People

Dr. Ryan Qi Wang serves as an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. His research focuses on utilizing urban informatics to enhance the understanding, sustainability, and resilience of urban and social systems. By leveraging big data from various sources, Dr. Wang investigates the impact of large-scale crises on urban populations and explores the resilience and inequality of geosocial networks in American cities.

With a wealth of experience in environmental justice communities in Boston, Dr. Wang spearheads numerous projects aimed at understanding equity and inclusiveness in human mobility, reducing air pollution exposure among vulnerable residents, and fortifying physical and social infrastructure within communities. His research has been published in prestigious interdisciplinary journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, PNAS, and Nature Ecology & Evolution, as well as disciplinary journals. Dr. Wang's work has garnered media attention from prominent outlets like Science Magazine, PNAS, and the Boston Globe.

Prior to joining Northeastern University, Dr. Wang held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, where he developed an interest in studying social inequality and segregation using big data from Twitter. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he also served as the first Ph.D. Fellow at BioBuild, an interdisciplinary program, and as a Via Teaching Fellow. Dr. Wang holds an M.S. in Construction Management from Michigan State University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University.

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John (Jack) Balaguer is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. He originally joined Ryan Wang’s lab as an undergraduate researcher in January 2023 while completing his B.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences at Northeastern and continued on as a Ph.D. student in September 2025. His research focuses on climate and natural disaster driven human displacement and migration patterns.

Abdullahi Bello is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Northeastern University whose work focuses on human mobility, transportation network performance, and their interactions with broader urban systems. His research uses data-driven methods, machine learning, geospatial analytics, and emerging urban data sources to understand how transportation systems shape, respond to, and intersect with environmental, social, and infrastructural conditions in cities. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Technology Akure in Nigeria, and a Master of Science degree in Urban Informatics from Northeastern University. His broader goal is to develop actionable insights for more resilient, efficient, and equitable urban systems. He enjoys playing and watching football (soccer), and enjoying nature. Learn more about Abdullahi

Haoyu He is a Ph.D. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Northeastern University. He joined Ryan Wang’s Lab in Summer 2023. Previously, he did his undergrad in computer science and mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Haoyu's research interests lie in leveraging machine learning methods to reveal intricate human mobility patterns in challenging environments. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming, hiking, and exploring new landscapes. Let more about him here!

Peng Liao is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a concentration in data and systems at Northeastern University. He joined Ryan Wang’s Lab in September 2025. Peng received his B.S. in Engineering Management from Tongji University in 2021. His current research focuses on aging populations and healthcare. Outside of research, he enjoys playing mahjong and badminton.

Jiawei Lin has been a visiting student in Ryan’s Lab since November 2024. He is working towards Ph.D. degree under the guidance of Prof. Saixing Zeng in Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on human mobility and aging populations, aiming to address mobility challenges experienced by older adults and promote age-friendly communities within smart city settings.

Yuxi Wang is currently a Ph.D. student in civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. She received her M.S. degree in Computer and Information Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and her B.S. degree in Remote Sensing and Information Engineering from Wuhan University.

Yuxi joined Ryan Wang’s Lab in Summer 2025. Her research focuses on reinforcement learning in uncertain and dynamic environments, including belief representation, multi-agent systems, and adaptive decision-making. She is particularly interested in developing AI systems that are robust, interpretable, and applicable to real-world problems, especially in domains related to human well-being and societal impact.

Alumni

Dr. Rong (Betty) Ding received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University, in April 2026. She joined Ryan Wang's Lab in May 2021. Betty received her B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Data Analytics Engineering, both from Northeastern University. Betty is currently a postdoc researcher at the University of Florida.

Dr. Xianglu Shen received her PhD in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University in April 2026. Her PhD research focused on human mobility changes under the influence of air pollution events. Holding a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture. Xianglu is currently a postdoc at the University of Florida.

Dr. Nail Furkan Bashan received his PhD in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University, in April 2026. He is currently a Data Analyst at Boston MPO. Nail graduated from Bogazici University (Turkey) with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and joined Ryan Wang's lab in September 2022. His research interests include data-driven approaches for human mobility networks and sustainable cities. Nail likes to spend his free time in nature by hiking or cycling.

Dr. Weiyu Li spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Lab. She joined in August 2023. Previously, she received her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Nanjing Normal University under the guidance of Lixin Tian. Her research is dedicated to utilizing data-driven approaches and mathematical models to analyze human mobility, with a particular focus on applications in urban disaster risk management and addressing various urban resilience challenges. Weiyu is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University.

Dr. Xinhua Wu received his PhD in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University, in August 2025. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Nanjing Tech University and his Master's degree in Transportation from Monash University. In January 2023, Xinhua joined Professor Ryan Wang's lab, where he focused on exploring deep learning techniques and their applications in the realm of human mobility research. Xinhua is running his own AI startup in China.

Yanchao Wang received his PhD in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University in November 2023. He joined the research group in Fall 2018 as a research assistant. He received his bachelor's degree from the Wuhan University of Technology and a master's degree from Northeastern University. He is currently a Data Scientist at Cambridge Mobile Telematics.

Pu Ren received his PhD in Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, in August 2022. His research interests include the interplay of physics knowledge and machine learning, the development of computational methods for structural metamodeling, as well as the advancement of sensing and data analytics for civil infrastructure systems and resilience issues. Pu will start his Postdoc position at UC Berkeley in Sep. 2022.

Armin Akhavan received his PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering, Northeastern University. He is a city and regional planner, spatial analyst, and information design and visualization specialist. Armin researches urban planning problems through analysis of spatial data, where he translates information into arguments through models, comparisons, visualizations, and maps. His work spans diverse platforms which include web- application development, scraping web data, data sonification, and database development. Before joining the Urban Informatics Lab at Northeastern, Armin worked at MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism, MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and Boston Area Research Initiative. After receiving an undergraduate degree in planning from Tehran, Iran, Armin received a Masters in Urban and Regional Policy, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering at Northeastern University.

Hengfang (Alex) Deng received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University. Alex joined the group in early 2018 after he received a MS in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include computing in advanced infrastructure systems with applied machine learning techniques, sustainability assessment, urban and social resilience analysis. He enjoys exploring new cities, visiting art museums and botanical gardens. He is currently a postdoc at Columbia University.

Dr. Sahar Mirzaee received her Ph.D. in Public. She is a computational social scientist whose research is focused on assessing social resilience through data. Her main research interests are social network analysis, data analysis, socio-technical and socio-ecological systems, Spatial data analysis, and generally wherever big data meets network science! She is also a passionate teacher and teaches graduate-level courses such as dynamic modeling for environmental decision making, Computational Statistics, and data visualization. Currently, Sahar is a Research Scientist at Spring Health.

Bita Sadeghinasr received her Ph.D. in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University in 2022. Bita joined the Urban Informatics and Resilience Lab in the Fall of 2017, where her research focuses on a better understanding of urban life through the lens of big data analyses and computation. Bita received her B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. Outside of her research, Bita enjoys running laps around rookies at the gym, traveling the world, and generally being a good mobility data point.

Edgar Castro was BS in Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University. Edgar worked on creating visualizations; scraping and aggregating geospatial data; maintaining lab servers, cloud machines, and databases; and creating and using tools to assess the ease of movement of people through cities under different scenarios. Currently, Edgar is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University.

Didong Xu received his Master's degree in Civil Engineering at Northeastern University. His academic interest at school was in BIM, Construction Management, and Sustainability. As a member of the lab, Didong studied the applications of BIM in the construction industry and worked with Professor Wang to rewrite the course material for the BIM course being taught at Northeastern University. Currently, Didong is working as a civil engineer at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. He monitors the construction of public transportation projects daily and utilizes what he learned at school to make the projects delivered in a more collaborative, efficient, and sustainable manner.

Ge Zu received her Master Degree in Sustainable Building Systems from Northeastern University. She has a great passion for building analysis and sustainable design. Her life goal is to devote myself to achieving sustainable building, communities, and cities.

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