Wenjing Gong

About Me

Greetings,😀! I’m Wenjing Gong, a first-year Ph.D. student in Urban and Regional Science at Texas A&M University, advised by Dr. Xinyue Ye. I am also a Research Assistant at the Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications, and Technology and a Student Fellow at the Telehealth Institute at Texas A&M University. My research integrates Urban Analytics, Urban Planning, GIScience, and GeoAI to address challenges in Climate Resilience, Human Mobility, and Public Health.
(Updated on 04/2025)

Education

[2024-] Ph.D. Student, Urban and Regional Science
Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
Advisor: 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] Student Fellow
Telehealth Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
[2024-2028] 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
[2020] Teaching Assistant
Department of Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Peer-reviewed Publications

• Ye, X., Li, S., Gong, W.*, Li, X., Li, X., Dadashova, B., Li, W., Du, J., Wu, D., 2025. Street View Imagery in Traffic Crash and Road Safety Analysis: A Review. Appl. Spatial Analysis 18, 50.
• 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, 1–9.
• Gong, W., Lee, C.S., Li, S., Adkison, D., Li, N., Wu, L., Ye, X., 2025. Cyber victimization in hybrid space: an analysis of employment scams using natural language processing and machine learning models. Journal of Crime and Justice 1–22.
• 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, 1339.

Selected Under Review/Working Papers:

• Gong, W., Ye, X., Wu, K., Jamonnak, S., Zhang, W., Yang, Y., Huang, X., 2025. Integrating Spatiotemporal Vision Transformer into Digital Twins for High-Resolution Heat Stress Forecasting in Campus Environments (Under revision in Journal of Planning Education and Research)
• Rui, J., Gong, W., Qin, L., 2025. A geo-embedded graph neural network framework for ride-hailing demand: Interpretable modeling of spatiotemporal dynamics driven by street contextual features (Under review in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment)
• Rui, J., Shao, C., Hu, Z., Gong, W., Li, X., 2025. Concerned with green scarcity or inequity? The impact of the quantity and equity of urban green space on green satisfaction and associated socioeconomic drivers (Under review in Cities)

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

• [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.
• [2024 - 2028] Research Assistantship covering stipend and tuition, Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology, TAMU.
• [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.
• [2018] Gold Award, SINO-JAPAN Art & Design Exchange Exhibition.
• [2018] National Best Leader Award, National Green Building Design Competition.
• [2018] Grand Prize, National Green Building Design Competition - Deep Green Category.
• [2018] First Prize, The Fourth Academy Award National Art and Design Exhibition.
• [2018] Gold Award, Chinese Creative Design Annual 2016/2017.
• [2018] Silver Award, The Third Bauhaus Award International Design Competition.
• [2018] Bronze Award, Exhibition of Architectural Design in Developing Countries.
• [2018] Excellent Award, Shandong Province College Student Construction Design Competition.
• [2017] Excellence Award, China Architectural Education/TSINGRUN Award Students’ Paper Competition.
• [2017] Bronze Award, The 3rd Mainland, Taiwan and Hongkong Design Invitation Exhibition.
• [2017] Second Prize, National Green Building Design Competition - Green Category.
• [2016] Excellent Award, National Green Building Knowledge Competition for Youth Students.
• [2016] Excellent Market Potential Award, Lion Award International Industrial Design Competition - ‘Innovative Application Design Group: Industrial Robot Systems’.

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
• Forum Geografi

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]

Skills

• Programming: Python (Data Processing, Visualization, and Analysis), SQL, HTML
• Machine Learning/Deep Learning: Computer Vision (Semantic/Instance Segmentation), Time series Forecasting (LSTM, Transformer), Tree models, Explainable AI (SHAP)
• Spatial Data Analysis: ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, Geoda, MGWR 2.2
• Urban Climate Simulation: SOLWEIG, Envi-met
• Design and Planning: AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Enscape, Lumion