Urban Spatial Analytics  ·  Data-Driven Planning

Xinyuan
Christine
Cui

I use spatial data to understand how cities work — from how people move, to how neighborhoods are valued, to how we build more equitable urban environments.

Christine Cui
Philadelphia · 2026
4.0/4
GPA at Penn
9+
Projects
3×
Natl. Awards
01 · About

Cities are puzzles.
Data helps us solve them.

Hello — I'm Christine, an urban planner and spatial analyst who believes the best city interventions start with rigorous, honest data. I'm a graduate student in Urban Spatial Analytics at the University of PennsylvaniaGPA 4.0, working at the intersection of machine learning, GIS, and urban policy.

My work spans road safety prediction in Philadelphia, housing tax equity modeling, benchmarking generative AI for satellite imagery, and building cloud-based tools that help planners see what they couldn't see before. I approach every project with equal attention to technical precision and human impact.

Before Penn, I studied Urban and Rural Planning at Tianjin University and spent a semester at The University of Hong Kong. I've interned at two of China's leading planning institutes — Shenzhen Urban Planning & Design Institute and Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute.

Actively seeking full-time roles in urban data analytics and planning technology — available from May 2026.

LinkedIn ↗ ·  GitHub ↗ ·  cui12@upenn.edu

Education
2025 – 2026
University of Pennsylvania
Master of Urban Spatial Analytics · Philadelphia
GPA 4.0 / 4.0
Jan – May 2024
The University of Hong Kong
Exchange Program · Urban Studies
2019 – 2025
Tianjin University
Bachelor of Engineering · Urban and Rural Planning
Experience
Sep – Oct 2024
Shenzhen Urban Planning & Design Institute
Urban Design Intern · Housing planning, policy analysis, urban renewal finance
Jul – Aug 2023
Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning & Design Institute
Planning Intern · Land use analysis, economic metrics, bio-industry zoning
02 · Projects

Selected Work

Hover to preview · Click to explore each project.

01
Capstone Ongoing
Off-Peak Roadway Safety
Understanding Off-Peak Roadway Safety
Predictive model + spatial analytics tool identifying high-speed driving risks in Philadelphia. Dashboard to help city planners mitigate off-peak fatalities by modeling road design relationships.
R Spatial Modeling Dashboard Road Safety
In Progress ↗
Jan 2026 — Ongoing Capstone Research
02
Cloud · ML Ongoing
Philadelphia CAMA System
Philadelphia CAMA Property Tax
GCP pipeline (Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run) for automated property valuation. ML models predict assessed values, deployed via interactive map dashboard.
BigQuery Cloud Run Python Mapbox
In Progress ↗
Mar 2026 — Ongoing Data Engineering
03
AI / ML Ongoing
Generative AI for Cloud Removal
Generative AI for Satellite Cloud Removal
Benchmarking GANs & Diffusion models vs. multi-temporal methods on 2,000 Sentinel-2 images at 5–70% occlusion. Quantifies hallucination thresholds via PSNR, SSIM, NDVI.
GAN / Diffusion Remote Sensing Python Sentinel-2
In Progress ↗
Mar 2026 — Ongoing Machine Learning
Safe Passage residuals map
04
Spatial Econ
Safe Passage: Crime at SEPTA Stops
Safe Passage: Crime Risk at SEPTA
Negative Binomial spatial risk model across 5,884 stops. Pseudo-panel fixed effects isolate ridership's causal impact. 56% MAE reduction via 5-fold CV and Moran's I validation.
R NegBin Model Moran's I Philadelphia
View Project ↗
Sep – Dec 2025 Spatial Econometrics
Housing sales price quartile map
05
Equity
Path to Parity: Fair Housing Valuation
The Path to Parity
Housing valuation in R: ZIP Code fixed effects + KNN spatial features. R² = 0.84 on 31,000+ properties. Residual maps reveal systematic bias in misvalued neighborhoods.
R KNN Features 10-fold CV Housing Equity
View Project ↗
Sep – Oct 2025 Predictive Modeling
Yunnan Odyssey dashboard
06
Live Site
Yunnan Odyssey Travel Platform
Yunnan Odyssey: Plan Your Myth
Web travel platform bridging emotional inspiration with rational logistics. Integrates social discovery, route optimization & budget tracking via Leaflet, Firebase, and Mapbox.
JavaScript Mapbox Firebase Leaflet
View Live Site ↗
Oct – Dec 2025 Web Development
Tianjin metro station classification map
07
Mobility
Bike-Sharing & Rail Integration
Bike-Sharing Integration with Rail Transit
HDBSCAN clustering defines bike-metro service areas and station typologies. Quantitative modeling of built-environment factors driving first-/last-mile connectivity.
Python HDBSCAN First-Mile GIS
View Project ↗
Oct – Dec 2024 Urban Mobility
Shanghai residential happiness distribution map
08
XGBoost
Community Environment Optimization
Community Environment & Resident Happiness
XGBoost + TreeSHAP interpretability analyzing social, economic, and ecological indicators affecting residential happiness across high- and low-efficiency areas via TOPSIS.
Python XGBoost SHAP TOPSIS
View Project ↗
Apr – Jun 2024 ML Interpretability
Urban emotion spatio-temporal analysis cover
09
Time Series
Spatio-temporal Urban Sentiment
Spatio-temporal Urban Sentiment Analysis
Weibo check-in + Baidu Index time series for Beijing & Shanghai. STL decomposition and stationarity testing reveal how urban events register in collective digital expression.
Python / R STL Decomp Time Series NLP
View Project ↗
Oct – Dec 2023 Sentiment Analysis
03 · Skills

Tools of the Trade

Programming & Analysis
Languages
R — tidyverse, sf, tidycensus
Python — pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch
SQL · PostgreSQL · PostGIS
JavaScript
Statistical Methods
Spatial Econometrics (SLM, SEM, NegBin)
Machine Learning & Cross-Validation
Time Series & STL Decomposition
Spatial & Design Tools
GIS & Cloud
ArcGIS Pro
GeoDa · Fragstats · SPSS
Google Cloud Platform · BigQuery
Visualization & Design
Mapbox Leaflet Kepler.gl AutoCAD SketchUp Illustrator Photoshop Enscape Ecotect
Languages
Chinese (Native)
English (Fluent)
04 · Recognition

Honors & Awards

2020 · 2023
Outstanding Student Leader
Tianjin University
Jul 2023
Yuanye Awards for Students — Third National Prize
National Level Competition
Mar 2023
Milan Design Week China Collegiate — Second National Prize
International Competition
05 · Contact

Let's connect & build

Whether you're hiring, researching, or want to talk cities and data — I'd love to hear from you.