Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Colorado State University, 2019
  • M.S., Bridge Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, 2011
  • Bachelors, Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, 2008
Academic Appointments
  • Instructor, Infrastructure Resilience, University of Oklahoma, 2022
Professional Honors
  • American Society of Civil Engineers: Colorado Section Younger Members Group Scholarship, 2018
  • Institute of Transportation Engineers: Colorado and Wyoming Section Graduate Level Scholarship, 2017
  • Colorado State University: Kenneth G. Medearis Scholarship, 2015

Dr. Hou specializes in risk assessment of structures and resilience modeling of critical infrastructure systems such as power distribution and transportation systems, and particularly those subjected to natural forces such as ice storms, extreme winds, floodings, and earthquakes. He develops probabilistic simulation frameworks that support comprehensive disaster planning across mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery phases. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Hou focused on quantifying and enhancing the resilience of overhead power distribution systems. He developed frameworks for assessing system resilience under ice storms and extreme winds and evaluated the cost-effectiveness of various grid-hardening strategies. Specifically, he examined tree-induced risks to distribution systems by developing fragility models for tree-related component failures and empirical and analytical tree damage fragility functions. His expertise includes risk assessment, uncertainty quantification, structural analysis, finite element analysis, and network modeling.

Dr. Hou's doctoral research at Colorado State University primarily focused on assessing the performance of transportation systems subjected to multiple hazards. He investigated the seismic performance of curved and skewed simple-made-continuous bridges through comparative studies of bridges with varying bent connections and geometric configurations. He also developed an integrated model combining a vehicle crash model and a traffic flow simulation model to assess traffic safety performance under hazardous driving conditions. In another study, he developed windthrow fragility curves for three urban tree species and evaluated the probabilistic impacts of falling trees on transportation networks.

Dr. Hou also served as an instructor at the University of Oklahoma in 2022, where he taught a course for graduate students on infrastructure resilience. He also brings several years of industry design experience, including two years in bridge design and four years in storage tank design.