Instructors – Macroeconomics Fall 2020 Course Site

The Team

Economics is a group endeavor

Luyao (Sunshine) Zhang is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Economics at Duke Kunshan University. She has an abiding passion for interdisciplinary collaborations, especially related to Behavioral Science (Game Theory and Mechanism Design), Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning), Fintech (Cryptocurrency and Blockchain), and Interdisciplinary Big Data. She is interested in seeking creative solutions to challenging problems and transferring in-depth insights into practical impacts. She holds blockchain strategy certificate at Oxford University and more than 20 data science certificates at IBM, Microsoft, Edx, Datacamp, Nvidia and Huawei Cloud, HarvardX, Alberta Artificial Intelligence Association, etc. She is a part-time consultant at PreScouter, working with industry pioneers on big-data paradigm shifts and digital transformations. She has completed more than 60 projects for stakeholders in the Fintech and AI landscape and is currently sponsored for Project Management Institute Membership and Certification. She has taught courses in economics and data science for students with diverse backgrounds in U.S., Europe, and China, proposing an initiative of Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy. She has won several teaching prizes for innovation in project-based education.

Tianyu Wu is currently a sophomore student who would like to major in Applied Mathematics at Duke Kunshan University. He is also interested in finance, blockchain, and would like to apply machine learning techniques to these areas. In the past summer break, he achieved some experiences in finance-related work by combining programming skills, thanks to an intern position related to digital finance. This year he intends to seek more opportunities in research work, concerning financial-oriented projects which are strongly correlated with math tools. In addition, he has paid a lot of attention to public education, therefore he participated in a meaningful summer program in order to devote himself to helping students who are studying in remote areas. He is actually an outgoing and open-minded person, willing to get out of his comfort zone. Besides, He is also devoted to student work at DKU. In the freshman year, he was devoted to Student Ambassador Committee, which was supervised by CEM, which helped attract more potential students joining in our community.

Yinhong Zhao (William) is a sophomore double majoring in economics and math at Duke University. He is currently a visiting student at Duke Kunshan University. William had affluent experience in data-related research. He joined in Duke Data+ project remotely this summer, when he studied the predatory lending practices in American mortgage market by analyzing data and generating visualizations. Last spring, he worked as a research assistant in Fuqua School of Business, helping with computer program development and market research. He was awarded Dean’s List of Distinction and First-year Julia Dales Prize for his academic achievement. William intends to pursue a Ph.D. in economics after his graduation. Beyond academics, he is member of Duke Debate Society and treasurer of Effective Altruism: Duke. In daily life, 70% of his joy sources from delicious food, 20% from jogging, and 10% from video gaming. Skills: R, LaTeX, Tableau, Stata, Python

Weiran Li is a sophomore at Duke Kunshan University and is a scholarship winner of the Kunshan municipal government. Under the liberal arts education system, she chose Global Cultural Studies as her field of exploration. She has an abiding passion for literature, especially in creative writing, feature writing, and journalism. She had won first prizes in national composition competitions during her high school and is always keen to find and create new literary research methods and writing. She is the student editor of Duke Kunshan University Student Media Center and the intern host of Jinan TV Station. Right now, she is operating her own media account. In the future, she wants to spread Chinese culture worldwide through her media skills and a deeper understanding of Chinese literature.

Skills: PS, Pr, Elementary Japanese

Maisie is from Wuhan. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Wuhan University, where she first heard of DKU. While she was a summer intern for Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at DKU in 2017, she prepared curriculum plans and faculty biographies for the upcoming undergraduate degree program. After she graduated with a Master’s degree in Finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she returned to DKU as an Academic Success Tutor in September 2018, learning and growing together with her students. Outside of work, Maisie loves dessert and anime, and often takes part in various student activities at DKU.

The Team

Instructor: Luyao Zhang|Ph.D

Tianyu Wu

William Zhao

Weiran Li

Yunqiu (Maisie) Zhang