I am an Associate Professor in Computer Science Department and Data Science Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). I am also an affiliated researcher at UMass Transportation Center (UMTC). I obtained two Ph.D. degrees, in Computer Science from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2013, and Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2009, respectively. I am interested in artificial intelligence and spatial-temporal data science with applications in smart cities and urban intelligence. I am a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM and AAAI.
Openings
I am looking for self-motivated PhD students and visiting scholars to work with me on the exciting area of urban intelligence. I'm particularly interested in candidates with background in Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Math, and strong programming skill. Please send me a short email with your C.V. and anything you believe relevant! For PhD program applicants, here is the admission page at WPI.
Research Projects
On-going projects:
- NSF IIS-1942680, "CAREER: Spatial-Temporal Imitation Learning". (sole PI), 7/2020–6/2025.
- NSF CNS-1952085, "SCC-IRG Track 1: Empowering and Enhancing Workers Through Building A Community-Centered Gig Economy". (Subawarded to PI Li at WPI), 10/2020–9/2024.
- NSF DGE-2021871, "NRT-HDR: Data-Driven Sustainable Engineering for a Circular Economy". (Senior Personnel), 7/2020–8/2025.
Completed projects:
- NSF CNS-1657350, "CRII: CPS: CityLines: Designing Urban Hub-and-Spoke Transportation System with Data-Driven Cyber-Control", NSF CRII award from CPS program, 8/2017–7/2020.
- NSF CMMI-1831140, "SCC: Leveraging Autonomous Shared Vehicles for Greater Community Health, Equity, Livability, and Prosperity (HELP)". (Subawarded to PI Li at WPI), 9/2018–8/2023.
- Industry DiDi Chuxing Research, "User Behavior Analysis for Ride-Hailing Services", 3/2018–3/2020.
Recent Publications
Latest 3 years in ICDM, ICML, NeurIPS, and KDD. (full list of publications, Google Scholar, DBLP)
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Sponsors
Sincere gratitude to our sponsors from NSF, DiDi Chuxing, Pitney Bowes Inc., and NVIDIA.
Research Interests
Recent Professional Service
Full list of professional service
- Panelist
- NSF 2017–2022
- Proceedings Chair
- ACM SIGSPATIAL 2020–21
- Pub Chair
- ACM SIGSPATIAL 2017–18
- TPC
- ICLR 2024
- SPC
- SDM 2024
- TPC
- NeurIPS 2023
- TPC
- KDD 2023
- TPC
- ICML 2023
- TPC
- IJCAI 2023
- TPC
- ICLR 2023
- TPC
- ICDM 2023
- TPC
- SIGSPATIAL 2023
Media Coverage
- 5/2017
- Telegram & Gazette News
- 3/2017
- WPI Research News
- 3/2017
- WBJournal Online
Professional Appointments
- 2021–now
- Associate Professor, WPI
- 2015–21
- Assistant Professor, WPI
- 2015
- Postdoc, U of Minnesota
- 2013–14
- Researcher, Noah's Ark Lab, Hong Kong
- 2012
- Research Intern, Bell Lab, NJ
- 2011
- Research Intern, Microsoft Research, Beijing
- 2009–13
- Research Assistant, U of Minnesota
Education
- Ph.D.
- Computer Science, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, 2013
- Ph.D.
- Electrical Engineering, Beijing U of Posts and Telecommunications, 2009
- MS
- Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, 2006
- BS
- Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, 2003