evaluation.

Wenhan Tao, M.S. Student, Graduate Research Assistant

Mr. Wenhan Tao is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Computer Science at Texas State University. He is pursuing his M.S. in Computer Science with research interests in computer vision, AI-driven wildlife monitoring, and intelligent transportation systems. His recent projects include developing the BAT-SV-2025 dataset and a motion-aware YOLOv8 pipeline for bat detection in low-light conditions, as well as collaborations on automotive ground-truth extraction and radar synchronization with Bosch-affiliated teams. He has published in IEEE Pulse and contributed to software copyrights in image/video repair systems. Before joining Texas State, he earned his B.Eng. in Data Science and Big Data Technology from Yancheng Normal University, graduating in the top 5% of his class.

Walker Shultz, Undergraduate Student

Mr. Walker Shultz, from Richmond, Texas, is currently pursuing his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering at Texas State University with a minor in Applied Mathematics. Alongside that, he brings knowledge of computer science & project budgeting skills to the team. Now, one of his primary duties is to aid in the development of research projects pertaining to Deep Learning models evaluating highway distresses. Outside of his academic interests, he enjoys cooking & volunteering to give back to his community.

Suvekshya Niroula, Undergraduate Student

Ms. Suvekshya Niroula is a junior in the Civil Engineering Program at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. She currently serves as the Vice President of Internal Affairs for the Texas State student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Suvekshya is particularly interested in transportation engineering and pavement systems. She is working as an undergraduate research assistant with Dr. Xiaohua Luo and Graduate Research Assistant on a CREATE project that investigates the effects of hurricane events on pavement performance.

Roshni Kandel, Undergraduate Student

Ms. Roshni Kandel is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at Texas State University, where she enrolled in Fall 2023. Her research experience focused on AI for Pavement Condition Assessment, where she primarily contributed through the annotation of pavement distress from 2D and 3D surface images for a TxDOT project involving asphalt concrete pavements. Beyond annotation, she has gained experience in understanding how training data directly impacts the performance of AI models, which has strengthened her interest in combining engineering applications with data-driven methods. She is eager to continue expanding her skills in civil engineering research, particularly in the areas of infrastructure performance, sustainability, and intelligent transportation systems.

Haitao Gong, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr. Haitao Gong is currently a postdoctoral research associate of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. He received his B.S. degree in Transportation Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China in 2009, and his M.S. degree in Transportation Planning and Management from Tongji University in Shanghai, China in 2012. applications in transportation infrastructure. In 2022, he received his Ph.D. from the Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization program at Texas State University. He is currently working on using Deep Learning methods for pavement distress measurement. Besides academic interests, he is also very enthusiastic about becoming an entrepreneur. He participated in the Texas State I-Corps Site program in 2019 and the National I-Corps™ Teams in 2021 as an Entrepreneur Lead.

Jueqiang Tao, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr. Jueqiang Tao is currently an assistant professor at Zhejiang Normal University. Dr. Tao was a postdoc researcher of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. He received his B.S. degree in Pavement and Transportation Engineering from Zhejiang Normal University in Zhejiang, China in 2016, and his M.S. degree in Pavement and Transportation Engineering from Zhejiang Normal University in Zhejiang, China in 2019. In 2022, he received his Ph.D. from the Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization program at Texas State University. His research has led to more than 15 journal publications and 1 US patent application. He also participated in the Texas State I-Corps Site program in 2019 and the National I-Corps™ Teams in 2021 as a Co-Entrepreneur Lead.

Dr. Tao joined Zhejiang Normal University as an Assistant Professor in China in 2023.

Ajmain Faieq, Graduate Research Assistant

Mr. Ajmain Faieq is currently an Engineer at Woolpert. Mr. Faieq was a master’s student in Engineering (Concentration: Civil Engineering) at the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2019. His master’s research is focused on the improvement of data quality for automated pavement condition data collection for TxDOT and analyzing the thresholds for data quality assurance.

Gabrielle Nguyen, Undergraduate Student

Ms. Gabrielle Nguyen is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Texas State University with minors in Sustainability Studies and Applied Mathematics. She has worked in the civil engineering industry as first a CADD Technician and then a CADD Lead for the past 14 years, mainly focusing on highway projects. She has worked on all different stages of projects, from placing bids to detail design to concluding projects with As-Builts. Now, she is assisting in research relating to maintenance, including tagging pavement distress for the development of AI automation in the future.