Our Team

POSTDOC RESEARCHER

PH.D & POSTDOC, URBAN AI LAB & SINGAPORE-MIT ALLIANCE OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY (SMART)

Yunhan earned her Ph.D. from MIT (2024) and completed dual Master’s degrees in City Planning and Transportation at MIT (2021). She obtained dual Bachelor’s degrees in Urban Management and Economics from Peking University. Her research area is the intersection of Causal Inference, Urban Computing, Transportation Economics and Policy, Travel Decisions and Urban Network. Yunhan's research has been published on top journals such as Nature Cities, Nature Communications, Transportation Research Part A, Part B & Part C, IEEE, etc. In her spare time, she loves cooking, playing badminton and playing the piano. Dr. Yunhan Zheng will join Peking University as an Assistant Professor.

POSTDOC RESEARCHER

POSTDOC @ URBAN AI LAB, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Dr. Dongdong Wang is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Urban AI Lab, University of Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and M.S of Environmental Engineering from Duke University. He recently completed his postdoctoral research at the UCF Smart & Safe Transportation Lab, focusing on intelligent traffic safety. His expertise spans deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing, with impactful applications in intelligent transportation systems and smart cities. Dr. Wang’s research interests include: Deep Learning Optimization, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Intelligent Transportation Systems. He has won many awards such as Best Dissertation Award, Outstanding Reviewer, and scholarship. His research has published on many top-tier journal and conferences such as IEEE, CVF, AAAI, npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport, etc.

POSTDOC RESEARCHER

POSTDOC @ URBAN AI LAB, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Zhanhong Cheng is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Urban AI Laboratory, University of Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from McGill University in 2022 and holds both an M.S. (2018) and a B.S. (2016) in Transportation Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. His research focuses on data-driven innovations across three interrelated areas: public transit (e.g., destination inference, travel time and demand forecasting), multimodal travel behavior (e.g., metro, bike-sharing, E-taxi), and spatiotemporal modeling (e.g., traffic/demand forecasting and imputation). He is passionate about leveraging tools like probabilistic models, AI, and machine learning to create more sustainable, efficient, and equitable transportation systems.

POSTDOC RESEARCHER

POSTDOC @ URBAN AI LAB, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Yuzhou Chen is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Urban AI Lab, University of Florida. His research intersects urban change detection, the dynamics of shrinking cities, and spatial flow analysis within urban networks, with focus on developing innovative spatial analysis techniques that reveal the complexities of urban transformations. Yuzhou earned his Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Science and Policy (2024), and M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning (2018) from the University of South Florida. He completed his B.S. in Urban and Rural Planning at the Harbin Institute of Technology (2015). Yuzhou's research has been published in leading academic journals and has significantly advanced the understanding of spatial dynamics in urban settings.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

M.S IN URBAN ANALYTICS CANDIDATE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Mia is a first-year Master’s student in Urban Analytics at University of Florida. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Geography at University of Florida, Cum Laude with a certificate in Geospatial Information Analysis. At Urban AI Lab, Mia is conducting research in the field of urban and regional planning to support research projects, innovation application, and partnership with local business and institutes.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

MASTER IN URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING CANDIDATE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Ryan is a second-year master's student in urban and regional planning at the University of Florida and a research fellow at Architecture Sarasota. With a bachelor’s degree from UF in sustainability and the built environment, Ryan's research centered on the inequities of resilience planning and the involvement of ethnic minority stakeholders in Nantucket, MA’s future planning efforts. In his master's program, Ryan’s research interests lie in urban data analytics, particularly in analyzing social mobility within U.S. cities.

PHD RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

PH.D CANDIDATE @ URBAN AI LAB, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Qingqi Song joined the Urban AI Lab as a Research Assistant since 2024. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Urban Analytics and a Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Shenhao Wang at the University of Florida. Her research interests focus on Urban Analytics and its applications in the built environment. Prior to joining the lab, Qingqi earned her Bachelor of Science in Urban Informatics from Shenzhen University. Outside of academic work, she enjoys playing soccer and spending time outdoors under the Florida sunshine.

PHD RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

PH.D CANDIDATE @ URBAN AI LAB, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Yuqi Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida and a Research Assistant at the Urban AI Lab. She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Urban Analytics as part of her doctoral training. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Urban AI, data science, and applied statistics, with a focus on leveraging machine learning and statistical methods to address complex urban challenges. Before joining UF, Yuqi earned her Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Renmin University of China. She has also gained industry experience through internships at Apple Trading and KPMG, where she applied her analytical skills to real-world business and technology problems.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

PH.D CANDIDATE, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

Third year PhD candidate at Northeastern University, working with Prof. Haris Koutsopoulos and Prof. Shenhao Wang on the application of AI/ML methods for real-time control of fixed and flexible transit systems, including it's implementability on the field. His experience includes leading the testing of control strategies in a bus route in Chicago.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

PH.D CANDIDATE, MIT

Dingyi is a third-year Ph.D student at MIT. He completed his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering at McGill University in 2021. Before joining MIT, he received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests lie in spatial-temporal data mining and urban computing. His current research focuses on developing deep uncertainty models in demand modeling and interpreting the traffic network behaviors with Graph Neural Networks. Outside of school, Dingyi enjoys photography.

POSTDOC RESEARCHER

POSTDOC, SINGAPORE-MIT ALLIANCE OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY (SMART)

Dr. Yuebing Liang is currently a Postdoctoral Associate at the SMART. She received her Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Planning from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). She also holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Tsinghua University. Her research focuses on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, human mobility, and urban planning, with the goal of advancing data-driven approaches to better understand and shape future cities.

Starting in 2025, she will join the Department of Urban Planning at Tsinghua University as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor. She is seeking Ph.D and Master student applicants: https://yuebingliang.github.io/

MARKETING MANAGER, 2023-2024

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RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 2024-PRESENT

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, WHITEHOUSE GROUP, 2024-PRESENT

Duxixi (Ada) Shen received her Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University and B.E of Urban and Rural Planning from Sun Yat-sen University. Ada specializes in urban spatial data analysis, infrastructure and economic development, and zoning studies with a concentration on urban justice and sustainability. In her spare time, Ada likes to play piano, do photography, and record her traveling experience as a vlogger.

Ada was a Research Intern at MIT and UF since 2022. Ada played a crucial role as part of the founding team in managing Lab's marketing, recruitment, and outreach. Ada works as a Research Associate of Local Government Restructuring Lab at Cornell University. She is currently an infrastructure planning and management consultant at Whitehouse Group.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT, 2023-2024

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PH.D CANDIDATE, NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, 2024-PRESENT

MASTER OF SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 2024

Jinghao was a Research Assistant at Urban AI Lab while pursing his M.S. in Information Systems & Operations Management at University of Florida. Jinghao received a Bachelor’s degree in Information Engineering from South China Normal University. His research interest lies in using machine learning to predict travel demand. He has conducted research focusing on Florida’s travel demand prediction by using satellite and street view imagery.

Jinghao contributed to the Lab's research, operations and documentation as well as developed sample code for tutorial and database. Supervised by Dr. Shenhao Wang, Jinghao's research work was accepted by Transportation Research Board (TBR) annual conference. Jinghao is pursuing his Ph.D degree at New Jersey Institute of Technology after graduated from UF.

RESEARCHER ASSOCIATE, 2022-2024

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SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST, BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (BCG) X, 2024-PRESENT

PH.D, MIT, 2024

Dr. Qingyi Wang was a Research Associate worked with Dr. Shenhao Wang at MIT and UFL since 2018. She received her Ph.D in Transportation at MIT in 2024. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Applied Science in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto. Her master’s thesis co-supervised by Dr. Shenhao Wang was on the estimation of bus operator absence and overtime availability, and the effective scheduling of the extraboard operators to cover such absences. Qingyi is currently a Senior Data Scientist at BCG X in Boston.