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[ Contact ]
Yuxuan Cai
蔡雨轩 · PhD · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · City & Regional Planning
"The city is kind of vast and we still have so much
to say to each other"
— François Périer to Giulietta Masina
_
00 · About
[ PHOTO ]

Teaching machines
to sense the city

I am a PhD student in City and Regional Planning at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously I completed my MA in Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago and studied architecture at UC Berkeley.

My research sits at the intersection of urban planning, AI interpretability, and public health — probing how vision-language models encode urban perception, and building LLM multi-agent frameworks that model planning decision-making, behavioral bias, negotiation, and intent alignment in urban contexts.

PositionPhD Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
01 · Research

Research directions

01

Urban Perception & Vision-Language Models

Understanding how humans experience urban environments through crowdsourced data, street-view imagery, and social media — and how AI systems represent these perceptions.

VLM / CLIPStreet ViewNLPUrban Cognition
02

LLM Planning Simulation & Decision-Making

Building LLM multi-agent frameworks that model planning decision processes — including behavioral bias, intent understanding, negotiation dynamics, and alignment in urban policy contexts.

Multi-Agent LLMPlanning AIBehavioral BiasIntent Modeling
03

Urban Health & Environmental Justice

Long-term environmental exposures — air pollution, heat, green space inequality — and their disparate effects on health outcomes across demographic groups.

Env. HealthGISML / DLEquity
02 · Publications

Selected papers

2026
Evaluating the Spatial-Temporal Impact of Urban Nature on Urban Vitality in Vancouver: A Social Media and GPS Data Approach
Land Use Policy
Huang, Y., Du, J., Chen, M., Lin, Y., Huang, S., & Cai, Y.
2025
Subjective Perception or Physical Environment: Which Matters More for Public Area Visitation?
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
Cai, Y.*, Huang, Y., Chen, A., Yang, Z., Chen, M., et al.
2025
Advancing Urban Management: Integrating GIS, LLMs, and Media Narratives for Urban Crime Analysis
PLOS ONE
Cai, Y.*, & Chen, A.
2025
Assessing Influence of Urban Scene Characteristics on Urban Heat Island: Interpretable ML in NYC
Urban Climate
Li, H., Cai, Y.*, Yang, Y., & Cai, X.
2025
Long-term PM2.5 Exposure and Mental Health Disparities: A Prospective Analysis of the All of Us Research Program
Environmental Research
Burrows, K., Luo, J., Cai, Y., & Aschebrook-Kilfoy, B.
2025
Greenery Inequalities in New York and London: Socio-economic and Spatial Dimensions
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
Hu, Y., Chen, M., & Cai, Y.
2025
Enhancing Sustainable Indoor Air: Potted Plants and ML Models for VOC Mitigation
Urban Climate
Shen, X., Sun, Q., Mosey, G., Cai, Y., & Cheng, W.
2025
Residential Segregation: ML, SHAP Interpretability, and Deep Learning — Las Vegas
Land
Liu, J., Cai, Y., & Shen, X.*
2024
Evaluating Implied Urban Nature Vitality in San Francisco: Street View, Census & Social Media
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
Chen, M., Cai, Y., Guo, S., Sun, R., Song, Y., & Shen, X.*
2024
Empathy and Redemption: Online Support for Mental Health Before and After COVID-19
PLOS ONE
Cai, Y.*, Wei, E., & Cai, X.
2024
Urban Amenities and Urban Green Space Transformation in Guangzhou
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Zhang, S., Chen, J., Cai, Y., Wen, Y., Niu, J., & Chen, M.*
Urban cycling & bikeshare route behavior
Urban nature vitality & spatial transformation
Urban vitality measurement — multimodal approach
Urban inequality & environmental risk
2025
Nonlinear Impact of Built Environments on Bike-Share Route Discrepancies
TRB 2025 Annual Meeting
Cai, Y., Cheng, Y., Chen, A., Qiu, W., & Wang, Y.
2023
Street-Level Factors and Sexual Crime Using Computer Vision and Big Data — Manhattan
AESOP 35th Annual Congress — Full Paper Oral
Cai, Y., Li, H., & Dai, S.*
2023
Human Perceptions to Inform Urban Landscape Design for Biking-Friendliness — Shanghai
IFLA 2023 Conference — Oral Report
Li, H., & Cai, Y.
03 · Projects

Work & projects

Research Projects

Urban Perception & Vision-Language Models

VLMUrban ScenePerception

LLM Planning Simulation & Decision-Making

Multi-Agent LLMPlanning AIIntent Modeling

Urban Mobility & Street Environment

CyclingTransitStreet ViewNLP
Design Projects
[ Coming Soon — Design Portfolio ]
Practice Projects
[ Coming Soon — Practice Portfolio ]
04 · Recognition

Awards & honors

Fellowships & Scholarships
2024
University Scholarship — $30,000University of Chicago
2023
Phoenix Research & Merit Scholarship — $22,000University of Chicago
2022
Karren Architecture Fellowship — $20,000UC Berkeley
2024
Conference Award — $600University of Chicago
Academic Honors
2025
MACSS Outstanding Thesis Award — NomineeUniversity of Chicago
Design Awards
2020
iF Design Talent Award
2020
Architecture Master Prize — Best of BestStudent Landscape Architecture
2020
World Architecture Award — 36th Cycle
2022
Landscape Institute Award — Innovation and Research Award FinalistLandscape Institute, UK
2023
World Landscape Architecture Awards — Student Design Merit Award
2021
ASLA Student Honor Award — CommunicationsAmerican Society of Landscape Architects
2020
Laka Competition — Honorable Mention
2020
World Landscape Architecture Awards — Student Analysis & Planning Merit Award & Student Design Shortlist
05 · Contact

Open to
collaboration

Urban AI, visiting opportunities,
& research conversations.

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