Kai Zhao, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Walmart AI
Associate Editor, Electronic Commerce Research (Springer Nature)
Email: kaizhaofrank@gmail.com
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Short bio:
16+ years of research experience in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Generative AI, Multimodal AI, and ML Infrastructure.
50+ top-tier ML publications (ICML, KDD, EMNLP, AAAI, IJCAI, TKDE, TVCG, TCSS, etc.)
Led 20+ ML projects with tech leaders including Walmart, Uber, Cox Enterprises, Starr, etc., contributing to multi-million-dollar revenue impact
Updates:
One paper on Multi-Modality Foundation Model VL-CLIP accepted by Recsys 2025 as spotlight oral paper (top 5%)
One paper on Generative Recommendation model accepted by Recsys 2025 as spotlight oral paper (top 5%)
One paper on LLM Fine-tuning accepted by KDD 2025
One paper on Latent Space Alignment accepted by ICML 2025
One paper on Agent Collaboration accepted by ICML 2025
One paper on Agent for Layout design accepted by SIGIR 2025
One paper on Agentic Retrieval Generation accepted by SIGIR 2025
One paper on Graph Neural Networks accepted by Nature Scientific Reports 2025 (impact factor: 4.3)
One paper on Prediction in Recommender Systems accepted by Information Processing & Management 2025 (impact factor: 8.6)
One paper on Residual Graph Neural Networks accepted by TCSS 2025 (Impact factor: 5.1)
One paper on Transformer for Prediction accepted by KDD 2024
One paper on MultiModality AI Contrastive Prediction accepted by AAAI 2024
One paper on Multimodal AI accepted by IJCAI 2024
One paper on Hierarchy Clustering accepted by IJCAI 2024
One paper on Human-AI Interaction accepted by TKDE 2024 (impact factor: 8.9)
One paper on Graphic Neural Networks accepted by Nature Scientific Reports 2024 (impact factor: 4.3)
One paper on Causal Inference and Causal Graph accepted by Knowledge-Based Systems 2024 (impact factor: 8.8)
One paper on AI in Recommendation Systems accepted by Information Processing & Management 2024 (impact factor: 8.6)
One paper on deep learning and human mobility behavior published by TKDE 2023 (impact factor: 8.9)
One paper on semantic annotation for spatial data is accepted by the IJCAI 2023.
One paper on legal judgment prediction via hierarchical reasoning is accepted by EMNLP 2023.
One paper on learning representations for unseen entities is accepted by CIKM 2023.
One paper on the spectral clustering algorithm accepted by TMC 2023 (Impact factor: 7.9)
One paper on the hierarchical clustering of human mobility accepted by TCSS 2023 (Impact factor: 5.1)
One paper on Multivariate Time-Series Forecasting accepted by TBD 2023 (Impact factor: 7.2)
Working Experience
Research Scientist, Tech Lead, Gen AI, Walmart AI, CA 2024-
Assistant Professor (tenured), AI/ML, Georgia State University, GA 2017-2024
Post-doc, AI/ML, New York University, NY 2015-2017
Education
Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Finland 2015
Top 100 Global University according to US News
~ U.S. Top 30 universities
Adviser: Prof. Sasu Tarkoma, Dean of the School of Science
BSc., Computer Science, Shandong University, China 2009
Publications in Large Language Model, Generative AI and Machine Learning
Google Scholar – citations: 1,112, h-index: 13
Large Language Model + Transformer Engineering
38 Urban Region Embedding via Multi-View Contrastive Prediction,
Z. Li, W. Huang, K. Zhao, M. Yang, Y. Gong, M. Chen
In proceedings of (2024) AAAI.
37 Going Where, by Whom, and at What Time: Next Location Prediction Considering User Preference and Temporal Regularity
T. Sun, K. Fu, W. Huang, K. Zhao, Y. Gong, M. Chen
In proceedings of (2024) KDD
36 Multi-Defendant Legal Judgment Prediction via Hierarchical Reasoning,
Y. Lyu, J. Hao, Z. Wang, K. Zhao, S. Gao, P. Ren, Z. Chen, F. Wang, Z. Ren
In proceedings of (2023) EMNLP.
35 Exploring Urban Semantics: A Multimodal Model for POI Semantic Annotation with Street View Images and Place Names,
D. Zhang, M. Chen, W. Huang, Y. Gong, K. Zhao
In proceedings of (2024) IJCAI.
34 Towards an Integrated View of Semantic Annotation for POIs with Spatial and Textual Information,
D. Zhang, W. Huang, K. Zhao, M. Chen,
In proceedings of (2023) IJCAI.
33 Iteratively Learning Representations for Unseen Entities with Inter-Rule Correlations,
Z. Wang, K. Zhao, Y. He, Z. Chen, P. Ren, M. Rijke, Z. Ren,
In proceedings of (2023) CIKM.
32 Limits of Predictability in Top-N Recommendation,
E. Xu, K. Zhao, Z. Yu, Y. Zhang, B. Guo, L. Yao
(2024) Information Processing & Management, impact factor: 8.6
31 Modeling Question Difficulty for Unbiased Cognitive Diagnosis: A Causal Perspective,
X. Chen, S. Feng, M. Yang, K. Zhao, R. Xu, C. Cui, M. Chen
(2024) Knowledge-Based Systems, impact factor: 8.8
30 Beyond the Limits of Predictability in Human Mobility Prediction: Context-Transition Predictability,
K. Zhao, C. Zhang, M. Chen
(2023) IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, impact factor: 8.9
35(5): 4514-4526
Machine Learning Model Design + Engineering
29 Learning Hierarchy-Enhanced POI Category Representations Using Disentangled Mobility Sequences,
H. Jia, M. Chen, W. Huang, K. Zhao, Y. Gong
In proceedings of (2024) IJCAI.
28 Analyzing World City Network by Graph Convolutional Networks
L. Tian, W. Rao, K. Zhao, H. Vo
(2024) Nature Scientific Reports, impact factor: 4.3
27 Multivariate Time-Series Forecasting Model: Predictability Analysis and Empirical Study,
Q. Zhao, G. Yang, K. Zhao, J. Yin, W. Rao, L. Chen
(2023) IEEE Transactions on Big Data, impact factor: 7.2
26 Human Mobility Prediction based on Trend Iteration of Spectral Clustering,
W. Jia, S. Zhao, K. Zhao
(2023) IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, impact factor: 7.9
25 The Hierarchical Clustering of Human Mobility Behaviors,
K. Zhao, W. Jia, S. Zhao,
(2023) IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, impact factor: 5.0
24 Hyper-Clustering Enhanced Spatio-Temporal Deep Learning for Traffic and Demand Prediction in Bike-Sharing Systems,
K. Zhao, S. Zhao, Y. Xia, W. Jia,
(2022) Information Sciences, 612: 626-637, impact factor: 8.2
23 Predicting Taxi and Uber Demand in Cities: Approaching the Limit of Predictability,
K. Zhao, D. Khryashchev, H. Vo
(2021) IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, impact factor: 8.9
33(6): 2723-2736
22 PR-LTTE: Link Travel Time Estimation Based on Path Recovery from Large-scale Incomplete Trip Data,
T. Sun, K. Zhao, C. Zhang, M. Chen, X. Yu
(2021) Information Sciences, 589: 34-45, impact factor: 8.2
21 The Hierarchical Clustering of Human Mobility Behaviors,
K. Zhao, W. Jia, S. Zhao
In proceedings of (2021) CIST.
20 Toward Effective Mobile Promotion: A Survey of Mobile Prediction Techniques and Applications,
K. Zhao, H. Xiao, A. Rai
In proceedings of (2020) AMCIS.
19 Hierarchical Prediction Based Two-level Gaussian Mixture Model Clustering for Bike-sharing System,
W. Jia, Y. Tan, L. Liu, J. Li, H. Zhang, K. Zhao
(2019) Knowledge-Based Systems, 178, 84-97, impact factor: 8.8
18 Experimental Study of Multivariate Time Series Forecasting Models ,
J. Ying, M. Yuan, K. Zhao, W. Rao
In proceedings of ACM (2019) CIKM.
17 DeepLoc: Deep Neural Network-based Telco Localization ,
Y. Zhang, Y. Xiao, K. Zhao, W. Rao
In proceedings of (2019) MobiQuitous.
A-level mobile analytics conference by CORE CS conference ranking.
Best Paper award (1 out of 150 submissions).
16 Dynamics of Information Revelation in Online Reviews,
K. Zhao, W. Jabr, Y. Cheng, S. Srivastava
In proceedings of (2018) AMCIS.
15 What Are They Saying? A Methodology for Extracting Information from Online Reviews,
K. Zhao, W. Jabr, Y. Cheng, S. Srivastava
In proceedings of (2018) ICIS.
Machine Learning Infrastructure + Big Data System
14 GeoMatch: Efficient Large-Scale Map Matching on Apache Spark,
A. Zeidan, E. Lagerspetz, K. Zhao, P. Nurmi, S. Tarkoma, H. Vo
(2020) ACM Transactions on Data Science, s1, 3, Article 21, impact factor: 1.9
13 GeoMatch: Efficient Large-Scale Map Matching on Apache Spark,
A. Zeidan, E. Lagerspetz, K. Zhao, P. Nurmi, S. Tarkoma, and H. Vo
In proceedings of IEEE (2018) BigData.
12 Exploring What not to Clean in Urban Data: A Study Using New York City Taxi Trips,
J. Freire, A. Bessa, F. Chirigati, H. Vo, K. Zhao.
IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin (2017) DEB.
11 Urban Pulse: Capturing the Rhythms of cities
F. Miranda, H. Doraiswamy, M. Lage, K. Zhao, B. Goncalves, L. Wilson, M. Hsieh, C. Silva.
(2017) IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,23(1), 791-800.
Featured by The Economist. impact factor: 5.2
10 Inferring Unmet Human Mobility Demand with Multi-Source Urban Data,
K. Zhao, X. Zheng, H. Vo.
In proceedings of ApWeb (2017) HotSpatial.
9 Urban Human Mobility Data Mining: An Overview,
K. Zhao, S. Tarkoma, S. Liu, H. Vo
In proceedings of IEEE (2016) BigData.
8 Predicting Taxi Demand at High Spatial Resolution: Approaching the Limit of Predictability,
K. Zhao, D. Khryashchev, J. Freire, C. Silva, H. Vo.
In proceedings of IEEE (2016) BigData.
7 Towards Maximizing Timely Content Delivery in Delay Tolerant Networks,
W. Rao, K. Zhao, Y. Zhang, P. Hui, S. Tarkoma.
(2015) IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 14(4): 755-769. impact factor: 7.9
6 Explaining the Power-law Distribution of Human Mobility Through Transportation Modality Decomposition,
K. Zhao, M. Musolesi, P. Hui, W. Rao, S. Tarkoma.
(2015) Scientific Reports, 5(1): 1-7. impact factor: 5.0
Featured by Science Daily.
5 Automatic City Region Analysis for Urban Routing,
K. Zhao, M. P. Chinnasamy, S. Tarkoma.
In proceedings of IEEE (2015) ICDM.
4 Urban Mobility and Networking,
K. Zhao
in proceedings of ACM (2015) MobiSys.
3 CoSense: A Collaborative Sensing Platform for Mobile Devices,
S. Hemminki, K. Zhao, A. Ding, M. Rannanjarvi, S. Tarkoma, P. Nurmi
In proceedings of ACM (2013) SenSys.
2 Energy-aware keyword search on mobile phones ,
W. Rao, K, Zhao, E. Lagerspetz, P. Hui, S. Tarkoma.
In proceedings of ACM (2012) SIGCOMM MCC.
1 Maximizing timely content advertising in DTNs,
W. Rao, K. Zhao, Y. Zhang, P. Hui, S. Tarkoma.
In proceedings of IEEE (2012) SECON.
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