About Rongxiang Su
Biography of Rongxiang Su
Dr. Su’s research interests lie in geospatial data science, human mobility, travel behavior, and urban analytics. Broadly, his work seeks to understand human mobility, travel behavior, and activity patterns in urban systems by analyzing human-generated data sources such as mobile phone traces, household travel surveys, and food delivery transactions. He is particularly interested in developing computational methods to identify and quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of people’s daily activities and interactions. In parallel, he aims to examine disparities in human behavior by modeling and predicting activity-travel patterns across diverse socio-geographic contexts—ultimately contributing to more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive transportation systems and access to urban opportunities.
Education
- PhD in Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, 2023
- M.S. in Cartography and Geographic Information System, Wuhan University, China, 2019
- B.S. in Geographic Information System, Hefei University of Technology, China, 2016
Research and publications
Ongoing and upcoming research
Ongoing and upcoming research
- Human Mobility and Travel Behavior
- LLM-Driven Analysis of Urban Food Delivery Trends
Selected publications
Su, R., Eshtiyagh, J., Santi, P., Hu, S., Duarte, F., Mazzarello, M., Ratti, C. (2025). Determinants of the localized behavior of individual food delivery choices. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 178, 105185. doi: 10.1016/j.trc.2025.105185
Su, R., Newsham, N., Dodge, S. (2024). Spatiotemporal dynamics of ethnoracial diversity and segregation in Los Angeles County: Insights from mobile phone data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 114, 102203. doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102203
Su, R., Liu, Y., Dodge, S. (2024). ORTEGA v1.0: An open-source Python package for context-aware interaction analysis using movement data. Movement Ecology, 12, 20. doi: 10.1186/s40462-024-00460-2
Su, R., Goulias, K. (2023). Untangling the relationships among residential environment, destination choice, and daily walk accessibility. Journal of Transport Geography, 109, 103595. doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2023.103595
Su, R., Dodge, S., Goulias, K. (2022). Understanding the impact of temporal scale on human movement analytics. Journal of Geographical Systems, 24(3), 353-388. doi: 10.1007/s10109-021-00370-6 (JGS Editors’ choice article)
Su, R., Dodge, S., Goulias, K. (2022). A classification framework and computational methods for human interaction analysis using movement data. Transactions in GIS, 26(4), 1665-1682. doi: 10.1111/tgis.12960
Su, R., Xiao, J., McBride, E.C., Goulias, K. (2021). Understanding senior’s daily mobility patterns in California using human mobility motifs. Journal of Transport Geography, 94, 103117. doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103117
Su, R., McBride, E.C., Goulias, K. (2021). Unveiling daily activity pattern differences between telecommuters and commuters using human mobility motifs and sequence analysis. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 147, 106-132. doi: 10.1016/j.tra.2021.03.002
Su, R., McBride, E.C., Goulias, K. (2020). Pattern recognition of daily activity patterns using human mobility motifs and sequence analysis. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 120, 102796. doi: 10.1016/j.trc.2020.102796
See a complete list of publications on his Google Scholar Page.