Dr. Jiao focuses on smart city and community and understanding the built environment through spatial analysis and big data. His urban information lab was formed in 2014 in order to provide a space for deep-dive investigations of urban form by harnessing innovative technologies. The lab employs a team of graduate students who explore how urban form influences human behavior. Since the lab’s inception, UIL researchers have investigated Uber's price surge in Austin during a special event, quantified the spatial distributions of Airbnb rentals in five major US cities, explored bike sharing in NYC, Chicago, DC, and Boston, identified transit deserts in the top 51 US cities, investigated tourist perceptions of the city in cyberspace during a superbowl weekend, and evaluated people’s access to healthy and unhealthy food sources in major Texas cities, among other projects.