Yunhan Zheng

Yunhan Zheng

PhD Student at MIT

About Me

I am currently a postdoc associate at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). I earned my Ph.D. in Transportation from MIT in 2024 and completed dual Master’s degrees in City Planning and Transportation at MIT in 2021, advised by Prof. Jinhua Zhao. Prior to my time at MIT, I obtained dual Bachelor’s degrees in Urban Management and Economics from Peking University.

My research area is the intersection of Causal Inference, Urban Computing, and Travel Decisions:

  • Causal Inference, Transportation Economics and Policy: Leveraging advanced causal inference methods for the assessment of emerging transportation tools like congestion pricing, EV charging infrastructure, and teleworking on mobility, environment, economy, and social equity.
  • Urban Computing and Machine Learning: Developing machine learning algorithms to predict and nudge travel behaviors; developing bias-mitigation methods to enhance fairness and equity in machine learning algorithms.
  • Travel Decisions and Urban Network: Combining statistical modeling, deep learning computation, and network theory for the modeling and analysis of individual travel decisions and urban networks.

News

  • [2024-10] Our Nature Communications paper has been reported by The Washington Post and CBC News!
  • [2024-08] My first-authored paper “Effects of electric vehicle charging stations on the economic vitality of local businesses”, has been accepted by Nature Communications!
  • [2024-02] My first-authored paper “Impacts of remote work on vehicle miles traveled and transit ridership in the United States”, has been accepted by Nature Cities!
  • [2024-01] My co-first-authored paper with Prof. Shenhao Wang, “Infrequent Activities Predict Economic Outcomes in Major American Cities”, has been accepted by Nature Cities!
  • [2023-11] Our paper “Deep hybrid model with satellite imagery: how to combine demand modeling and computer vision for travel behavior analysis” has been accepted by Transportation Research Part B: Methodological!
  • [2023-07] My first-authored paper “Fairness-enhancing deep learning for ride-hailing demand prediction” has been accepted by IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems!
  • [2023-06] My first-authored paper “Examining the interactions between working from home, travel behavior and change in car ownership due to the impact of COVID-19” has been accepted by Travel Behaviour and Society!
  • [2023-03] My first-authored paper “Impacts of congestion pricing on ride-hailing ridership: evidence from Chicago” has been accepted by Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice!