Zhe Zhang

Cyberinfrastructure and Geospatial Information Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Zhe Zhang
Postdoctoral Research Associate
CyberInfrastructure and Geospatial Information Laboratory
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1301 W Green Street, Urbana, 61801, IL, U.S.A.
Tel: 1-217-550-1858
E-mail: [email protected]
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EDUCATION
2009 – 2016: Doctor of Science
· Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland
· Major: Geoinformatics
· Minor: Applied mathematics
· Dissertation Title: Computational methods in supporting spatial decision making: case studies on vulnerability analysis of critical infrastructure and utilisation of population information
· Dissertation supervisor: Prof. Kirsi Virrantaus, Research group on Geoinformatics, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland
· Dissertation instructor: Dr. Urška Demsăr, School of Geography & Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK
· Dissertation pre-examiners: Prof. Tao Cheng (Space-Time lab, University College London, UK) and Prof. Alfred Stein (Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth observation, University of Twente, Netherlands)
· Dissertation defense opponents: Prof. Tao Cheng (Space-Time Lab, University College London, UK), Prof. Christophe Claramunt (Naval Academy Research Institute, France)
· Doctoral degree grade: “pass with distinction”
2006 – 2009: Master’s Degree
· Department of Surveying, Helsinki University of Technology
· Major: Geoinformatics
· Master’s Thesis: A spatio-temporal population model for alarming, situational picture and warning system
· Thesis Score: 5 (scale 1 to 5)
2005 – 2000: Bachelor’s degree
Degree in Environmental Engineering, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland
RESEARCH INTERESTS
· Emergency and natural hazard management
· Big data and CyberGIS
· Spatiotemporal data modeling
· Intelligent decision support systems
· Fuzzy logic and modelling
· Spatial data mining
· Geostatistics
PUBLICATIONS
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:
1. Zhang, Z., Demsǎ U., Rantala J., and Virrantaus K., 2014. A fuzzy multiple-attribute decision making modelling for vulnerability analysis on the basis of population information for disaster management. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 28(9): 1922-1939
2. Zhang Z., Demsǎ U., Wang S. and Virrantaus K, 2017. A spatial fuzzy influence diagram for modelling spatial objects’ dependencies: a case study on tree-related electric outages. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 32(2), 349-366.
3. Zhang Z. and Virrantaus K., 2016. Use of fuzzy decision-making approach in analysis of the vulnerability of street network for disaster management. Nordic Journal of Surveying and Real Estate Research, 11(2),7-19.
4. Seppänen H., Luokkala P., Zhang Z., Torkki P., and Virrantaus K. Critical infrastructure vulnerability- a method for identifying the infrastructure service failure interdependencies, International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection (under review)
5. Zhang Z., Laakso T., Pulkkinen S., Madetoja J., Ahopelto S., Virrantaus K., Vahala R. A data-driven method for identifying inflow and infiltration in sanitary sewer sub-catchments. (will be submitted to the journal Computers, Environment and Urban Systems)
6. Hu H., Lin T., Li B., Zhang Z., Wang S. A Bayesian spatiotemporally varying coefficient model for analysis of the non-stationary relationship between corn yields and weather. Annals of the American Association of Geographers (under review)
7. Zhang Z., Virrantaus K., Yin D., Soliman A., and Wang S. A spatiotemporal population model for emergency management based on social media and urban infrastructure data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. (under review)
8. Zhang Z., Hu H., Yin D., Kashem S., Li R., Cai H., Perkins D., and Wang S., 2018. A CyberGIS enabled spatial decision support tool for emergency management. International Journal of Digital Earth (abstract has been accepted by the special issue)
Peer-Reviewed Conference Articles and Book Chapters
9. Zhang, Z., Rangsima, S., and Virrantaus, K., 2010. A spatio-temporal population model for alarming, situational picture and warning system. Guilbert E., Lees B., Leung Y., eds., The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 38 (2): 69-74.
10. Zhang, Z., and Virrantaus, K., 2010. Analysis of vulnerability of road networks on the basis of graph topology and related attribute information. Philips-Wren G., Jain L.C., Nakamatsu K., Howlett R., eds., Advances in Intelligent Decision Technologies, New York: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 353-363.
11. Zhang, Z., Seppänen H., and Virrantaus, K., 2013. Vulnerability analysis of weighted graphs: a measure of vulnerability of spatial network by using betweenness centrality. In: Proceedings of 59th ISI world statistics congress, Hong Kong.
12. Zhang Z., and Virrantaus K., 2013. Use of decision making in identifying critical locations of spatial networks. In proceeding of ICA workshop on street networks and transportation, Dresden, Germany
13. Heikkilä H., Amin P., Hyvämäki T., Korolyk A., Parkkinen J., Zhang Z., Nangini C., 2011. Infopreneur- from nomads to knowmads. Neuvo Y., and Ylönen eds., Bit Bang 3: Entrepreneurship and services, 8-31.
14. Heikkilä H., Kuikka M., Peralta J. L., Rahikkala A., Singh V., Zhang Z., Poudyal A., 2011. Dynamic service design in healthcare. Neuvo Y., and Ylönen eds., Bit Bang 3: Entrepreneurship and services, 172-190.
Posters and abstracts
15. Zhang Z., and Virrantaus K., 2010. Analysis of vulnerability of road networks on the basis of graph topology and related attribute information. The 13th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science, Guimarães, Portugal (poster).
16. Cai H., Kashem S., Perkins D., Li R., 2017. Mentors: Zhang Z., Rush J., Hu H., Liu Y., Yin D., Wang S. An interactive spatial decision support tool for emergency management: Vulnerability analysis of flooding in Travis county, Texas. University Consortium for geographic information science (UCGIS) 2017 symposium, Virginia, U.S.A (poster).
17. Munasinghe D., Mutunga J., Carbajales-Dale P., Fontanella S., 2017. Mentors: Rodriguez L., Zhang Z., Rush J. A CyberGIS multi-criteria harvest assessment framework. University Consortium for geographic information science (UCGIS) 2017 symposium, Virginia, U.S.A (poster).
18. Huang, H., Zhang, Z., Li, Q., Zhang, Y., and Wang S., 2018. High resolution remote sensing based ecological indicators for evaluating urban ecological quality. AAG Annual Meeting. (abstract submitted). The full paper will be submitted to the journal Remote Sensing of Environment by January 2018.
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
· ArcGIS, ArcEngine, Geodatabase
· QGIS
· Matlab
· PHP, JAVA, XML, Json, Python
· Git, OpenLayers, Geoserver, PostGIS
· Amazon web services cloud
· Git
· R
· Pig, Spark and Hadoop
AWARDS
· 2012, 55080 €, Doctoral Programme in Built Environment grant awarded by Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, 1/1/2012-1/1/2014.
· 2016: Passed doctoral dissertation with distinction.
TEACHING AND ADVISING EXPERIENCE
· Maa-123.3585 Spatial Data Mining
Department of Built Environment, Aalto University of Finland, 2015, graduate students
Responsibilities: Instructor
· Maa-123.3510 GIS Analysis and Modelling
Department of Built Environment, Aalto University of Finland, 2014-2016, graduate students
Responsibilities: Designed and delivered one lecture on graph analysis and modeling
· GEOG 489 Programming for GIS
Department of Geography and GIScience, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017, both undergraduate and graduate students
Responsibilities: Instructor
· University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) summer school, 2017
Gave a lecture on the topic “Computational Methods for Supporting Spatial Decision Making in Emergency Management”
Responsibilities: mentor for the research theme of emergency management.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Research Associate: January 2017 – present
CyberInfrastructure and Geospatial Information Laboratory, Department of Geography and GIScience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. (Affiliate)
· Working on a project titled “CyberGIS Software Integration for Sustained Geospatial Innovation project”, funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S.A.
· Working on a project titled “Critical Infrastructure and Transportation” and collaborating with research scientists from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.
· Working as a CyberGIS studio coordinator.
· Leading an application research theme.
Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Affiliate).
· Conducting research on anomalous radioactive sources detection as part of a project titled “Consortium for Nonproliferation Enabling Capabilities (CNEC)”
Application Specialist: August – December 2016
Department of Spatial Data Infrastructure Services, National Land Survey of Finland.
· Eurostat project
Programmed a web GIS application to visualize statistical data on an online thematic map. This is part of a web application called Oskari, which can be found online: www.oskari.org.
Researcher at Aalto University of Finland: April 2009 – 2016
Research group on Geoinformatics, Department of Built Environment.
· 2010: UHHA project
Funded by: Finnish National Technology Agency (Tekes)
Cooperation partners: Technical research centre of Finland (VTT), Finnish meteorological institute (FMI), Kemira Oy (chemical)
Assessed emergency preparedness for the chemical leakage case in Kuusankoski city of Finland
· 2010: Earthquake warning system for Rodos
Funded by: Finnish travel agencies
Cooperation partners: VTT, Aurinkomatkat, Tjäreborg
Designed and developed a GIS application to estimate the number of Finnish tourists inside a risk region in a case of earthquake in Rodos, Greece.
· 2010: Online traffic map
Funded by: Finnish Transportation Agency
Cooperation partners: Finnish Transportation Agency
Designed GIS software architecture for visualizing real-time traffic data.
· 2011: TiTiMake project
Funded by: Academy of Finland
Cooperation partners: FMI, VTT, University of Eastern Finland, Emergency Service College (PEO)
Designed a distributed service architecture and implemented a web-based spatiotemporal population model, which can be used in the field of surveillance and emergency management.
· 2013: CRISMA project
Funded by: European Union
Main cooperation partners: VTT, FMI, Emergency service college of Finland, Insta DefSec
Developed a simulation-based decision-support system for disaster management.
· 2013: Matine project
Funded by: Finnish Ministry of Defence
Identified the critical locations of Tampere transportation network to support spatial decision making in urban planning.
· 2015: ALVAR project
Funded by: Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency
Cooperation partners: Finnish major electricity, telecommunication and internet server companies, Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency, and a company called Erillisverkot.
Analyzed the failure interdependencies of critical infrastructures in a case of disaster.
· 2016: Efesus project
Funded by: Tekes and Finnish Water Utilities Association (FIWA)
Cooperation partners: Water and environmental engineering lab., Aalto University of Finland, Helsinki Region Environmental Service Authority (HSY).
Developed a data-driven approach that allows automated treatment and analysis of environmental and sanitary sewer network data to support sewer pipe renovation and maintenance.
Research Assistant in Geoinformatics: May 2008 – April 2009
Research group on Geoinformatics, Department of Surveying, Helsinki University of Technology
Scientific research in the field of Geoinformatics and master’s thesis work.
Research Assistant in Environmental Management: December 2003 – March 2004
Moreenia, Centre of Urban Environment, Tampere, Finland
Bachelor’s thesis work
Park Designer: June-July 2003
City of Tampere, Park Department, Finland
Garden design and management
Research Assistant in Environmental Management: February – May 2003
Shen Yang Environmental Protection Bureau of China
Participated in Hun river pollution control and southern wastewater treatment plant rebuilding projects.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Since 2010, Knowledge-Based & Intelligent Engineering Systems, KES International.
Since 2010, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Since 2017, American Association of Geographers AAG. Member of the program committee for AAG 2018 Symposium on CyberGIS and Spatial Data Science.
INVITED REVIEWS OF JOURNAL ARTICLES
Urban Water Journal.
International Journal of Science and Technology Education Research
Journal of Location Based Services
Skills
- ArcEngine
- CyberGIS and high performance computing
- geoserver
- JAVA
- Json
- OpenLayers
- Python • Git
- XML
Education
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January 2007- present
Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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2009-2016
Doctor of Science at Aalto University, Finland
Doctoral degree grade: “pass with distinction”
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2006-2009
Master's degree at Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Thesis Score: 5 (scale 1 to 5)
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2000-2005
Bachelor Degree at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Experience
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January 2017-present
Postdoctoral Research Associate at CyberInfrastructure and Geospatial Information Laboratory, Department of Geography and GIScience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. (Affiliate)
Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Affiliate)
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August - December 2016
Application Specialist at Department of Spatial Data Infrastructure Services, National Land Survey of Finland
Programmed a web GIS application to visualize statistical data on an online thematic map. This is part of a web application called Oskari, which can be found online: www.oskari.org.
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2009-2016
Researcher at Department of Built Environment, Aalto University of Finland
Scientific research in the field of Geoinformatics
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December 2003 – March 2004
Research Assistant in Environmental Management at Moreenia, Centre of Urban Environment, Tampere, Finland
Bachelor’s thesis work
To contact this candidate email [email protected]