Qi “Ryan” Wang
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs
Research Focus
Urban and social resilience; geo-social networking; coupled, human-natural systems, natural disaster response and evacuation; urban computing
Education
- 2015 Virginia Tech, PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering
- 2012 Michigan State University, MS
Research Overview
Urban and social resilience; geo-social networking; coupled, human-natural systems, natural disaster response and evacuation; urban computing
Selected Research Projects
- Cognition-Driven Display for Navigation Activities (Cog-DNA): Personalized Spatial Information System Based on Information Personality of Firefighters
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Collaborative Research: Less is More: Personalized Spatial Information System Based on Real-Time Cognitive Load for First Responders in Emergency Indoor Wayfinding
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Geosocial Networks in America’s 50 Largest Cities
- – Principal Investigator, Microsoft Azure for Research
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- A. Akhavan, N.E. Phillips, J. Du, J. Chen, B. Sadeghi, Q. Wang, Accessibility Inequality in Houston, IEEE Sensors Letters, 3(1), 2019
- J. Chen, W. Wang, N. Li, Q. Wang, Linking Energy-Cyber-Physical System Through Human-Centric Occupancy Predication and Interpretation with Wi-Fi Probe-Based Ensemble Classifications, Applied Energy, 236, 2019, 55-69
- J. Chen, Q. Wang, Z. Lin, X. Guo, Measuring the Cognitive Loads of Construction Safety Sign Designs During Selective and Sustained Attention, Safety Science, 105, 2018, 9-21
- Q. Wang, N.E. Phillips, M.L. Small, R.J. Sampson, Urban Mobility and Neighborhood Isolation in America’s 50 Largest Cities, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
- Q. Wang, J.E. Taylor, Aggregated Responses of Human Mobility to Severe Winter Storms: An Empirical Study, PLoS one, 12, 2017
- N. Mohammadi, Q. Wang, J.E. Taylor, Diffusion Dynamics of Energy Saving Practices in Large Heterogeneous Online Networks, PLoS one, 10, 2016
- Y. Wang, Q. Wang, J.E. Taylor, Patterns and Limitations of Urban Human Mobility Resilience Under the Influence of Multiple Types of Natural Disaster, PLoS one, 11(1), 2016

Sep 21, 2020
Civil and Environmental Engineering Solutions to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and its Industrial Advisory Board held a series of panel discussions entitled “Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) solutions addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

Jun 22, 2020
Determining the Infection Transmission of COVID-19 in Urban Areas
CEE Assistant Professor Qi “Ryan” Wang was awarded a $200k NSF RAPID grant for determining the “Infection Transmission of COVID19 in Urban Neighborhoods.”

May 20, 2020
Analyzing the Changing Mobility Patterns Caused by COVID-19
CEE Assistant Professor Qi “Ryan” Wang in collaboration with Jing Du from the University of Florida was awarded an $89K NSF RAPID grant for “High-Frequency Data Collection for Human Mobility Prediction during COVID-19.”

Aug 06, 2019
Wang Leads Workshop on Technologies to Power Smart Cities
Assistant Professor Qi Ryan Wang, of Northeastern’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Assistant Professor Farrokh Jazizadeh Karimi, of Virginia Tech, held a workshop, entitled, “Building Blocks for Smarter Cities” to explore the systems necessary to create sustainable future urban areas. In the conference’s program, Wang and Karimi call for increased focus on the foundational technologies that will power smart cities.

May 02, 2019
Alessandro Mazzotta Receives CMAA Scholarship
Civil Engineering student Alessandro Mazzotta was awarded a Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) Graduate Student Award by the organization’s New England Chapter. Alessandro, a Master of Science student concentrating in construction management, received the scholarship in recognition of his academic, professional and extracurricular achievements. Alessandro hails from the small town of Castellaro, located in […]

Jul 11, 2018
People Tend to Live & Travel to Similar Racial and Socioeconomic Areas as Themselves
CEE Assistant Professor Qi ‘Ryan’ Wang’s article on “Urban mobility and neighborhood isolation in America’s 50 largest cities” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
May 21, 2018
2018 GRI Seed Grant Awardees
Congratulations to the four COE teams out of eight total receiving 2018 Seed Grant funding from the Global Resilience Institute (GRI). The resilience project topics range from coastal flooding prediction to combating opioid addiction. This year’s pool of proposals was particularly robust, with submissions demonstrating both strengths in their interdisciplinary approaches and in their promise […]

May 15, 2018
Improving Emergency Response Wayfinding
CEE Assistant Professor Qi “Ryan” Wang (PI) and MIE Associate Professor Yingzi Lin (co-PI) were awarded a $200K NSF grant for “Personalized Systems for Wayfinding for First Responders”.
Mar 23, 2017
FY18 TIER 1 Award Recipients
21 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY18 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 12 different projects representing $600K dollars of investment in research.

Sep 01, 2016
New Faculty Spotlight: Qi Ryan Wang
Qi Ryan Wang joins the Civil & Environmental Engineering department in Fall 2016 as an Assistant Professor.