Alice Zhang, MS, BS

I’m a Research Data Scientist at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, CWRU School of Medicine. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Combined Computer Science and Statistics from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s in Data Science from New York University. My work lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, geospatial data science, and population health, with a focus on understanding and mitigating the burden of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases.

My research centers on developing AI-driven methods to examine how environmental exposures and clinical factors contribute to health disparities. I design machine learning pipelines that integrate large-scale geospatial, mobility, and sociodemographic data to quantify neighborhood-level risk factors—such as green space access, recreational environments, and visits to unhealthy food venues—and their associations with obesity and diabetes prevalence. To model spatial connectivity and dynamic mobility patterns across census tracts, I employ graph neural networks (GNNs), enabling more nuanced insights into how place-based behaviors shape cardiometabolic outcomes. In parallel, I apply large language models (LLMs) and causal inference techniques to analyze electronic health records—including EKG waveforms, clinical notes, and images—to improve individualized disease monitoring and risk prediction. 

By integrating deep learning, geospatial reasoning, and health informatics, I aim to build tools that translate complex data into actionable insights for both community-level decision-making and individualized care.