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Wenrui Xu

Ph.D. Student
UC Berkeley
wenruixu(at)outlook(dot)com


About Me 👋🦁

Hi there! I am an incoming 2025 Fall Ph.D. (Environmenal Studies) student at UC Berkeley with Dr. Lu Liang in the Geospatial 3M Lab. I received my M.Arch from Tsinghua University in 2025 and B.Eng (Architecture) from Tongji University with the highest distinction in 2023.

I mainly use GIS, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial AI to understand human-environment interactions from global (e.g. climate change) to urban scales (e.g. visual perception), to support planning and design for well-being and sustainable cities. To study this topic, I utilize a wide range of large and high-resolution data such as satellite (e.g. Landsat), street imagery, GPS, and social media…

Research Interests:

🔥 News

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  • [2025.04] 🥰My first-authored paper Spatiotemporal Impacts of Purpose-Specific Human Mobility on Air Pollution: Evidence from Taxi Trajectories and Interpretable Machine Learning has been accepted by Sustainable Cities and Society (SCI, IF=10.5).
  • [2025.05] ✨My first-authored paper Defining and Evaluating VLM's Basic Spatial Abilities: A Perspective from Psychometrics (DOI) is under review for a top CS conference.
  • [2025.02] 🥳I got a PhD offer from the University of Cambridge.
  • [2024.11] I received Comprehensive Excellence Award of Tsinghua.
  • [2024.09] I joined the FIB-LAB at Tsinghua EE as a research assistant.
  • [2024.07] I participated in cultural exchange events in Italy as a "Interdisciplinary Design Innovation Scholar" of Tsinghua CIDIH.
  • [2023.07] I graduated from Tongji with the highest distinction (top 1%).

📖 Selected Publications

Please see Google Scholar for full publication list.
†Equal Contribution, *Corresponding Author

  1. 2025 SCS
    Spatiotemporal Impacts of Purpose-Specific Human Mobility on Air Pollution: Evidence from Taxi Trajectories and Interpretable Machine Learning
    Wenrui Xu, Xinyue Gu*
    Sustainable Cities and Society, 2025.

  2. 2025
    City Centers Really Lived Up to the Hype? Evidence from Human Perceptions of Over 4000 Communities in China
    Xinyue Gu*, Wenrui Xu
    In Revision (2nd), 2025.

  3. 2025 Preprint
    Defining and Evaluating Visual Language Models' Basic Spatial Abilities: A Perspective from Psychometrics
    Wenrui Xu†, Dalin Lyu†, Weihang Wang†, Jie Feng, Chen Gao, Yong Li*
    arXiv Preprint, 2025.
    PDF DOI BibTex

  4. 2024 Preprint
    Recent Surge in Public Interest in Transportation: Sentiment Analysis of Baidu Apollo Go Using Weibo Data
    Shiqi Wang, Zhouye Zhao, Yuhang Xie, Mingchuan Ma, Zirui Chen, Zeyu Wang, Bohao Su, Wenrui Xu, Tianyi Li
    arXiv Preprint, 2024.
    PDF DOI BibTex

🎓 Education

2025 - Present　University of California, Berkeley
　　　　　　　Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Studies
　　　　　　　Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
　　　　　　　Advisor: Dr. Lu Liang

2023 - 2025　　 Tsinghua University
　　　　　　　Master of Architecture (Urban Informatics and Urban Renewal)
　　　　　　　GPA: 3.92 / 4
　　　　　　　Comprehensive Excellence Scholarship
　　　　　　　Advisor: Dr. Jinxi Chen

2019 - 2023　　 Tongji University
　　　　　　　Bachelor of Engineering (Architecture and Urban Design)
　　　　　　　GPA: 4.89 / 5 (Top 1%)
　　　　　　　Minor Degree in Finance @ Fudan University
　　　　　　　Distinct Graduate of Shanghai (Highest Distinction); National Scholarship

🏙️ Affiliation

2024.09 - Present　Tsinghua University
　　　　　　　　 Research Assistant
　　　　　　　　 FIB Lab, Department of Electronic Engineering
　　　　　　　　 Advisor: Dr. Chen Gao, Dr. Jie Feng, Dr. Yong Li

2024.10 - 2025.03　Tsinghua Architectural Design & Research Institute
　　　　　　　　 Intern Planner & Architect
　　　　　　　　 Zhejiang Wanli University Yuyao Campus Project

2024.10 - 2025.03　Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning Institute
　　　　　　　　 Intern Architect
　　　　　　　　 Beijing 1st Experimental Primary School Honglian Branch Renewal Project

2021.12 - 2022.02　Kaiyuan Securities Research Institute
　　　　　　　　 Intern Equity Researcher
　　　　　　　　 In-depth Report on the cosmetics industry and BeiTaiNi (300957)

🎉 Activities & Services

Conference Presentation

Peer Review

Professional Organization

Teaching Assistant

🏆 Selected Awards

Scholarships

Competitions

🪪 Certificates & Skills

🎾 Miscs

📫 Contact

I am always excited to meet fellow researchers with shared interests!
Please feel free to contact me via Email or WeChat.


Last updated on April 2025. Powered by Jekyll Minimal Light theme.