Yifan Yang

Yifan Yang

🗨 About Me

My name is Yifan Yang, and I am a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. I have the honor of working with my advisor, Dr. Lei Zou, in the Geospatial Exploration and Resolution (GEAR) Lab (https://www.geoearlab.com). My research focuses on the integration of Spatial Science and GeoAI, utilizing GIS & Remote Sensing for mapping and analyzing geographic patterns, exploring Disaster Resilience, understanding Climate Change impacts, and investigating Public Health. In addition, I am deeply committed to Responsible GIS and GeoAI, particularly in enhancing Explainable GeoAI for improved interpretability in decision-making across critical fields.

Before entering PhD studies, I earned a master’s degree in spatial data science from the University of Southern California (https://www.usc.edu/). During my master’s degree, I worked with Dr. John Wilson about urban tree(https://publicexchange.usc.edu/urban-trees-initiative/). and Dr. Siqin Wang gave me a lot of guidance.

Before graduate school, I received a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Hainan University in China (https://www.hainanu.edu.cn/). I hope to use computer science and spatial science to make some contribution to the world. I am also an AI4science enthusiast. My hobbies are basketball🏀, football⚽, poker🎴 and talk show🎆.

📖 Educations

  • 2024.08 - now, Phd, Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

  • Advisor: Prof.Lei Zou, Geospatial Exploration and Resolution (GEAR) Lab

  • 2022.08 - 2024.05, MS, Spatial Data Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Advisor: Prof.John Wilson, USC Spatial Sciences Institute, USC Urban Trees Initiative

  • Advisor: Prof. Siqin Wang, USC Spatial Sciences Institute

  • 2018.08 - 2022.05, BS, Software Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, China
  • Advisor: Prof. Jieren Cheng, Robot and Artificial Intelligence Association for Hainan University

💻 Past core Research

  • 2025.01 - now, Graduate Research Assistant，Geospatial Exploration and Resolution (GEAR) Lab

  • Advisor: Prof.Lei Zou,Texas A&M University

  • 2023.09 - 2024.04, Master Student Researcher, USC Urban Trees Initiative

  • Advisor：Prof.John Wilson, Prof.Yi Qi, Beau MacDonald, University of Southern California

  • 2020.03 - 2021.06, Vice President, Student Researcher，Robot and Artificial Intelligence Association HNU
  • Advisor：Prof.ieren Cheng, Hainan University

👨‍🏫 Teaching Experience

  • 2024.08 - 2024.12, Teaching Assistant, Texas A&M University

  • GEOG232，lab section 501, 502, 505

  • 2024.07 - 2024.08, Teaching Assistant, Neoscholar，Shanghai
  • Machine Learning and Data Analysis
  • Advisor：Prof. Raja Sooriamurthi, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Big Data Algorithm
  • Advisor：Prof. David P. Woodruff, Carnegie Mellon University

📕 Publications

  • *[1]Yang, Yifan, Siqin Wang, Daoyang Li, Shuju Sun, and Qingyang Wu. “GeoLocator: A Location-Integrated Large Multimodal Model (LMM) for Inferring Geo-Privacy.” Applied Sciences 14, no. 16 (2024): 7091.

  • *[2]Yan, Bingjie, Jun Wang, Jieren Cheng, Yize Zhou, Yixian Zhang, Yifan Yang, Li Liu, Haojiang Zhao, Chunjuan Wang, and Boyi Liu. “Experiments of federated learning for COVID-19 chest X-ray images.” In Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Security: 7th International Conference, ICAIS 2021, Dublin, Ireland, July 19-23, 2021, Proceedings, Part II 7, pp. 41-53. Springer International Publishing, 2021.

  • *[3]Y. Zhang, J. Cheng, Y. Yang, H. Li, X. Zheng et al., “Covid-19 public opinion and emotion monitoring system based on time series thermal new word mining,” Computers, Materials & Continua, vol. 64, no.3, pp. 1415–1434, 2020.

  • *[4] Shi, Chenyu, Ge Mou, Haoyuan Wang, Tianyu Liu, Yifan Yang, and Zhengyu Li. “Different Loss Functions Used in the Low-rank Approximation.” International Core Journal of Engineering 6, no. 11 (2020): 360-368. (co-first author)

  • *[5] Wu, Q., Xu, Y., Xiao, T., Xiao, Y., Li, Y., Wang, T., … & Yang, Y. (2024). Surveying Attitudinal Alignment Between Large Language Models Vs. Humans Towards 17 Sustainable Development Goals. arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.13885.

  • *[6] Wang, Y., Yin, H., Yang, Y., Zhao, C., & Wang, S. (2024). Navigating Spatial Inequities in Freight Truck Crash Severity via Counterfactual Inference in Los Angeles. arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.17554.

🏘 Presentation

  • *American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting，March 24 - 28, 2025，Detroit
  • https://aag.secure-platform.com/aag2025/solicitations/82/sessiongallery/23561
  • https://aag.secure-platform.com/aag2025/solicitations/82/sessiongallery/23718
  • https://aag.secure-platform.com/aag2025/organizations/main/gallery/rounds/131/details/82104

  • https://aag.secure-platform.com/aag2025/organizations/main/gallery/rounds/131/details/83465

  • *Spatial Data Science Symposium: Thematic Session, Geoprivacy Challenges and Solutions in the Digital Society

  • https://sdss2024.spatial-data-science.net/ts/zhang.html

  • *The Symposium on Spatiotemporal Data Science, Pre-symposium Training Workshop, Washington DC, July 22, 2024(online)

  • https://sdl.gis.harvard.edu/event/symposium-spatiotemporal-data-science-geoai-social-sciences

  • *American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting，April 16 - 20, 2024，Honolulu, Hawai’i

  • https://aag.secure-platform.com/aag2024/solicitations/57/sessiongallery/7825

  • *AGI Leap Summit 2024, Multimodality, Paper Presentation，SuperAGI, February 29, 2024, Virtual

  • https://superagi.com/agi-leap-summit/

  • *2024 LOS ANGELES GEOSPATIAL SUMMIT, February 23, 2024, Los Angeles, CA
  • https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/blog/articles/showcasing-innovation-in-gis-education-through-student-projects-at-the-la-geospatial-summit/

👑 Partial Honor

  • *Nu Theta chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon, lifetime membership, the international geographic honor society Gamma Theta Upsilon
  • *2024 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit ArcGIS Storymaps Competition Most Suitably Applied Analysis Methodology Using Map
  • *DNIIT(performance：EXCELLENT)
  • *The 9th China International “Internet +” College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Shanghai Division) Higher Education Main Track International Project Second Runner-up (Youguang Ushine - AI+ Multilingual Talent Service Platform” project)
  • *2020 National First Prize in the Computer Design Competition for Chinese College Students, Big Data Practice Competition
  • *The third prize of the 10th MathorCup College Mathematical Modeling Challenge in 2020
  • *2020 Second Prize of the 13th “Certification Cup” Mathematics China Mathematical Modeling Network Challenge (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Society)
  • *2020 China-US Youth Creators Competition, Haikou Region, Third Prize
  • *2020 Second Prize of the Third China Youth Cup National University Student Mathematical Modeling
  • *Third Prize of the 6th National Mobile Internet Innovation Competition (South China Region)
  • *2020 China University Computer Competition - Third Prize in the Innovation Group of the Artificial Intelligence
  • *Third prize in the final of the Hainan Selection Competition of the 4th China Creative Wings Competition and the
  • *2020 Hainan Free Trade Port Entrepreneurship Competition
  • *Silver Award of Hainan Creative Group of the 6th China International “Internet+” Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
  • *Bronze Prize in Hainan Region of the Challenge Cup Student Entrepreneurship Plan Competition in 2020
  • *Second Prize of the 14th iCAN International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition South China Region
  • *Hainan University First Class Comprehensive Scholarship
  • *College students with the most innovative spirit and practical ability in Hainan University

🌎 Miscellaneous

I like basketball, football, and I watch many games. Favorite player is Messi