About

I am an R&D Engineer in the Department of Scientific Intelligence and Computing at the National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy (NICE) focusing on AI for Science. Before joining NICE, I was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence (School of Information Engineering) at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), where I taught computer vision and data science courses and mentored students in artificial intelligence, software engineering, and big data majors.

I have hybrid backgrounds in geoscience and computer science. I have participanted in the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) and EarthCube projects. I am a co-founder of the GISphere Corporation.

I obtained my Ph.D. degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison where I was co-advised by Shaun Marcott and Shanan Peters with a focus on quantitative/data-driven paleoclimate/stratigraphy/macrorevolution, as well as development of geoscientific cyberinfrastructure. I hold a master’s degree from the University of Tulsa where I was supervised by Bryan Tapp with a focus in computational geomechanics.

Education

Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Geosciences (Geoinformatics), 2018-22

M.S. University of Tulsa, Geosciences (Computational Geomechanics), 2016-18

B.S. University of Michigan, Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2013-15 & The Pennsylvania State University, Geographic Information Sciences, 2011-13

Research domains

Deep Learning Algorithm and AI for Science (e.g. AIOQ-RINEPT, AI-Powered Microscope Image Analysis System, SounDiT, etc.)

Geoscientific Big Data

Geospatial Data Science

Data Quality and Sampling Biases in Geology

Quantitative Stratigraphy and Data-Driven Paleoclimate

Participated projects

Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE): an IUGS-recognized international big science program.

GeoGPT: a large language model for geoscientists.

Sparrow: a web-based platform for geochemical data management and archiving.

Macrostrat: a geospatial database containing lithological and stratigraphic information.

GeoDeepDive (xDD): a digital online library powered by machine learning.

Teaching

I developed (from scratch) and taught the following new courses at China University of Geosciences (Beijing) from 2023 to 2024:

• SR043268: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (100-level)
• DR040017: Data Analysis and Visualization (300-level)
• DR043229: Computer Vision (300-level)

Before that, I held temporary lecturer or teaching assistant roles for the following courses:

• GEOL 4083: GIS for Geologists (University of Tulsa, as temporary lecturer)
• UC 270: Social Justice (University of Michigan, as teaching assistant)
• GEOG 363: GIScience (The Pennsylvania State University, as teaching assistant)