Kunpeng (KZ) Zhang

Contact: Van Munching Hall, 4316 7699 Mowatt Ln College park, MD 20742 Tel: 301-405-0702 (☎) Email: kpzhang AT umd DOT edu (✉)

Biography

I am currently a Research Collaborator at Meta, an Associate Professor (with tenure) of Information Systems in the Robert H. Smith School of Business,
affiliated with AIM, MTI, and AMSC at the University of Maryland, College park.
I am also an Emerging Fellow in AI and Business Research.

Before I joined the University of Maryland, I was an Assistant professor at University of Illinois, Chicago for two years
after receiving my PhD in Computer Science at Northwestern University. During my PhD study, I co-founded 4C Insights (acquired by Mediaocean.com in 2020) with my advisor.

My research focuses on developing machine/deep learning algorithms to analyze unstructured data for better business decisions.
Specifically, I am interested in multi-modal representation learning + LLMs in business (FinTech) + Multi-agents.

RA positions available for current UMD students - please email me your CV if interested.

Current active funding

• A Novel Measure of Organizational Engagement with ESG Based on 2008-2023 Job Postings Data in the U.S. (2024-2027), NSF
• Analysis and strategy of tools to improve remote interactions and document management (2023 - 2024), FDA
• Leveraging AI to automate data flow (2022 - 2026), piHealth
• Several Smith Internal research grants

Awards

• Exemplary researcher (1 per school), Maryland Research Excellence Celebration (2024)
• Dean's Research Award (2023 - 2024)
• Smith Internal Research Grants (2023 - 2024)
• Smith Internal Teaching Grants (2023 - 2024)
• Faculty-Student Research Award (FSRA) (2022 - 2023)
• Teaching Innovation Grant (2020-2021)
• Distinguished Teaching Award (2017-18)
• Research and Scholarship Awards (RASA) AY2017-18

Professional service

• Associate Editor, MIS Quarterly (starting in Jan. 2025)
• Associate Editor, INFORMS Journal on Computing (IJOC)
• Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS)
• Co-organizer of AI Alignment Workshop, 2024
• Program Co-chair, WITS 2021
• Associate Editor, ICIS
• Editorial Board Member, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence
• Program Committee Member for vairous conferences

Invited seminar talks:

• 2024: University of Minnesota; University of Texas, Dallas; University of Iowa (marketing group)
• 2024: Amazon.com; Porsche AI Syposium (Keynote speaker); Florida Blue
• 2023: T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.; Shanghai Jiaotong University
• 2022: Texas A&M University
• 2021: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; ISOM, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; National University of Singapore
• 2019: Michigan State University
• 2018: Georgia State University; University of Rochester; University of Florida
• 2017: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• 2016: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• 2015: DePaul University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; IBM Research

Sponsors

Sincere gratitude to our sponsors from NSF, FDA, piHealth Inc., and MD Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention.