Experience
Education
Ph.D., Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA USA, 2015
Executive Certificate in Modeling Urban Sustainability, Department of Architecture, MIT, Cambridge, MA USA, 2015
M.Sc., Transportation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), MIT, Cambridge, MA USA, 2009
Master in City Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT, Cambridge, MA USA, 2009
B. Eng., Urban Planning (with highest distinction); B.A., Economics, Peking University, Beijing, China, 2006
Exchange Study in the Urban Studies Program, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2005
Research
Decoding the Complexity of Commuting Networks in the United States, Tufts University
Principal Investigator, 2019-20 (on-going) | Funded by Tufts Collaborates
Collaborators: Tufts University Department of Mathematics, Tufts University Department of Computer Science
Guidance for Sharing Public Transit Data – Now and in the Future, Tufts University
Co-Principal Investigator, 2018-19 | Funded by the Transit Cooperative Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Collaborators: Economic Development Research Group
Air Quality and Traffic Impact Analysis, Tufts University
Co-Investigator, 2018-19 | Funded by the City of Somerville
Collaborators: Tufts Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT Urban Mobility Lab
Urban-Scale Social Responsibility in China, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Postdoctoral Associate, 2016-18 | MIT, Cambridge, MA USA
Collaborators: MIT Urban Mobility Lab, STL MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning & Design, Peking University
- Investigated the relationship between Chinese residents’ consumption orientation, environmental awareness, and car ownership and usage from 2003 to 2013 by examining the China General Society Survey (CGSS).
- Compared social trust changes from 2003 to 2013 in China, and quantified the relationship between information acquisition, self-association and individual and institutional trust, using structural equation modeling techniques.
- Collaborated with research team to measure the impact of traffic volume on air quality and examined environmental justice in ambient PM2.5 exposure in Beijing.
Cell Phone Data for Travel Behavior Analysis, MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Postdoctoral Associate, 2015-16| MIT, Cambridge, MA USA
Collaborators: MIT Human Mobility and Networks Lab, STL MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab, Cambridge Systematics, Inc., National Academies of Sciences, Beijing Normal University
- Evaluated the extent to which cell phone location data and associated products accurately depict travel using Boston as an example.
- Provided guidelines for transportation planners, modelers, and practitioners to understand the use of cell phone data in the modeling of travel patterns and behavior.
- Measured the economic well-being of low-income population regarding commuting travel for Bogota, Colombia.
Integrated Transportation System, MIT Center for Complex Engineering Systems
Research Assistant, 2015| MIT, Cambridge, MA USA
Collaborators: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Arriyadh Development Authority
- Collaborated with research team to predict travel demand from cell phone data and to integrate with public transportation network data for planning future transit system for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Research Assistant, 2011 - 2015 | MIT, Cambridge, MA USA + Singapore
- Developed methods to analyze and visualize spatiotemporal patterns of human activities and movement in cities. Applied data mining and statistical learning techniques and spatial visualization tools to examine dynamics of cities, and human activity and mobility patterns.
- Extracted household lifestyles from human activity patterns, and modeled household lifestyle and activity profile choices for the SimMobility long-term simulation model designed for Singapore.
Research Assistant, 2009 - 2010 | MIT, Cambridge, MA USA + Lisbon, Coimbra Portugal
- Created data fusion and estimation methods using points-of-interest data from online user generated platform and census data to estimate disaggregated location and size of employment by sector.
- Built a transportation demand analysis model for Lisbon, developed methods to analyze and visualize mobile phone data for OD estimation and traffic assignment, and validated simulation results of the Lisbon integrated land use and transportation model.
- Participated in the design and maintenance of the MPP Geo-Portal for distributed modeling.
Research Assistant, 2007 - 2009 | MIT, Cambridge, MA USA
- Designed microscopic traffic simulation models for bus rapid transit scenarios for Chicago Loop.
- Assessed impacts of alternative BRT scenarios on bus level-of-service and automobile traffic performance. Produced 3D visualization and animations for BRT scenario planning.
David C. Lincoln Research Fellowship Program, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Research Fellow, 2008 - 2009 |Cambridge, MA USA
- Collected residential and commercial property data, and GIS data on neighborhood characteristics, land use and transportation systems in Chicago.
- Constructed spatial Hedonic pricing models for single-/multi-family properties and commercial properties in Chicago.
- Estimated financial outcomes of different land value capture scenarios in funding local transit infrastructure.
Summer Research Fellow, 2007 | Chicago, IL USA
- Evaluated impact of Chicago USX development on urban transportation demand.
- Forecasted transfers at CTA in-fill stations by using GIS analysis tools.
- Analyzed the CTA market share along several bus corridors.
- Evaluated alternative dedicated bus lanes in Chicago by building microscopic multi-modal traffic simulation models using VISSIM.