Hello! I am Zhi (how to pronounce?), a fifth-year PhD candidate of Operations Research at Cornell Tech, where I am lucky to be advised by Professor Nikhil Garg.

I am broadly interested in the interplay of data, policy, and societal systems: how are data generated, what can we learn from them, and how do we design practical policies to improve these systems. Things I have worked on during my PhD studies include college admission, 311 systems for reporting incidents in cities, and public library systems. I am incredibly fortunate to have worked with the New York Public Library as part of the PiTech PhD Fellowship program during the Summer of 2023. During the Summer of 2024, I interned at Theorem LP, specializing in loan-level risk prediction and underwriting.

Previously, I obtained my BE in Industrial Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2020, with a Minor in Applied Statistics. During my undergrad, I worked on various things including application of network interdiction problem, scheduling in hospitals, and a numerical solver for PDEs.

Outside of office, I enjoy spending time in nature. If you are interested in the theory of optimization algorithms and mathematics of data science, check out some amazing work by my partner Tao.