Yi-Chang James Tsai

Portrait of James Tsai in a dark blazer with a light blue shirt and a red tie
Smart Cities
Construction and Infrastructure Systems Engineering
Transportation Systems Engineering
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Yi-Chang James Tsai

Professor
CISE Group Coordinator
Email Address
james.tsai@ce.gatech.edu
Telephone
404.385.6428
Office Building
SEB
Office Room Number
328
Biography

Dr. James Tsai is a Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Smart City Infrastructure (SCI) lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained a BSCE in 1987 and a MSCE in 1989 from the National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.  He received his Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from Georgia Tech in August 1996. Dr. Tsai had worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in 1996 and then worked as research engineer/senior research engineer from 1997 to 2007in the GIS center at Georgia Tech. Dr. Tsai joined Georgia Tech as a tenure-track associate professor in January 2007 on the Savannah campus. He earned tenure and promotion in 2011 and transitioned to the Atlanta campus in 2013. He served as Group Leader of Construction and Infrastructure Systems Engineering (CISE) from 2023 to 2025. Dr. Tsai has established research programs in Smart Infrastructure, Transportation Safety, and Safe Mobility for Seniors. He is an ASCE Fellow and a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has also served as an Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering since 2010.

Research

Dr. Tsai has established the Smart City Infrastructure (SCI) Lab at Georgia Tech, which leverages advanced sensing technologies (e.g., 3D laser scanning, LiDAR, smartphones, UAVs, and eye-tracking devices), artificial intelligence, computer vision, and GIS spatiotemporal analysis to advance sustainability and resilience research in (a) smart infrastructure, (b) transportation safety, (c) safe mobility for seniors, and (d) energy and emissions reduction.

Education
Ph.D.  Georgia Institute of Technology 1996
MSCE National Chung-Hsing University 1989
BSCE  National Chung-Hsing University 1987
Teaching

Dr. Tsai teaches undergraduate courses including 4161 AI for Smart Cities, 3090 Data Analytics in CEE, and 4050 Infrastructure Systems Management, as well as graduate courses such as 6621 GIS in Transportation, 6652 Infrastructure Management: IT Applications, and 8813 Data Analytics for Transportation Safety. He also leads interdisciplinary, research-oriented Smart City Infrastructure Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) courses (2016–2025).

Distinctions & Awards
  • 2019-2025 Innovative research outcomes result in more than 8 US national technical standards (AASHTO) on automated pavement condition evaluation quality control, using AI and 3D technologies.
  • 2025 Elected Georgia Tech Research Leadership Academy
  • 2024 The Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award from ITE Southern District.
  • 2022 Interdisciplinary Research Award, CEE, Georgia Tech
  • 2021 AASHTO High Value Research Projects to be featured in Supplemental Brochures in the AASHTO Research because of its significant positive impact on Maintenance, Management, and Preservation
  • 2017 AASHTO High Value Research (HVR) Award because of its innovation and broad impact using 3D technologies and machine learning
  • 2013 Excellence in Research Program Development, CEE, Georgia Tech
  • 2005 Research Achievement Award, College of Architecture, Georgia Tech
Publications
  1. Yang, Z., Mohammadi, M., Wang, H., & Tsai, Y. C. (2025). A feature‐based pavement image registration method for precise pavement deterioration monitoring. Computer‐Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 40(10), 1276-1294.
  2. Yang, Z., Fung, J. T. C., Ho, H., & Tsai, Y. C. (2025). Predictive and Precision Pavement Maintenance Methodology Utilizing Multi-Temporal Pavement Images. Transportation Research Record, 03611981251365909.
  3. Gadsby, A., Knezevich, R., Yu, P., Tsai, Y., Harvey J. (2024), A National Survey and Roadmap on Complete Streets Infrastructure Asset Management Policy, Transport Policy, Volume 157, 2024, Pages 86-97, ISSN 0967-070X,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2024.08.005
  4. Yang, Z., Yu, P., Shah, R., Knezevich, R., Tsai, Y. C. (2024). Crash Prediction on Horizontal Curves: Review and Model Performance Comparison. Transportation Research Record, 03611981241242075.
  5. Steele, A., Pranav, C., Tsai, Y. (2023) "Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity Condition Assessment and Deterioration Analysis Using Lidar Technology", ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, Vol. 149, No. 5.
  6. Zhang, X., Hsieh, Y. A., Yu, P., Yang, Z., Tsai, Y. J. (2023). Multiclass Transportation Safety Hardware Asset Detection and Segmentation Based on Mask-RCNN with RoI Attention and IoMA-Merging. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 37(5), 04023024
  7. Pranav, C., Tsai, Y. C. (2022). Comprehensive Framework and Roadmap for Life-Cycle Management of High-Friction Surface Treatments. Transportation Research Record, Vol. 2676, Issue 12, 03611981221095517.
  8. Gadsby, A., Tsai, Y., Watkins, K. (2022). “Influence of Pavement Conditions on Cyclists’ Perception of Safety and Comfort: A Combined Survey and Eye Tracking Study,” Journal of Transportation Research Record, Vol. 2676, Issue 12.
  9. Hsieh, Y., Tsai, Y. (2020) “Machine Learning for Crack Detection: review and model performance comparison”, ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 34 (5), 04020038.
  10. Tsai, Y., Jiang, C., Huang, Y. (2014) “A Multi-scale Crack Fundamental Element Model for Real World Pavement Crack Classification”, ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, vol. 28, no. 4, 2014.
More information

Please take a look at the introduction to Smart City Infrastructure lab by clicking here.

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