Zhe Zhang

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