Songnian Li
Associate Chair, Graduate Studies (Civil Engineering)
Professor
Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science
Department of Civil Engineering
Toronto, Ontario
snli@torontomu.ca
Office:
(416) 979-5000 ext. 6450
Expert In
Bio/Research
Throughout his career, Songnian Li has pursued what deeply interests him. Today that includes the processing and analysis of geospatial big data, with a particular focus on event detection and human mobility patterns in urban environments. He is also developing techniques for spatial-temporal ana...
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Bio/Research
Throughout his career, Songnian Li has pursued what deeply interests him. Today that includes the processing and analysis of geospatial big data, with a particular focus on event detection and human mobility patterns in urban environments. He is also developing techniques for spatial-temporal analysis of social media data in order to extract high-level, real-time traffic insights that can improve traffic flow.
Li has encouraged his students to follow their interests as well, and success has followed. “When students pursue research that is deeply interesting to them,” he says, “they get very good results.” In one case, a doctoral student he supervised shifted focus mid-degree and went on to publish a paper that was chosen for an ultra-prestigious award.
Li’s belief in following a passion is rooted in experience. “After my undergraduate degree, I spent 14 years teaching survey engineering at two different universities, but I could not conduct research,” he recalls. “One day, I thought, ‘this is too far away from my dream,’ and I decided to go for my PhD. I’m so glad I did.”
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Li has encouraged his students to follow their interests as well, and success has followed. “When students pursue research that is deeply interesting to them,” he says, “they get very good results.” In one case, a doctoral student he supervised shifted focus mid-degree and went on to publish a paper that was chosen for an ultra-prestigious award.
Li’s belief in following a passion is rooted in experience. “After my undergraduate degree, I spent 14 years teaching survey engineering at two different universities, but I could not conduct research,” he recalls. “One day, I thought, ‘this is too far away from my dream,’ and I decided to go for my PhD. I’m so glad I did.”
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