Zhe Zhang

Assistant Professor of Business Analytics and Technology

Rady School of Management

z9zhang@ucsd.edu

Current Research

I am an assistant professor at University of California - San Diego's Rady School of Management, within the Innovation, Technology, and Operations group. I completed my Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University at the Heinz College School of Information Systems and Management in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. My research agenda is on the societal impact of information technology. This is represented by two particular projects: one on developing new methods for auditing algorithms for fairness and bias in AI, and another on ridesharing's (Uber, Lyft) impact on increasing not only local consumption, but also spatial diversity in consumption.

This research is highlighted by four ongoing projects described below. My research methods range from machine learning methodology to economic theory to applied microeconomics. I incorporate this range of methods since they are useful to answer a range of related questions. Each project is motivated to provide insights into how changes in information technology may be affecting societal and secondary outcomes:





Background / Contact

Carnegie Mellon University, PhD, Heinz College School of Information Systems & Management

Jointly advised by Professors Daniel Neill, Beibei Li, and Vibhanshu Abhishek

Stanford University, 

BS, Mathematical and Computational Sciences (MCS)

BA, Economics, Stanford University

z9zhang@ucsd.edu

github.com/writezhe

In my undergraduate, I studied economics and policy, particularly around climate policy and energy markets. After my undergraduate, I spent some time continuing economics research on coal markets and the behavioral impact of pricing structure in electricity, and also spent time as a researcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council and Union of Concerned Scientists nonprofits. I came to Carnegie Mellon to pursue my PhD using multiple disciplines including computer science and economics. I grew up in the Berkeley, CA area.

During my PhD, I have spent time as a part-time Data Creative staff at DataKind in NYC, NY, providing data science project brainstorming for potential partner organizations. I also was a 2016 Fellow at the Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship (DSSG) in Chicago, IL. There I worked on an interpretable prediction project for education support services.