Yu (Billie) Zhang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, and a Transportation Modeler with the World Bank Group. With a background in civil engineering, urban planning, and transportation modeling, Billie brings a unique blend of expertise to address critical challenges in transportation systems and urban development globally.
Her research spans transport decarbonization, housing market dynamics, and land-use integration. She currently works with the Canadian federal government (Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, or HICC) on developing methodologies for nation-wide transportation data standardization and quantification of avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transit investments. Concurrently, as a consultant at the World Bank, Billie contributes to the development of global decarbonization simulation tools, focusing on city-level travel demand and GHG emission estimations for the Global South.
Billie’s academic work has produced impactful studies on residential housing supply location choices, agent-based simulation, and spatial housing price analysis, with publications in leading journals like Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Environment and Planning B and Journal of Choice Modeling. Her doctoral research with Dr. Eric J. Miller focuses on the housing supply dynamics and urban microsimulation systems, aiming to advance the methodologies for supply side simulation of housing market analysis in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).
Billie has taught undergraduate courses in transportation planning and modern Chinese city planning, and she actively promotes women in STEM fields as a mentor with the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) and ambassador for the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE). Through her interdisciplinary approach and global outlook, Billie continues to advance sustainable urban and transportation systems while fostering equitable access and data-driven policymaking.