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Team Summer 2022

Published onOct 11, 2022
Team Summer 2022
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Professor Principal Investigator

Prof. Luyao (Sunshine) Zhang | Ph.D.

Luyao (Sunshine) Zhang is Assistant Professor of Economics and Senior Research Scientist at the Data Science Research Center at Duke Kunshan University (DKU). She has an abiding passion for interdisciplinary collaborations, especially for cutting-edge research of both profound insights and practical impacts, including Computational Economics (Algorithmic Game Theory and Mechanism Design), Explainable Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, AI Trust, Human-Computer Interaction), Cryptoeconomics (Blockchain for social good, Consensus Algorithms, DeFi), Behavioral Science (Bounded Rationality, Trust, and Cooperation), and Interdisciplinary Big Data (Social Media, Sustainability, and Global Health). Her current research interests are at the interplay of computational science and social science around the application scenarios of Blockchain. Her publications appear in economic journals for general interest and beyond, including American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the World Economy, Nature Scientific Data, Nature Social Indicators Research, ACM CCS, AAAI/ACM AIES, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain Proceedings, Remote Sensing, Journal of Digital Earth, Data and Information Management, etc. She received Ph.D. in Economics at Ohio State University, supported by Presidential Fellowship and NSF dissertation grant. She graduated from Peking University with a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Math and Applied Math. She holds Blockchain Strategy Certificate at Oxford University and more than 30 data science certificates. She is currently supported by National Science Foundation in China for her research agenda entitled “Trust Mechanism Design on Blockchain: An Interdisciplinary Approach of Game Theory, Reinforcement Learning, and Human-Computer Interactions.” Know more about her on the Duke Scholar page: https://scholars.duke.edu/person/luyao.zhang

Summer Research Scholar

Yutong Sun

This is Yutong Sun, a senior student majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interest is in financial technology and financial mathematics. Previously, she has published some research papers related to commercial leverage ratios, stock price-predicting, and stock quantitative investment strategy using machine learning models. And in the summer of 2022, she has done researches related to smart contract, contract theory, and Non-Fungible Token with Prof. Luyao Zhang. Yutong Sun is also affiliated with SciEcon CIC.

Yihang Fu

Yihang Fu is a junior undergraduate student at Duke Kunshan University majoring in Data Science. He received a quarter-admission scholarship and was supported by the 2022 Summer Research Scholarship. He is passionate about interdisciplinary Study and conducts pieces of research in different fields such as Blockchain security, natural language analysis, environment study, etc. He is keen on exploring and looks forward to converting the in-book knowledge to real-life applications. Yihang is affiliated with SciEcon CIC.

Haoyang Yu

Haoyang Yu’s research interests are the development of the Blockchain marketplace and the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) mechanism design. He is currently the interim executive co-chair of SciEcon AMA. He has also co-authored cryptocurrency’s market circulation-related research articles that are being prepared to submit to world-leading conferences. Besides his experience in SciEcon, he is a junior student at Duke Kunshan University majoring in Applied Mathematics & Computational Sciences. He also has rich working experience in financial industries, such as strategic consulting, management consulting and investment banking, etc. His last position was as a summer intern at PricewaterhouseCoopers during his sophomore-year summer break and he is currently an intern at a top Chinese brokerage (securities) company.

Zhitong Chen

Zhitong Chen is a researcher at SciEcon CIC and a senior majoring in economics at Duke Kunshan University. She is the 2021 National Scholarship recipient and the 2020 National Endeavor Scholarship recipient. As an interdisciplinary researcher with her passion and research experiences in applied economics, finance, blockchain, political economy, and education, Zhitong received Research Grant from the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. She also received Student Experiential Learning Fellowship and Summer Research Scholar Fellowship yearly. Her paper was accepted for the International Conference on Blockchain, Information Technology, and Smart Finance. Pursuing her ambition, Zhitong interned at China International Capital Corporation Limited, China Securities, Ernst & Young Global Limited, CITIC Securities Company Limited, and China Merchants Bank. She is actively involved in different social activities and volunteer work. Zhitong is nominated as one of the 30 finalists for the 2021 Miss World Tourism and Culture Competition.

Josh Manto

Josh Manto is a junior majoring in Data Science at Duke Kunshan University (DKU). Originally from the Philippines, he received a scholarship prior to joining the university for academic merit. He has a solid foundation in Data Science, wealth of experience in research, and has since managed two e-commerce startups to this day.

His areas of interest include big data, machine learning, and blockchain applications, specifically in cloud computing and mechanism design. He is currently working under Professor Luyao Zhang as a research and lab leader for her Blockchain+ Research Program. 

Summer Research Project Manager and Research Affiliates

Tianyu Wu

Tianyu Wu, a senior student majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), serves as the 2022 Summer Research Project Manager. He has been serving on many pioneering projects for the great cause of research, innovation, and leadership supervised by Prof. Luyao Zhang.

First, he is among the Administrative Teaching Assistants for the interdisciplinary research course: “Econ 211 Intelligent Economics: An Explainable AI approach” in Autumn 2021 and “Econ 206 Computational Microeconomics” in Spring 2022, contributing to the industry 4.0 Open Educational Resources (OER) Series No. 2 and No. 3 as a student contributor. Moreover, he also contributed to “Innovate on the Internet Computer”, industry 4.0 OER Series No. 1 as the student project manager.

Zesen Zhuang

Zesen Zhuang is a senior student at Duke Kunshan University majoring in Data Science as well as the interim Chair of Technology Development of SciEcon. He has a solid foundation in Computer Science and excels in Data Science courses. His areas of interest include software engineering, machine learning, and blockchain. He is enthusiastic about applying Computer Science techniques in interdisciplinary research. He is doing research with Prof. Luyao Zhang on various topics including applied reinforcement learning on cryptocurrency, data analysis, and computer security. He is also involved in several projects at SciEcon CIC, for which he provides engineering support.

Xinyu Tian

Xinyu Tian is a senior student majoring in Data Science at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and has a dual degree in Interdisciplinary Study at Duke University. During her undergraduate study, she focuses on cooperative AI, blockchain consensus, and game theory. She is working on a co-authored paper with Prof. Luyao Zhang, about agents' cooperation on the blockchain, with an evolutionary approach. The paper is accepted and presented at the 31st International Conference on Game Theory, at Stony Brook Game Theory Center, Stony Brook University. Her paper about meta-learning algorithms has been published at the 2021 International Conference on Computer Engineering and Application (ICCEA), IEEE edition.

She was awarded a full-admission scholarship for her undergraduate program, and two Summer Research Scholarships for her research in the summer of 2021 & 2022, and her proposals are granted by Ethereum Academic Grants and Devcon Grants, from Ethereum Foundation.

In addition to academics, she is the Chair of Communication at SciEcon CIC, an NPO. She chaired the SciEcon Insights program, in which she supported the publication of more than 50 academic articles and interviews with 20+ top professors and practitioners. Moreover, she contributed to Industry 4.0 Open Educational Resource Initiatives as a chapter co-author, student leader, and associate editor.

Zhichao Chen

Zichao Chen’s research interests are the development of the NFT marketplace and portfolio optimization in the cryptocurrency market. He is currently the Chair of SciEcon Research, before serving this position, he used to be the team leader of SciEcon NFT Lab and Lab Incubator Co-chair. He has also done some research in the NFT and Cryptocurrency field, one of the articles has been published on Medium and the others are being prepared to submit to world-leading conferences. Besides his experience in SciEcon, he is also a senior student majoring in Data Science at Duke Kunshan University. He is proficient in data analytics, mathematical modeling, and statistical principles. Zichao Chen also has strong practical application and learning abilities. He has working experience as Data Engineer in the world’s second-biggest short video platform Kuaishou (Kwai).

Yufan Zhang

Yufan Zhang is a senior student at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), where he is pursuing in a degree in Data Science (B.S.). He is also a member of the Inaugural E-Board, SciEcon CIC, where he serves as the Chair of Creativity and Innovation. He has a solid knowledge foundation of Data Science, Computer Science, and Blockchain Technology. He has great enthusiasm for applying computational strategies to generate innovation and advance society.

Yufan has participated in several interdisciplinary research projects on computer vision, computational biology, and blockchain-related topics like non-fungible token. Supervised by Prof. Peng Sun, he developed a novel GAN-based model for few-shot stylized multilingual font generation. Supervised by Prof. Huansheng Cao and Prof. Gaoyang Li, he proposed a novel Graph Neural Network (GNN) based model for predicting catalytic turnover numbers in Escherichia coli. He is now working on a blockchain-related research project supervised by Prof. Luyao Zhang and Prof. Xin Tong, on ethical issues in NFT design and marketplace. He also does not waste any chance to learn new skills, practice the newly-learning skills, and propose new ideas for exploratory research.

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