Research and expertise
I am a researcher in urban mobility and geospatial data science, working at the intersection of human movement, urban inequality, and spatial analytics. My research combines large-scale mobility data with spatial statistics, network science, and machine learning to understand how the movement of people shapes access to opportunity and contributes to social segregation in cities.
I am particularly interested in walkability, accessibility equity, and the social dimensions of urban form. Through rigorous, reproducible analysis, I aim to generate evidence that supports fairer and more inclusive urban environments.
Current research activity
- Developing data-driven and AI approaches to model mobility behaviour and support evidence-based urban and transport planning
Recent publications
- Yang, Y., Cheng, S., Chen, Y., & Huang, W. (2026). A computational framework for measuring dynamic vehicular exposure and equity in the 15-min city. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 129, 102480
- Yang, Y., Cheng, S., Meng, X., Yang, Z., & Chen, Y. (2026). Transportation resilience through cascading adaptation: national-scale evidence from China. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 211, 104906
- Yang, Y., Chen, Y., Bai, Y., Liu, J., & Cheng, S. (2025). Mobility data uncover spillover impacts of freight activities on urban neighborhoods. Sustainable Cities and Society, 135, 107032
- Yang, Y., Chen, Y., Lv, Y. Y., Jia, X. Y., Lin, X. J., Yan, X. Y., Jia, B., & Manley, E. (2024). Quantifying city freight mobility segregation associated with truck multi-tours behavior. Sustainable Cities and Society, 113, 105699
- Yang, Y., Jia, B., Yan, X. Y., Chen, Y., Tavasszy, L., de Bok, M., Bai Z., Liu, E., & Gao, Z. (2024). Structure and dynamics of urban freight truck movements: A complex network theory perspective. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 158, 104442
Profile
I am currently a Research Associate in Transport Data and AI in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University. Before joining Loughborough, I was a Research Fellow in Mobility Data Science at the University of Leeds, where I worked on urban mobility, social segregation, walkability and everyday urban experience.
I completed my PhD in Systems Science at Beijing Jiaotong University, following earlier training in transportation engineering and systems science. During my doctoral studies, I spent a year as a visiting researcher in the Freight Transport and Logistics Lab at Delft University of Technology. I later held research positions at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Nanyang Technological University.
Professional affiliations
- Research Associate, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University
- Former Research Fellow and member of the Mobility Science Lab, School of Geography, University of Leeds
- Former Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Freight Transport and Logistics Lab, Delft University of Technology
Awards
- Elsevier First Runner-up Best WCTRS-Y Paper Award, World Conference on Transport Research
External activities
- Peer reviewer for international journals in urban studies, transport, mobility science and computational urban science
- Presenter and contributor at international conferences on complex systems, transport geography and urban analytics
- Collaborative research and knowledge-exchange activities with academic, public-sector and industry partners using large-scale transport and geospatial data
- Contributor to open and reproducible research through the development and sharing of analytical workflows, research code and processed data products
Key collaborators
My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:
- Dr Haitao He, Loughborough University
- Professor Ed Manley, University of Leeds