Dr. Junfeng Jiao is an Associate Professor in the Community and Regional Planning Program at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the founding director of Urban Information Lab, director of Texas Smart Cities, director of UT Ethical AI program, and a founding member of UT Austin's Good Systems Grand Challenge.
Dr. Jiao’s research focuses on Smart Cities, Urban Informatics, and Ethical/Generative AI. He uses different information technologies to quantify urban infrastructures and their influences on people’s behaviors. He first coined the term "transit deserts" and measured it in all U.S. cities. Using different machine learning methods, Dr. Jiao investigated and quantified the spatial-temporal patterns of various shared mobility activities (Uber, Scooter, and Bike Sharing) in major U.S. cities. Currently, he is leading three smart city projects: NSF: CIVIC Challenge Community Hub for Smart Mobility (Smart Hub); NSF NRT: AI-Convergent, Responsible, Ethical, Applied Training Experience for Roboticists (Ethical AI); and A Good System for Smart Cities. He is also a Co-PI for USDOT funded the Center for Climate-Smart Transportation at the Johns Hopkins University and a Co-PI for USHUD funded The Equitable Technologies for Housing Innovation Center at UT Austin.
Teaming with colleagues at the University of Houston, Dr. Jiao has expanded his Smart City research to the Houston area. As a Co-PI, he received NSF funding to combat the Food Deserts problems with AI technology. The project title is "NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Artificial-Intelligence-Based Decision Support for Equitable Food and Nutrition Security in the Houston Area."
Dr. Jiao has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and two books on Shared Mobility and Smart Cities, respectively. His research has been reported on in major media outlets such as ABC, Associated Press, CNN, Fox, NBC, NPR, New York Times, SXSW, and Wired. As a PI or Co-PI, Dr. Jiao has raised over $25 million in funding from different sources such as NSF, USDOT, USHUD, UT, Microsoft, MITRE, Google, and others.
Dr. Junfeng Jiao's Smart City research has received national and international recognition. He is a Fulbright Specialist on Smart City selected by the US Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Dr. Jiao co-leads the Good Systems research project, “A Good System for Smart Cities.”