Biography and education
Ph.D. in Geography (Geographic Information Science), University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, 2013
(Specialization: Big data analytics, human mobility modeling, spatio-temporal data mining, and knowledge discovery)
M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, 2013
B.S. in Geographic Information System, Peking University, China, 2009
(Specialization: Big data analytics, human mobility modeling, spatio-temporal data mining, and knowledge discovery)
M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, 2013
B.S. in Geographic Information System, Peking University, China, 2009
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured grants
- Yuan, Yihong (Principal). Advancing Spatial Analytical Methods through the Integration of Explainable Machine Learning, Texas State University, $3000. (Submitted: November 2024, Funded: December 2024 - December 2025). Grant.
- Luo, Xiaohua (Principal), Wang, Feng (Co-Principal), Yuan, Yihong (Co-Principal). National Summer Transportation Institute, Federal Highway Administration, Federal, $64760. (Submitted: September 2024, Funded: December 2024 - September 2025). Grant.
- Yuan, Yihong (Principal), Wang, Feng (Co-Principal). Modeling the Changes in Urban Mobility Patterns during COVID-19, Texas State Center for Analytics and Data Science, Texas State University, $6000. (Submitted: December 2023, Funded: January 2024 - February 2025). Grant.
- Yuan, Yihong (Principal), Jensen, Jennifer (Co-Principal). Developing a Web Mapping System for Election Precinct Search, Comal County Democrats, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $9989. (Submitted: April 2023, Funded: June 2023 - November 2024). Grant.
- Luo, Xiaohua (Principal), Wang, Feng (Co-Principal), Yuan, Yihong (Co-Principal), Li, Liang (Co-Principal). National Summer Transportation Institute, Federal Highway Administration, Federal, $64000. (Submitted: September 2022, Funded: June 2023 - October 2023). Grant.

Featured scholarly/creative works
- Yuan, Y., Wang, P., McKenzie, G., Sun, M., Xu, Y., & Priyanka. (2025). Human mobility in the post-pandemic world. In Urban Human Mobility-Practices, Analytics, and Strategies for Smart Cities (pp. 221–235). CRC Press.
- Yuan, Y., & Wylie, A. G. (2024). Comparing machine learning and time series approaches in predictive modeling of urban fire incidents: a case study of Austin, Texas. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 13.
- Wang, P., & Yuan, Y. (2024). Analyzing key factors influencing human mobility before and during COVID-19 with explainable machine learning. Transactions in GIS, 29(1), e13271.
- Bobo, R. T., Chow, T. K. E., & Yuan, Y. (2024). Floor-level occupancy estimation of a multi-story building using coarse Wi-Fi data. Papers in Applied Geography, 1–27. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2024.2407069
- Jiang, Y., Yuan, Y., & Han, S. Y. (2024). An entropy-based measurement for understanding origin-destination trip distributions: a case study of New York City taxis. Big Earth Data, 8, 673--702. https://doi.org/10.1080/20964471.2024.2363548
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Best Paper for Map Use/Information Graphics, Applied Geography Conference. 2022
- Award / Honor Nominee: Top 20 Finalist, Global Young Scientist in GIScience, The 3rd Global Young Scientist Forum. 2022
- Award / Honor Recipient: Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: Achievement in GIS Award, Society for Geographic Information Science. 2020
- Award / Honor Recipient: Richard Wayne Simmons Geography Advocate Award. 2019

Featured service activities
- Member
Executive Board of Texas State Center for Analytics and Data Science
- Reviewer / Referee
National Science Foundation, Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division
- Chair
GESSRS / PANGEA Committee
- Member
Quality Enhancement Committee
- Other
Board Member of Director, Chinese Professional in Geographic Information Systems
- Member
Member of Award Committee, Chinese Professional in Geographic Information Systems