CV
Education
- Ph.D. in Geography, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024
- M.S. in Geography, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021
- B.E. in Computer Engineering, University of Hong Kong, 2018
Academic Appointment
- 2024 - present: Assistant Professor
- Department of Geography, Virginia Tech
- 2025 - present: Director
- GeoCompute Research Lab
- 2018 - 2024: Research/Teaching Assistant
- Department of Geography and GIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Advisor: Dr. Shaowen Wang
- 2017: Research Assistant
- Department of Computer Science, University of Hong Kong
Grant
- PI, NSF, $494,994, 2026-2029. CITY‑AI: Cybertraining for AI‑enabled Intelligent Urban Informatics and Smart City Innovation. Lyu, F. (PI), Michels, A. (Co‑PI, UTD), Song, C. (Co‑PI, Purdue).
- Co-PI, Virginia Center for Health Innovation, $40,000, 2026-2027. Identifying Opportunities to Improve Type 2 Diabetes Care in Virginia: An All‑Payer Claims Analysis. Zhang, M. (PI, VT), Eberth, J. (Co‑PI, VT), Lyu, F. (Co‑PI).
- PI, NSF ACCESS, 200,000 SUs, 2025-2027. AI‑driven Quantification, Detection, and Analysis of Urban Retrofitting. Lyu, F. (PI).
- Co-PI, NSF ACCESS, 200,000 SUs, 2026-2027. CITY‑AI Computing Resources. Michels, A. (PI, UTD), Lyu, F (Co‑PI).
- PI, Virginia Tech, $1,500, 2025-2026. Faculty Mentoring Grant. Lyu, F (PI).
Publications
[3] Rapidly measuring spatial accessibility of COVID-19 healthcare resources: a case study of Illinois, USA
[9] Spatiotemporal assessments of nutrients and water quality in coastal areas using remote sensing and a spatiotemporal deep learning model
[10] An Integrated CyberGIS and Machine Learning Framework for Fine‐Scale Prediction of Urban Heat Island Using Satellite Remote Sensing and Urban Sensor Network Data
[11] Ndist2vec: Node with Landmark and New Distance to Vector Method for Predicting Shortest Path Distance along Road Networks
[12] Daily changes in spatial accessibility to intensive care unit (ICU) beds and their relationship with the case‑fatality ratio of COVID‑19 in the state of Texas, USA.
[13] Examine the environmental inequity impact of urban heat mitigation on redlining legacy: case study of Charlotte’s retrofitting, 2001–2020
[15] A cyberGIS approach to exploring neighborhood‐level social vulnerability for disaster risk management
[18] From Individual Motivation to Geospatial Epidemiology: A Novel Approach Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Agent-Based Modeling for Large-Scale Disease Spread
[24] Evaluating the Evaluation Matrices: Integrating Spatial Assessment in Geospatial AI Model Training and Evaluation
[27] Analysis of the Multi-Scale Spatial Heterogeneity of Factors Influencing the Electric Bike-Sharing Travel Demand in Small and Medium-Sized Cities
[28] Converging high-performance computing and machine learning for geospatial discovery and innovation
[29] Does stadium construction drive surrounding urban development Evidence from spatiotemporal impacts of large scale stadiums in China
Selected Talks
A Free-Flow Approach to Drainage Network Analysis Based on LiDAR Data
Oral Presentation at The American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., US
Reproducible Hydrological Modeling with CyberGIS-Jupyter: A Case Study on SUMMA
Oral Presentation at PEARC19, Chicago, IL, US
Reproducible Hydrological Modeling with CyberGIS‑Jupyter
Poster Presentation at GIS Day in UIUC, Urbana, IL, US
Fine-Scale Prediction of Urban Heat Island Using Satellite Remote Sensing and Urban Sensor Network Data
Oral Presentation at The American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Virtual
A vector‑based method for drainage network analysis based on LiDAR data
Poster Presentation at I-GUIDE All-Hands Meeting, Chicago, IL, US
An integrated cyberGIS and machine learning framework for fine‑scale prediction of Urban Heat Island using satellite remote sensing and urban sensor network data
Poster Presentation at Geo-Resolution Conference, Saint Louis, MO, US
An Integrated CyberGIS and Machine Learning Framework for Fine‑scale and Real‑time Understanding of Urban Heat Dynamic
Oral Presentation at UIUC GGIS colloquium, Urbana, IL, US
A vector‑based method for drainage network analysis based on LiDAR data
poster Presentation at SESE Research Review, UIUC, Urbana, IL, US
Mapping Real‑time Heat Exposure with Social Media Data
Oral Presentation at AAG 2023, Denver. CO, US
Large‐Scale Google Street View Images for Urban Change Detection
Oral Presentation at I-GUIDE Forum 2023, New York City. NY, US
Urban Heat Measurement with CyberGIS and Large‐scale Geospatial Data
Guest Lecture at UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill. NC, US
A Video Machine Learning Framework for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Complex Urban Dynamics
talks at AAG 2026, San Francisco, CA, US
Quantifying and Evaluating Urban Retrofitting: Where, When and What.
talks at AAG 2025, Detroit, MI, US
Multi‑stream STGAN: Spatiotemporal Image Fusion with Improved Spatial Transferability
Oral Presentation at The American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI, US
Understanding Urban Heat Dynamics with Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and CyberGIS
Workshop at Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure Workshop: Building High‑Performance, Ethical, and Secured Geospatial Software, Honolulu, HI, US
valuating the Evaluation Matrices: Integrating Spatial Assessment in Geospatial AI Model Training and Evaluation
Workshop at I-GUIDE Forun 2025, Jackson, WY, US
Teaching
Awards, Fellowships
- First Place, Spatial AI Challenge, 2026
- AAG Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure Workshop Scholarship, National Science Foundation, 2024
- George Beatty Fellowship, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023 - 2024
- 2nd Place, Urban Informatics Paper of the Year, International Society for Urban Informatics, 2023
- Finalist, AAG-GISS student paper competition, Association of American Geographers, 2022
- Finalist, AAG Robert Raskin Student Competition, Association of American Geographers, 2019
- First Division Honor, The University of Hong Kong, 2018
- Dean’s Honor List, The University of Hong Kong, 2017
- HKU Worldwide Undergraduate Student Exchange Scholarship, 2017
- HKU Foundation Scholarship for Outstanding Student, The University of Hong Kong, 2015 - 2018
- Walter Brown Memorial Prizes in Mathematics, 2015
- Reaching Out Award 2015 for HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund, 2015
- Soong Ching-ling Scholarship, Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation, 2014 - 2018
- First Prize at Zhejiang Physics Olympiad, Zhejiang Physical Society, 2013
Selected Service
- Chair, Vice Chair, Director American Association of Geographers CyberInfrastructure Specialty Group; 2026‑pres, 2024-2026, 2023-2024.
- Editorial Board Member Annals of American Association of Geographers, 2026‑pres.
- Chair AAG 2025 Symposium on Spatial AI & Data Science for Sustainability; AAG 2026 Symposium on Spatial AI and Data Science: Frontiers and Applications, 2025 & 2026
- Committee UCGIS Membership and Research Committee, 2025-pres.
- Student Policies & Affairs Committee VT College of Natural Resources and Environment, 2026-pres.
- Graduate Committee VT Department of Geography, 2024-pres.