Education:
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Ph.D. 2026(expected)Information & Decision Science, University of Minnesota
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M.S. 2020Applied Data Science, University of Southern California
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B.S. 2017Information System, Shanghai University of Finance & Economics
Expertise:
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Online Education
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Field/Lab Experiment
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Generative AI/ Large Language Model (LLM)/ Retrieval-Augmented Generation(RAG)
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Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning/ Transformer/ Knowledge Graph)
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Analytical Modeling (Behavioral/ Traditional Econ)
Biography
HONORS AND AWARDS
- Selected Participant for 2024 ICIS Doctoral Consortium (Aug 2024)
- Carlson School Dissertation Fellowship ($32,000) (April 2024)
- Dean's Small Grant for Research ($10,000) (Nov 2023)
- Carlson School of Management Ph.D. Student Teaching Award (August 2023)
- Ph.D. Student Conference/Travel Fellowship (2020 – Now)
- Carlson and Willoughby IDS Ph.D. Fellowship (2020 – Now)
- Ph.D. Student Summer Research Fellowship (2020 – Now)
Working Papers
- Chaofan Zhai, Ravi Bapna, Alok Gupta, "The Productivity Impact of LLM in Problem Solving: A Large-Scale Randomized Experiment"
- Chaofan Zhai, Yicheng Song, Ravi Bapna, "Reinforcement Learning for Sustainable Learning in Online Education with Large-scale Field Experiment Validation"
- Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR) Lisbon, 2024
- Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Minneapolis, 2024
- INFORMS Annual Conference, Seattle, 2024
- Carlson School Dean's Small Grant ($10,000), 2023
- Chaofan Zhai, Amit Mehra, Ravi Bapna, "Pricing Strategies in Online Education"
- Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Indianapolis, 2022
- Chaofan Zhai, Xuan Bi, Angela Aerry Choi, Chad Yi-Chun Ho, "An Advanced Recommender System for Influencer Economy: Insights from a Field Experiment"
- Chaofan Zhai, Xuan Bi, Mochen Yang, "Incentivization of Federated Learning: A Novel Stackelberg Game"
- INFORMS Annual Conference, Indianapolis, 2022
POSITIONS/EMPLOYMENT
Instructor
- IDSC 4444 (undergrad core): Descriptive and Predictive Analytics (Fall 2023)
- Instructor evaluation: 5.61 / 6; Course evaluation: 5.47 / 6; Response ratio: 100%
- IDSC 4444 (undergrad core): Descriptive and Predictive Analytics (Spring 2023)
- Received 2022-2023 Carlson School of Management Ph.D. Student Teaching Award
- Instructor evaluation: 5.53 / 6; Course evaluation: 5.36 / 6; Response ratio: 74.42%
Teaching Assistance & Research Assistance
- CMBA 5832 (EMBA): Advanced Management Topic Elective: Business Analytics for Competitive Advantage (Spring 2023)
- MABA 6431 (MA): Advanced Topics in Business Analytics (Fall 2022, Fall 2021)
- MSBA 6430 (MS): Advanced Issues in Business Analytics (Summer 2022, Summer 2021)
- IDSC 4110 (undergrad): Data Engineering for Business Analytics (Fall 2020)
- Research Assistant for Information and Decision Sciences Department (since September 2020)
PUBLIC AND OTHER SERVICES
Reviewer
- Journal
- Information System Research (ISR): 2023, 2024
- Conference
- International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS): 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS): 2024
- INFORMS Workshop on Data Science 2024
- Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST): 2022
- ACM International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) 2024
Student Coordinator
- Friday Seminar Series of IDSC Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 2023-2024