👋 About Me

I am a fourth-year PhD student in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University, where I am advised by Professor Margaret Brandeau and Professor Marissa Reitsma. My research focuses on health policy and decision science. Currently, I am developing AI-augmented decision models and simulations to inform the design and evaluation of health programs and interventions.

🎓 Education

• Stanford University
  • Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E), 09/2023-06/2028 (Expected)
  • Master of Science in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, 09/2025-06/2027 (Expected)
• Sichuan University – Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI)
  • Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering, 09/2019-06/2023

Training

• Stanford University, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine
  • Researcher (Part-time), 03/2026-09/2026
• Asian-Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research
  • Researcher (Part-time), 09/2020-06/2023
• Sichuan University–The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR)
  • International Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management Innovation Class, 09/2020-06/2023

📚 Publications

^# Equal contribution; ^* Corresponding author

Preprints

• Ling Y^#,*, Tsung S^#, Alarid-Escudero F, Goldhaber-Fiebert JD, Brandeau ML, Reitsma MB. Cost-effectiveness of expanding housing access for people experiencing homelessness and opioid use disorder in California. medRxiv, 2026. (Preprint)
  • We developed a lifetime, individual-level microsimulation of the 18,928 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) with opioid use disorder (OUD)in California to evaluate the health and economic effects of expanding access to housing through a Housing First approach, which does not require OUD treatment or abstinence.
  • Expanding housing access increased mean age at death by 0.34 years, reduced fatal overdoses for the cohort by 39, and produced an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $31,083 per quality-adjusted life-year gained, well below conventional willingness-to-pay thresholds.
  • Featured on COIOS.

Journal Articles

• Liu C, Yi T, Jing X^*, Ling Y^*. An MMD-weighted ensemble for multi-source cross-domain intrusion detection in heterogeneous IoT systems. Scientific Reports, 2026.
  • This study aimed to develop an MMD-weighted ensemble framework that integrated information from multiple source domains to improve cross-domain intrusion detection in heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) systems.
• Ling Y^#,*, Shahmoon E^#, Brandeau ML, Yamin D. Missing data imputation for wearable time series. Scientific Reports, 2026.
  • This study aimed to develop an imputation framework for wearable time series that accounted for periodic structure in both physiological observations and patterns of missingness.
  • The study introduced a periodic multi-scale framework that identified relevant periodicities and used information across multiple temporal scales to estimate missing values.
  • The proposed approach improved imputation performance in smartwatch-derived heart-rate data and provided a general framework for health-related time series with structured missingness.
• Jing X, Ling Y, Jing R, Guo F, Yin F, Huang D, Zhang L, Yan X, Shui T. Non-linear effects and lag patterns of eco-environmental factors on scrub typhus: A spatiotemporal analysis in Yunnan, China, 2015–2022. Parasites & Vectors, 2026, 19, 404.
  • This study aimed to characterize the nonlinear and lagged relationships between eco-environmental factors and scrub typhus incidence across space and time in Yunnan, China.
• Guo Z, Jing X, Yi T, Ling Y, Li Q, Ma J. A CEEMDAN-Transformer-BiLSTM framework for multi-scale urban water demand forecasting. Sustainability, 2026, 18(12), 6057.
  • This study aimed to develop a multi-scale forecasting framework that combined signal decomposition and deep learning to improve urban water-demand prediction.
• He M, Liu K, Balakrishnan N, Ling Y. Likelihood inference for semiparametric mixture cure generalized-gamma frailty model. Communications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation, 2026.
  • This study developed likelihood-based inference for a semiparametric mixture cure generalized-gamma frailty model that accommodated cured individuals and unobserved heterogeneity or within-cluster correlation in survival data.
• Qiu J, Zheng H, Gu J, Wu L, Gong Z, Ling Y, Ran J, He M, Sun H. Associations of urban heat island and its metabolomic profiles with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in middle-aged and older adults. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 2026, 314, 120062.
  • This study aimed to evaluate associations between urban heat-island exposure and all-cause and cause-specific mortality and to investigate metabolomic pathways that might underlie these relationships.
• Wang X, Li J, Ling Y, Sun Z, Liu Y, Qiu H, Liu S. Current status, challenges, and high-quality development pathways for the integration of artificial intelligence and sports medicine. National Medical Journal of China, 2026, 106(1), 13–18. (In Chinese)
  • This paper reviewed major applications and opportunities for artificial intelligence in sports medicine, identified challenges related to data, interpretability, privacy, fairness, regulation, and payment, and discussed pathways for high-quality integration into practice.
• Ling Y^#, Mao Z^#, Zhou C^#, Li J, Liu W, Zhang H, Jiang L, Nie S, Zhao H, Wu C, Chen J, Chen Y, Bai G, Xu J, Geng P, Xu C, Huang J, Chen F, Zhang J, Sun H. Leveraging plasma concentrations to optimize extracorporeal treatment in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center retrospective cohort study. Clinical Toxicology, 2026, 64(3), 167–178.
  • This study aimed to evaluate whether initial plasma diquat concentrations could inform personalized selection of extracorporeal treatment strategies for patients with acute diquat poisoning.
  • The multicenter retrospective cohort included 163 patients and compared extracorporeal treatment strategies across groups defined by plasma diquat concentrations measured at emergency-department presentation.
  • The findings demonstrated heterogeneity in treatment outcomes across concentration-defined severity groups and highlighted the potential clinical value of plasma-concentration-guided treatment selection.
• Yi T, Guo J, Meng Y, Ling Y, Ke Y, Guo Z. MSTI-GNN: A multi-scale spatiotemporal interactive graph neural network method for precise hydropower unit status prediction. Renewable Energy, 2026, 256(Part B), 123969.
  • This study developed a multi-scale spatiotemporal interactive graph neural network that incorporated both long-term stable dependencies and short-term dynamic features to improve prediction of hydropower-unit operating status.
• GBD 2023 Demographics Collaborators. Global age-sex-specific all-cause mortality and life expectancy estimates for 204 countries and territories and 660 subnational locations, 1950–2023: A demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. The Lancet, 2025, 406(10513), 1731–1810.
  • This study estimated global, regional, national, and subnational patterns in age- and sex-specific all-cause mortality and life expectancy from 1950 to 2023.
• GBD 2023 Causes of Death Collaborators. Global burden of 292 causes of death in 204 countries and territories and 660 subnational locations, 1990–2023: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. The Lancet, 2025, 406(10513), 1811–1872.
  • This study quantified temporal and geographic patterns in mortality attributable to 292 causes of death across 204 countries and territories and 660 subnational locations from 1990 to 2023.
• GBD 2023 Disease and Injury and Risk Factor Collaborators. Burden of 375 diseases and injuries, risk-attributable burden of 88 risk factors, and healthy life expectancy in 204 countries and territories, including 660 subnational locations, 1990–2023: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. The Lancet, 2025, 406(10513), 1873–1922.
  • This study quantified the burden of diseases and injuries, risk-attributable health loss, and healthy life expectancy across countries and subnational locations from 1990 to 2023.
• Ling Y, Meng Q, Zhang Y, Zhang T, Liu K, Chen S, Yuan X, Wang S, Yang Z, Jiang H, Fu Y. Investigation on the dynamic trajectory of platelet count in healthy adults. Chinese Journal of Laboratory Medicine, 2025, 48(9), 1222–1226. (In Chinese)
  • This study aimed to characterize longitudinal patterns of platelet counts and investigate factors associated with different trajectories among healthy adults.
  • The study applied group-based trajectory modeling to repeated platelet measurements collected from 2010 to 2021 to identify distinct longitudinal patterns.
• Ling Y^#, Mao Z^#, Liu W^#, Zhou C, Li J, Jiang L, Li M, Zhao H, Nie S, Wu C, Chen J, Chen Y, Bai G, Ren G, Xu J, Zheng Y, Chen F, Zhang J, Sun H. Severity indices of diquat poisoning for triage and prognosis in acute diquat poisoning: A multicenter prospective cohort study. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2025, 85(6), 512–520.
  • This study aimed to develop and validate practical severity indices for mortality-risk assessment, triage, and 28-day prognosis in patients with acute diquat poisoning.
  • The study developed separate triage and prognostic models using a multicenter cohort of 204 patients, with predictors selected using machine-learning and regression-based approaches and external validation conducted using patients from multiple hospitals.
  • The resulting SIDP-T and SIDP-P tools provided clinically interpretable risk estimates and were translated into a user-friendly online platform for point-of-care application.
• Nie J, Huang T, Sun Y, Peng Z, Dong W, Chen J, Zheng D, Guo F, Shi W, Ling Y, Zhao W, Yang H, Shui T, Yan X. Influence of the enterovirus 71 vaccine and the COVID-19 pandemic on hand, foot, and mouth disease in China based on counterfactual models: Observational study. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 2024, 10, e63146.
  • This study aimed to evaluate the long-term epidemiological trends of hand, foot, and mouth disease and quantify the effects of the enterovirus 71 vaccination program and the COVID-19 pandemic using counterfactual time-series models.
• Yang Q^#, Wang L^#, Zhang X^#, Lu P^#, Pan D^#, Li S^#, Ling Y^#, Zhi X^#, Xia L, Zhu Y, Chen Y, Liu C, Jin W, Reinhardt JD, Wang X, Zheng Y. Impact of an enhanced recovery after surgery program integrating cardiopulmonary rehabilitation on post-operative prognosis of patients treated with CABG: Protocol of the ERAS-CaRe randomized controlled trial. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 2024, 24, 512.
  • This study aimed to evaluate whether integrating cardiopulmonary rehabilitation into enhanced recovery after surgery could improve postoperative outcomes following coronary artery bypass grafting and whether the timing of rehabilitation influenced its effects.
  • The protocol described a pragmatic, randomized, parallel four-arm clinical trial comparing ERAS alone with cardiopulmonary rehabilitation delivered at different perioperative stages.
• Guo Z, Jing X, Ling Y^*, Yang Y, Jing N, Yuan R, Liu Y. Optimized air quality management based on air quality index prediction and air pollutants identification in representative cities in China. Scientific Reports, 2024, 14, 17923.
  • This study aimed to improve air-quality management by combining Air Quality Index forecasting with identification of major pollutants across representative Chinese cities.
  • The study developed a VMD-CSA-CNN-LSTM model for Air Quality Index prediction and used a random forest algorithm to identify major pollutants using data from nine cities.
  • The proposed framework demonstrated the value of combining predictive modeling with pollutant identification to support more targeted city-specific air-quality management.
• Wang X, Li J, Wei X, Liu S, Li J, Li Y, Ling Y, Lu D, Chen J. Research on the construction of a value adjustor for the inpatient rehabilitation services based on the principle of value-based health care. Chinese Journal of Health Policy, 2024, 17(3), 48–55. (In Chinese)
  • This study developed a value adjustor for inpatient rehabilitation services to facilitate more comparable assessment of rehabilitation outcomes and support value-based healthcare payment reform.
• Chen S^#, Ling Y^#, Zhou F, Qiao X, Reinhardt JD. Trajectories of cognitive function among people aged 45 years and older living with diabetes in China: Results from a nationally representative longitudinal study (2011~2018). PLOS ONE, 2024, 19(5), e0299316.
  • This study aimed to characterize heterogeneity in longitudinal cognitive trajectories among middle-aged and older adults living with diabetes in China and identify factors associated with different trajectories.
  • The study applied growth mixture modeling to nationally representative longitudinal data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and examined baseline factors associated with trajectory membership using weighted multinomial logistic regression.
• Xue Q, Ling Y, Tian B. Portfolio optimization model for gold and bitcoin based on weighted unidirectional dual-layer LSTM model and SMA-slope strategy. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022, 1869897.
  • This study aimed to develop a portfolio optimization approach that combined deep-learning-based price prediction with technical trading signals for gold and bitcoin.

Workshop Papers

• Blanchet J, Cheng J, Ling Y, Liu H, and Liu Y. Duality and policy evaluation in distributionally robust Bayesian diffusion control. NeurIPS 2026 Workshop on Machine Learning for Operations Research (MLxOR), 2026.
  • This study developed a distributionally robust Bayesian control framework that combines strong duality, randomized multilevel Monte Carlo, and structure-aware policy learning to improve robustness to prior misspecification.

Conference Proceeding

• Liang Y, Ling Y, Li Y, Liu L, and Xu N. Post-disaster air purification system based on bionic lung design. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Automation Control, Algorithm, and Intelligent Bionics (ACAIB 2022), SPIE, Qingdao, China, 2022, 12253, 122531R.
  • This study aimed to develop a bionic-lung-inspired air-purification system for improving air treatment in post-disaster environments.

Book Chapter

• Ling Y. Evaluation and promotion of ecological conservation in Saihanba. Advances in Energy Materials and Environment Engineering. CRC Press, 2022, 658–664.
  • This chapter evaluated ecological conservation in Saihanba and examined approaches for promoting long-term ecological protection and restoration.
  • The chapter synthesized evaluation findings and conservation strategies to support sustainable environmental management.

Technical Report

• Fernandez G, Asari M, Uy N, Veitata S, Fayazi M, Ling Y, Xu Q, Wang H, Ramos LV, and Singh S. Developing capacity for post-typhoon disaster waste management in Lautoka, Fiji, and Makati, Philippines. APN Science Bulletin, 2023, 13(1), 153–162.
  • This project aimed to strengthen local capacity for post-typhoon disaster waste management in Lautoka, Fiji, and Makati, Philippines through needs assessment, targeted training, stakeholder engagement, and participatory contingency planning.

📢 Presentations

Invited Talks

• A generative agent framework to simulate behaviorally realistic cancer screening trajectories. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Healthcare Conference. Raleigh, NC. (07/2026)
• Evaluating housing-based interventions for people experiencing homelessness and opioid use disorder in California: A microsimulation model. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Healthcare Conference. Raleigh, NC. (07/2026)
• Leveraging plasma concentrations to optimize extracorporeal treatment in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center retrospective cohort study. National Poison Control Academic Exchange Conference. Kunming, China. (07/2026)
• Evaluating housing-based interventions for people experiencing homelessness and opioid use disorder in California: A microsimulation model. Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety. Denver, CO. (05/2026)
• Risk stratification and heterogeneity for organ damage in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center cohort study. American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. Orlando, FL. (05/2026)
• Improving imputation of missing data in time series through multi-scale modeling of periodicity: A smartwatch application. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA. (10/2025)
• Multi-center research findings in clinical toxicology of Jiangsu Province. Academic Conference on Clinical Toxicology of the Jiangsu Medical Association. Nanjing, China. (07/2025)
• Overview on prospective and performance-oriented payment systems for health services. World Congress of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM). Sydney, Australia. (06/2024)

Posters

• Effects of extracorporeal treatments on patient survival in acute poisoning: A multi-center target trial emulation. American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. Orlando, FL. (05/2026)
• Risk stratification and heterogeneity for organ damage in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center cohort study. American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. Orlando, FL. (05/2026)
• Cost-effectiveness analysis of metformin and glucagon-like peptide-1 in overweight-obese polycystic ovarian syndrome. RISE UP for Breast Cancer Conference. San Francisco, CA. (02/2026)
• Severity indices of diquat poisoning for triage and prognosis in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center prospective cohort study. American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. San Francisco, CA. (05/2025)
• Leveraging plasma concentrations to optimize extracorporeal treatment in acute diquat poisoning: A multi-center retrospective cohort study. American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. San Francisco, CA. (05/2025)
• Content analysis of Chinese policies on disaster waste management: Trends and ways forward. Global Summit of the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI). Virtual. (09/2021)

Participants

• National Academic Conference of Emergency Medicine. Chongqing, China. (06/2026)
• Jiangsu-Zhejiang Joint Congress of Toxicology. Yangzhou, China. (06/2026)
• Stanford Cancer Institute Research Conference. Stanford, CA. (03/2026)
• UCSF Breast Oncology Program Annual Scientific Retreat. San Francisco, CA. (03/2026)
• Annual Health Econometrics Workshop (AHEW). Ann Arbor, MI. (11/2025)
• American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. San Diego, CA. (05/2024)

💡 Patents

• Jing X, Zhu Y, Xu L, Jing N, Sun L, Ling Y, Zhang R, Tu W, Zhang L, Huang X, Yan G, and An N, inventors; City University of Hefei, assignee. Construction-Site Sprinkler Device Integrating Rotation and Lifting. Patent No. ZL 2022 2 0890424.X. July 22, 2022.
• Liang Y, Ling Y, Li Y, Liu L, Xu N, and Jin L, inventors; Sichuan University, assignee. Air Purification System. Patent No. ZL 2021 2 2679101.4. March 8, 2022.

👩‍🏫 Teaching

• MS&E 111X/211X: Introduction to Optimization (Accelerated), Stanford University (Spring 2026)
• MS&E 111DS/211DS: Introduction to Optimization: Data Science, Stanford University (Winter 2026)
• MS&E 220: Probabilistic Analysis, Stanford University (Autumn 2025)
• MS&E 264: Healthcare Engineering, Stanford University (Spring 2024)
• Technical Elective: Service Management, SCUPI (Spring 2023)
• Technical Elective: Data Analytics in Industrial Engineering, SCUPI (Fall 2022 & Spring 2023)
• IE1070: Probability, Random Variables and Distributions, SCUPI (Fall 2022)
• Global Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management, IDMR (Fall 2022)
• MATH0290: Differential Equations, SCUPI (Fall 2021 & Spring 2022)
• MATH0240: Analytical Geometry and Calculus 3, SCUPI (Spring 2022)
• MATH0280: Matrices and Linear Algebra, SCUPI (Fall 2021)
• MATH0230: Analytical Geometry and Calculus 2, SCUPI (Spring 2021)

🤝 Service

Academic Community

• Mentor, Graduate Ready for an Advanced Degree (GRAD) Program, Department of MS&E, Stanford University (10/2026-Present)
• Ambassador, Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, Stanford University (09/2026-Present)
• Editorial Board Member, OR/MS Tomorrow, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) (05/2026-Present)
• Student Liaison, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Health Applications Society (HAS) (01/2026-Present)
• Mentor, Stanford Women in Math Mentoring (SWIMM), Stanford University (09/2023-08/2026)
• Admissions Reviewer, MS&E Master’s Program, Stanford University (2024 & 2025)

Journal Ad Hoc Reviewer

• npj Digital Medicine
• BMC Public Health
• BMC Anesthesiology
• BMC Infectious Diseases
• BMC Emergency Medicine
• BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
• The Gerontologist
• Informatics and Health
• Preventive Medicine Reports
• Nursing Research and Practice
• European Journal of Medical Research
• Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare
• Frontiers in Medicine
• Frontiers in Pediatrics
• Frontiers in Toxicology
• Frontiers in Pharmacology
• World Journal of Virology
• World Journal of Psychiatry
• World Journal of Methodology
• World Journal of Clinical Cases
• World Journal of Gastroenterology
• World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery
• World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology
• Chemosphere
• Scientific Reports
• Atmospheric Environment
• The Journal of Supercomputing
• Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging
• Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Conference Full-Paper Reviewer

• 2025 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)
• 2024 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)

Conference Abstract Reviewer

• 2026 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)
• 2026 Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) Annual Meeting

🎖️ Honors & Awards

• ATS-ISRD (International Society for Respiratory Diseases) Young Investigator Award (2026)
• MS&E Departmental Fellowship, Stanford University (2023 & 2024)
• Outstanding Graduate, Sichuan Province, China (2023)
• “Top 10” Outstanding Students, Sichuan University (2023)
• Best Presentation, Integrated Disaster Science Academic Salon, IDMR (2023)
• First Prize, Outstanding Senior Project Poster Award, SCUPI (2023)
• National Scholarship, China (2020 & 2022)
• Outstanding Student, Sichuan University (2020, 2021 & 2022)
• Outstanding Graduate, Sichuan University (2022)
• “Top 100” Outstanding Students, Sichuan University (2022)
• Outstanding Student Scholarship, IDMR (2021 & 2022)
• Student of the Year, SCUPI (2022)
• First-Class Comprehensive Scholarship, Sichuan University (2021)
• Yongzhuang Top Ten Scholarships for College Students, Sichuan University (2021)
• Dean’s List, SCUPI (2021)
• Academic Star, SCUPI (2020)