Fall 2016 seminar: M.R.P. candidate, city and regional planning
Yi Zhang is a second-year graduate student in city and regional planning. Her studies and experience began during a five-year undergraduate program in urban planning at Zhejiang University, China. Her undergraduate work included a one-semester exchange program at University College in Dublin, and a summer exchange program at Hong Kong University. Zhang's dedicated interest in urban transformation and the urbanization process lead her to conduct diverse projects including urban transportation connection, urban open space accessibility, and urban creative space evolvement in Chinese megacities. After arriving at Cornell in fall 2015, she has continued to research urban space renewal by interacting with local people and applying spatial models. For her Mellon fellowship, she plans to use the urbanization process in Cuba as an example to understand how isolated islands flourish with urbanized farms, as well as how the farming behavior has transitioned both spatially and institutionally in recent years.