Email
yli15@wpi.edu
Office
Unity Hall 384
Personal Website
Affiliated Department or Office
Data Science
Computer Science
Associate Professor
Education
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Yanhua Li is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department and Data Science Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). His research interests focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, with applications in smart cities in many contexts, including spatial-temporal data analytics, urban planning and optimization. Recently, his research has an emphasis on advancing imitation learning and meta learning in AI for learning and influencing the decision-making strategies of urban human agents, such as passenger-seeking strategies of taxi drivers and transit mode/route choices of urban travelers. Dr. Li received two Ph.D. degrees in computer science from University of Minnesota at Twin Cities in 2013, and in electrical engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing in China in 2009, respectively. His work has been honored with the Best Applied Data Science Paper Award at SDM 2019. His research has been funded by NSF CAREER and CRII Awards, and two projects with NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) Program. 

Scholarly Work

From Shortest-path to All-path: The Routing Continuum Theory and its applications 2014

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Media Coverage

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Telegram.com
WPI researcher aims for a better, cheaper commute

The Telegram & Gazette, interviewed Yanhua Li, assistant professor of computer science and data science, for the article, "WPI researcher aims for a better, cheaper commute." He’s developing an idea for a new kind of transit system, CityLines, inspired by airlines and built for urban areas.

Worcester Business Journal
WPI receives $175k to study urban transportation

WPI’s Yanhua Li, assistant professor of computer science and data science, received a $174,596 grant from the National Science Foundation for a transportation study involving a "hub-and-spoke" model: an alternative urban transit system. He also appeared on WBUR radio discussing his grant.