Photo of Dr. Yang Liu, who received honors from both AAAI and IEEE.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and Professor Yang Liu She was sitting at her desk working as usual. While everyone else was preparing the turkey or preparing for the holidays, she was scrolling through her emails. But this year, she was about to have something to be truly grateful for.
What she found in the email wasn’t a holiday greeting. It’s two pieces of news that most researchers have spent their entire careers hoping to receive just once, and they arrived in the same amount of time. Both are from the Artificial Intelligence Promotion Association (Ahhh) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) named her a fellow.
Liu is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and biomedical sciences, and chair of the Fletcher Jones Foundation. Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science and Ming Xie Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC School of Advanced Computing.
Her AAAI citation focuses on her research on machine learning for “time series and spatiotemporal data analysis.” Machine learning and AI may be popular terms these days, but others are far from common. Time series refers to data that changes over time. Traffic flow is an example of a time series. Comparing traffic flow at 10:40 a.m. to conditions at 10:15 a.m. can help researchers understand patterns that develop over time and develop accurate predictive models.
Spatiotemporal data analysis goes a step further and analyzes both time and location. The traffic flow example considers both the original location in Santa Monica and the traffic flow in related neighborhoods such as Culver City and Westwood. From there, machine learning models can put together more accurate predictions for things that depend on time and space, such as weather, traffic, and stock prices.
“Time series is a very important issue because most machine learning models to date assume that the data is actually independent,” Liu says.
When discussing the importance of time and space, she quotes Albert Einstein. “Human beings are part of the whole we call the universe, a part limited by time and space…” To paraphrase the words of a legendary scientist, if we do not take time and space into account, we lose sight of the big picture of the world.
In addition to fundamental contributions in machine learning models, Liu’s research in time series and spatiotemporal data analysis has enabled a variety of applications, including transportation, power, earth sciences, health sciences, and biology. This balance between academia and industry is something Liu thinks about a lot.
“Viterbi excels in technology transfer in terms of how faculty can actually conduct research from the first stage of research to industrial deployment,” Liu said. “Before joining Viterbi [in 2010]I worked in industry at IBM Research. Coming to Viterbi, I am welcomed into this vibrant and collaborative community where I can conduct research on the most important problems in science and engineering and apply my research findings to industry solutions. This culture also helped shape my career path. ”
Liu’s IEEE citation is a more general recognition of her “contributions to machine learning and data mining methodologies and applications.” Of course, these are areas that have changed significantly over the years. Large-scale language models and mainstream AI platforms like ChatGPT are making machine learning more accessible than ever, and Liu is keeping a close eye on these new developments.
Liu’s new job involves both continuing to advance machine learning and overseeing its use. She is co-chair of the Institute for Computing Ethics and Trust at USC Viterbi.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for academic researchers to just follow industry trends,” Liu says. “There are many new research frontiers and forward-looking topics in academia that we can tackle. One important direction for the research we produce is how to ensure that these large-scale language models are consistent with our human ethics.”
Published March 27, 2026
Last updated: March 27, 2026
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