Wenjing Gong

About Me

Greetings,😀! I’m Wenjing Gong, a second-year Ph.D. student in Urban and Regional Science at Texas A&M University, co-advised by Dr. Lingqian Hu and Dr. Xinyue Ye. My current research interests include:

• Urban Analytics and Geospatial AI: Advancing methods in spatiotemporal modeling and multimodal data fusion to enhance urban extreme weather assessment and data-driven decision support.
• Human–Environment–Climate Nexus: Investigating the coupled interactions of climate extremes, urban systems, and human behavior to foster sustainable, resilient, and healthy urban futures.
• Social Sensing and Visual Intelligence: Harnessing geospatial imagery, mobility data, and social media to reveal urban dynamics and inform urban planning and policy.

Feel free to contact me via email or LinkedIn. I’d be happy to connect! (Updated on 10/2025)

Education

[2024-] Ph.D. Student, Urban and Regional Science
Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
Advisor: Dr. Lingqian Hu and Dr. Xinyue Ye
[2019-2022] M.E., Architecture (Urban Study)
Tongji University, Shanghai, China
GPA: 88.5/100 (Entrance through the exam-free recommendation program)
[2019] Visiting Student, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Columbia University, New York, USA
[2014-2019] B.E., Architecture
Shandong University of Science & Technology, Qingdao, China
GPA: 90.5/100 (Rank: 1/60 each year)

Academic & Professional Experience

[2025-2026] Student Ambassador
Texas A&M Institute of Data Science, College Station, USA
[2025-2026] Student Fellow
Telehealth Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
[2024-2025] Research Assistant
Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
[2022-2024] Designer and Planner
Architecture Design & Research Institute of Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Peer-reviewed Publications

See Google Scholar/my CV for the full list of publications.

• Gong, W., Ye, X., Wu, K., Jamonnak, S., Zhang, W., Yang, Y., Huang, X. Integrating Spatiotemporal Vision Transformer into Digital Twins for High-Resolution Heat Stress Forecasting in Campus Environments (Accepted in Journal of Planning Education and Research)
• Ye, X., Yigitcanlar, T., Xu, Y., Head, M., Hang, Y., Sanchez, T., Gong, W., & Niyogi, D. (2025). Urban planning and IPCC-like city assessments integration for climate-resilient cities. Environment and Planning B, 23998083251330940.
• Ye, X., Yigitcanlar, T., Goodchild, M., Huang, X., Li, W., Shaw, S.-L., Fu, Y., Gong, W., & Newman, G. (2025). Artificial intelligence in urban science: why does it matter? Annals of GIS, 0(0), 1–9.
• Gong, W., Rui, J., & Li, T. (2024). Deciphering Urban Bike-Sharing Patterns: An In-depth Analysis of Natural Environment and Visual Quality in New York’s Citi Bike System. Journal of Transport Geography, 115, 103799.
• Gong, W., Huang, X., White, M., & Langenheim, N. (2023). Walkability Perceptions and Gender Differences in Urban Fringe New Towns: A Case Study of Shanghai. Land, 12(7), 1339.

Selected Papers Under Review

• Gong, W., Ye, X., Yigitcanlar, T., Leung, R., Zheng, Z. Extreme Heat and Urban Systems: A Review of Interactions and AI-Enabled Systemic Resilience Pathways (Submitted)
• Gong, W., Ye, X., Wu, L., Zhu, C., Song, Y. Revealing Park Visitation under Dual Environmental Threats in a Socially Stratified City: Evidence from Smartphone Mobility Data in Dallas (Submitted)
• Rui, J., Gong, W. Paying lip service? An investigation into the spatial mismatch between younger and older adults’ streetscape perceptual preference and visitation behavior (Submitted)
• Rui, J., Gong, W., Qin, L. A geo-embedded graph neural network framework for ride-hailing demand: Interpretable modeling of spatiotemporal dynamics driven by street contextual features (Submitted)

Presentations

Conferences

• Gong, W., Ye, X., Wu, K., Jamonnak, S., Zhang, W., Yang, Y., Huang, X. Integrating Spatiotemporal Vision Transformer into Digital Twins for High-Resolution Heat Stress Forecasting in Campus Environments. 2025 Annual Meeting of American Association of Geographers, March 24-28, 2025, Detroit, Michigan, USA (Oral).
• Gong, W., Wu, K., Yang, Y., Zhang, W., Ye, X., Huang, X. Integrating high-resolution simulations and transformer network predictions for mitigating human heat stress: A digital twin of a Texas campus. 2024 Texas Weather Conference, November 9, 2024, College Station, Texas, USA (Oral).
• Gong, W., Yang, Y., Zhang, W., Wu, K., Ye, X., Huang, X. Integrating high-resolution simulations and transformer network predictions for mitigating human heat stress: A digital twin of a Texas campus. College of Architecture’s 26th Annual Showcase, October 3, 2024, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA (Poster).
• Gong, W. Simulating and Predicting Spatial-Temporal Human Outdoor Heat Exposure: A Case Study on a Texas Campus. The 2024 Symposium on Spatiotemporal Data Science: GeoAI for Social Sciences, July 24, 2024, Virtual (Abstract accepted).

Workshops

• Gu, J., Gong, W., Zhang, X. Analysis of the Spatial Distribution of Express Courier Stations and Assessment of Site Selection Effectiveness. DigitalFUTURES 12th Summer Workshops, July 2, 2022, Virtual (Oral).
• Gong, W., Huang, H., Zhang, X. Undoing Sprawl: Urban Agriculture as a Social Innovation. Resizing the Urban Form in the Era of “Negative Population Growth” Workshop, December 9, 2019, Columbia University, New York City, USA (Oral).

Awards & Honors

See my CV for the full list of awards and honors.

• [2025] Travel Grant, Summer School on Cyberinfrastructure and Disaster Resilience, TAMU (funded by NSF), $200.
• [2025] Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) Student Ambassador Scholarship, Domain Data Science Track (2025–2026 cohort), TAMU, $2,000.
• [2025] Ashok K. Dutt Award for Best Graduate Student Paper (1st place), Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group, 2025 Annual Meeting of American Association of Geographers, $200.
• [2025] UCGIS I-GUIDE 2024-2025 Community Champions Cohort (Student leader).
• [2025] Travel Grant, LAUP Department, TAMU, $600.
• [2019 - 2022] Academic Scholarship covering all tuition fees, TJU.
• [2014 - 2019] First-class Scholarships in academic performance (5%, 8 times), SDUST.
• [2014 - 2019] First-class Corporate Scholarships (5%, 2 times), SDUST.
• [2014 - 2019] “Outstanding Student Pioneer” (5%, 3 times), SDUST.
• [2019] “Outstanding Graduate” of Shandong Province (5%).
• [2019] “Outstanding Student” in Science, Technology, and Innovation (5%), SDUST.

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant

• [2025 Fall] PLAN626: Advanced GIS, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
• [2020 Fall] Design Studio III (Urban Planning), Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Services

Invited Reviewer

• International Journal of Geographical Information Science
• Journal of Transport Geography
• Journal of Planning Education and Research
• Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy
• Computational Urban Science

Editorial Boards

• Managing Editor: Computational Urban Science

Conference Organizations

• Session Chair/Primary Organizer: Symposium on Human Dynamics Research: Urban Environmental Intelligence and Human-Climate Interactions. 2025 Annual Meeting of American Association of Geographers, March 24-28, 2025, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Media Coverage

• Throwing Shade at Heatwaves: Tracking campus “hot spots” could help students stay cool in the Texas heat. [Link]