Yi Zhu

Yi Zhu

PhD Candidate
Information & Decision Sciences

Education:

  • PhD, 2024 (expected)
    Information and Decision Sciences, University of Minnesota
  • MS, 2019
    Business Analytics, Drexel University
  • MS, 2015
    Journalism, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • BA, 2014
    English, Communication University of China

Expertise:

  • Health IT and Analytics
  • Network Science and Economics
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Econometrics, Causal Inference
  • Network Analysis
  • Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing

Biography

Yi Zhu is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Information and Decision Sciences at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His research interests lie in the intersection of health IT and analytics, network science and economics, and consumer behavior. In his research, he adopts various quantitative methodologies, including econometrics, causal inference, network analysis, machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Medical Care Research and Review. He has also presented his work at top information system conferences, including International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS), and Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Mr. Zhu is the recipient of INFORMS ISS Design Science Award, Carlson Ph.D. Student Teaching Award, University of Minnesota Early Innovation Fund, and University of Minnesota BOLD IDEAS grant. He strives to become a successful scholar in information systems and seeks a faculty position at a top-ranked business school.

Selected Works & Activities

  • Working Papers
    Zhu Y, Mani A. Investigating Churn in Online Wellness Programs: Evidence from a U.S. Online Social Network. Under review. 
  • Journal Articles
    Everhart AO, Sen S, Stern AD, Zhu Y, Karaca-Mandic P (2023) Association Between Regulatory Submission Characteristics and Recalls of Medical Devices Receiving 510(k) Clearance. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 329(2):144–156.
  • Journal Articles
    Zhu Y, Carroll C, Vu K, Sen S, Georgiou A, Karaca-Mandic P (2022) COVID-19 Hospitalization Trends in Rural Versus Urban Areas in the United States. Medical Care Research and Review.
  • Journal Articles
    Karaca-Mandic P, Sen S, Georgiou A, Zhu Y, Basu A (2020) Association of COVID-19-Related Hospital Use and Overall COVID-19 Mortality in the USA. Journal of General Internal Medicine.
  • Journal Articles
    Zhou J, Everhart A, Smith L, Qiu Y, Zhu Y (2020) The Economic Burden of Extended—Release Pharmaceuticals in Minnesota. Public Health Review, 3(2).
  • Conference Proceedings
    Zhu Y, Mani A (2023) Investigating Churn in Physical Activity Challenges: Evidence from a US Online Social Network. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Lahaina, HI.
  • Conference Proceedings
    Zhu Y, Everhart AO, Karaca-Mandic P, Sen S (2020) Using NLP to Extract Predicate History from Medical Device Approvals. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Virtual.
  • Other
    Sen S, Karaca-Mandic P, Georgiou A, Zhu Y (2021) An Information System for COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking and Analysis. INFORMS ISS Design Science Award.
  • · Zhu Y, Sen S, Everhart A, Karaca-Mandic P. Predicting Medical Device Recalls Leveraging Regulatory Submission Characteristics.

    · Zhu Y, Chan J, Bi X, Guo Y, Wu J. Consumer Responses to Puffery: Empirical Evidence from a Cellular Network Upgrade Advertising.

    · Zhu Y, Bi X, Adomavicious G, Curley S. Forecasting Goal-Oriented Activities: A Deep Learning Approach Leveraging Cross-Activity Relationships. 

  • Research Diary

    · 3/30/2023: I got accepted by the 2023 Doctoral Consortium at the Conference on Health IT and Analytics (CHITA) with a $600 travel grant. 

    · 3/23/2023: Our paper titled "Investigating Churn in Physical Activity Challenges: Evidence from a US Online Social Network" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 International School and Conference on Network Science (NetSci). July 10-14, Vienna, Austria. (Coauthored with Ankur Mani).

    · 3/17/2023: Our paper titled "Predicting Medical Device Recalls Leveraging Regulatory Submission Characteristics" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 Conference on Health IT and Analytics (CHITA). May 5-6, 2023, Washington, DC.  (Coauthored with Soumya Sen, Alexander Everhart, Pinar Karaca-Mandic).

    · 2/21/2023: Our paper titled "Consumer Responses to Puffery: Empirical Evidence from a Cellular Network Upgrade Advertising" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) Annual Conference. June 8-10,  2023, Miami, FL. (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Yue Guo, Jun Wu).

    · 1/18/2023: Our paper titled "Consumer Responses to Puffery: Empirical Evidence from a Cellular Network Upgrade Advertising" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Annual Conference. May 21-25,  2023, Orlando, FL. (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Yue Guo, Jun Wu).

    · 1/13/2023: Our paper titled "Predicting Medical Device Recalls Leveraging Regulatory Submission Characteristics" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 INFORMS Healthcare Conference. July 26-28, 2023, Toronto, ON Canada.  (Coauthored with Soumya Sen, Alexander Everhart, Pinar Karaca-Mandic).

    · 1/9/2023: Our project "ML-based decision support system for analyzing medical device history and recalls from FDA’s 510k filings" has been awarded an Early Innovation Fund from University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization.  (joint project with Soumya Sen and Pinar Mandic-Karaca) ($10,000). 

    · 12/23/2022: Our project "ML-based decision support system for analyzing medical device history and recalls from FDA’s 510k filings" has been awarded an MVP Challenge grant from Minnesota Innovation Corps. This grant will provide seed funding and mentorship for further prototyping and product development (joint project with Soumya Sen and Pinar Mandic-Karaca) ($5000). 

    · 11/25/2022: Our paper titled "Consumer Responses to Puffery: Empirical Evidence from a Cellular Network Upgrade Advertising" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 Winter AMA Marketing for Higher Education Special Interest Group (SIG) Special Session, February 10-12, 2023, Nashville, TN (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Yue Guo, Jun Wu).

    · 11/11/2022: Our paper titled "Consumer Responses to Puffery: Empirical Evidence from a Cellular Network Upgrade Advertising" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 American Marketing Association (AMA) Winter Conference, February 10-12, 2023, Nashville, TN (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Yue Guo, Jun Wu).

    · 10/21/2022: I have received the 2022-2023 Carlson School of Management PhD Student Conference/Travel Fellowship ($750).

    · 8/24/2022: I have received the 2021-2022 Carlson School of Management PhD Student Teaching Award.

    · 8/18/2022: Our paper titled "Investigating Churn in Physical Activity Challenges: Evidence from a US Online Social Network" has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), January 3-6, 2023, Lahaina, HI (Coauthored with Ankur Mani).

    · 8/7/2022: Our paper titled "Investigating Churn in Physical Activity Challenges: Evidence from a US Online Social Network" has been accepted for presentation at the 2022 Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), October 15-16, 2022, Indianapolis, IN (Coauthored with Ankur Mani).

    · 4/20/2022: I have received the 2021-2022 Carlson School of Management PhD Student Conference/Travel Fellowship ($750).

    · 4/20/2022: Our University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project has received Honorable Mentions in the 2022 Innovation Impact Case Award, sponsored by Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota.

    · 4/7/2022: Our research team has won the Second Place of the Third University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition ($2000). Project topic: Demographic (In)equities Revealed by HCAHPS Ratings.  

    · 3/10/2022: Our work titled "Predicate Characteristics and Recalls of 510(k) Medical Devices" has been accepted for presentation at the 2022 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, June 4-7, 2022, Washington, DC (Coauthored with Alexander Everhart, Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Soumya Sen, Ariel Stern).

    · 12/17/2021: Our work titled "An Information System for COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking and Analysis" has won the 2021 INFORMS Information Systems Society (ISS) Design Science Award ($1000). (project summary) (news feature 1, news feature 2)

    · 10/25/2021: I gave an invited talk at the 2021 INFORMS Annual Meeting with the paper titled "Investigating The Willingness To Pay For Enhanced Mobile Internet Services: Evidence From A Mobile Network Upgrade" (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Yue Guo, Jun Wu).

    · 10/25/2021: Our paper titled “Forecasting Goal-Oriented Activities: A Deep Learning Approach Leveraging Cross-Activity Relationships” has been accepted for poster presentation at the 2021 Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS), December 15-17, 2021, Austin, TX (Coauthored with Gedas Adomavicius, Xuan Bi, Shawn Curley). 

    · 6/3/2021: Our paper titled "Consumer Reactions Toward IT Infrastructure Upgrade: Evidence From A Nation-wide Mobile Network Upgrade" has been accepted for presentation at the 2021 Statistical Conference in E-Commerce Research (SCECR), June 17-18, 2021 (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Jun Wu).

    · 5/3/2021: Our paper titled "Consumer Reactions Toward IT Infrastructure Upgrade: Evidence From A Nation-wide Mobile Network Upgrade" has been accepted for presentation at the 2021 American Marketing Association (AMA) Summer Conference, August 4-6, 2021 (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Jun Wu).

    · 4/29/2021: Our University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project has won two Silver Stevie Awards for "Most Valuable Non-Profit Response" and "Most Valuable Service" at the 2021 Annual American Business Awards (COVID-19 Response Category).

    · 4/22/2021: I have received the 2020-2021 Carlson School of Management PhD Student Conference/Travel Fellowship ($355).

    · 4/7/2021: Our paper titled "Consumer Reactions Toward IT Infrastructure Upgrade: Evidence From A Nation-wide Mobile Network Upgrade" has been accepted for presentation at 2021 INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) Annual Conference, June 3-5, 2021 (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Jun Wu).

    · 3/30/2021: I was featured in the news report "COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project Wins Innovations that Inspire Award".

    · 3/30/2021: Our University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project has won 2021 AACSB Innovations That Inspire.

    · 3/16/2021: Our paper titled "Consumer Reactions Toward IT Infrastructure Upgrade: Evidence From A Nation-wide Mobile Network Upgrade" has been accepted for presentation at the 2021 Industry Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conference, June 2-4, 2021 (Coauthored with Jason Chan, Xuan Bi, Jun Wu).

    · 3/10/2021: Our University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project has won 2021 NIHCM Awards in Journalism and Research, Digital Media Track ($15,000).

    · 8/20/2020: I was featured in the news report "New research finds association between COVID-19 hospital use and mortality".

    · 4/24/2020: Our research team has won the Champion of the First University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition ($4000). Project topic: The Economic Burden of Extended-Release Pharmaceuticals in Minnesota.

    · 3/6/2020: Our research team has won the BOLD IDEAS Grant, Office of Academic Clinical Affairs, University of Minnesota ($30,000). Project topic: Using Natural Language Processing to Extract Predictors of Medical Device Adverse Events.

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