Tao Ruan(阮焘)

Tao Ruan(阮焘)

Passionate about using data science and AI to address societal challenges, with expertise in public perception and social media analysis.

Welcome to Tao Ruan’s Academic and Professional Page

Welcome to my personal page! I am Tao Ruan, a data scientist and computational social science researcher specializing in public perception analysis, social media data mining, and crisis informatics. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, focusing on public perception of electric vehicles (EVs) and natural hazard responses using advanced machine learning and natural language processing techniques.

About Me

With a strong academic background and diverse work experiences, I am passionate about leveraging data science and AI to uncover actionable insights. My expertise spans social computing, crisis informatics, data mining, and machine learning, with practical applications in transportation, fraud detection, and marketing analytics.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, 2023
  • Master’s in Information Technology, Rutgers University, 2017
  • Bachelor of Engineering in Automation, University of Science and Technology of China, 2015

Work Experience

  • Research Assistant, ASPIRE NSF Engineering Research Center
  • Machine Learning Engineer Intern, Suning R&D Center
  • Data Analysis Intern, Tilting Point
  • Space Optimization Modeling Intern, Philips Lighting Research

Key Projects

  • USGS RISK Dashboard: Developed a social media monitoring tool for natural hazard detection using MongoDB, Spark, and Kibana.
  • Crisis Informatics: Conducted cross-platform social network analysis on earthquake responses, in collaboration with UC Berkeley and USGS.

Publications

  1. Ruan, Tao, and Qin Lv. “Exploring equity perception of electric vehicles from a social media perspective.” Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 25 (2024): 101103.
  2. Ruan, Tao, and Qin Lv. “Public perception of electric vehicles on Reddit and Twitter: A cross-platform analysis.” Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 21 (2023): 100872. DOI
  3. Ruan, Tao, and Qin Lv. “Public perception of electric vehicles on Reddit over the past decade.” Communications in Transportation Research 2 (2022): 100070. DOI
  4. Ruan, Tao, et al. “Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit.” Scientific Reports 12.1 (2022): 1-14. DOI
  5. Ruan, Tao, et al. “An Analysis of Twitter Responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence.” 2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Social Computing & Networking (SocialCom). IEEE, 2020. DOI
  6. Priyam, Tavishi, Tao Ruan, and Qin Lv. “Demographic-Based Public Perception Analysis of Electric Vehicles on Online Social Networks.” Sustainability 16.1 (2023): 305.
  7. Openshaw, Sophia, Dheeraj Etta, Sounak Maji, Tao Ruan, Khurram Afridi. “Investigation of Commercial Viability and Public Perception of Electrified Roadways with Dynamic Wireless Charging.” 2023 IEEE Wireless Power Technology Conference and Expo (WPTCE). IEEE, 2023. DOI

For a complete list, visit my Google Scholar profile.

Research Areas

  • Social Computing, Electrified Transportation, Crisis Informatics, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning

Contact

📫 Email: tao.ruan@colorado.edu
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taoruan
📍 Location: New York, NY, USA

Feel free to explore my projects, publications, and contributions. Thank you for visiting!