I-O Psychologist & Data Scientist

I study how people work—and how work is changing.

I transform complex behavioral and organizational data into actionable insights that help organizations shape strategy, answer important questions, and solve meaningful problems.

Portrait of Tianyi Zhang
Research focusHuman-Robot/AI ResearchExperimental & Computational Methods
Dual-Degree PhDI-O Psychology + Social Data Analytics
7,000+Survey responses analyzed
1,000+Research participants supported
30+Researchers trained and managed
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About

Old-school rigor for a new era of work.

My work combines the established foundations of industrial-organizational psychology with the possibilities created by data science, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies.

I am trained in the core disciplines of I-O psychology—from employee selection, training, and psychometrics to performance measurement, team dynamics, and organizational research. My data science background helps me investigate these questions at greater depth and scale.

My human-robot/AI research brings these strengths together. As intelligent systems reshape work, I study how people communicate, coordinate, and perform alongside new technologies—and how organizations can implement them effectively and responsibly.

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Expertise

One interdisciplinary toolkit

Three lenses.
One clear purpose.

Understand the human system, interrogate the data, and design evidence that leads to better decisions.

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I-O Psychology

A rigorous foundation in selection, training, psychometrics, performance, teams, and organizational research.

People · Work · Organizations
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Data Science

Computational tools that reveal patterns at scale and turn complex evidence into clear, useful decisions.

Modeling · ML · NLP · Networks
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Human-Robot/AI Research

Research on how people communicate, coordinate, and perform alongside robots and intelligent systems.

Teaming · Trust · Performance
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Selected work

Research designed to move from questions to decisions.

A selection of projects spanning human-robot/AI research, people analytics, and computational social science.

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Human-Robot/AI Research

Teaming with intelligent systems in high-stakes work

Investigating how communication patterns shape coordination and performance in human-robot/AI teams through immersive nursing simulations.

  • Experiments
  • Team communication
  • HRI 2026
02

People Analytics

Turning workforce sentiment into executive insight

Analyzed a 7,000-entry organizational survey and translated complex patterns into dashboards and recommendations for senior leaders.

  • Survey analytics
  • Visualization
  • Strategy
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Predictive Analytics

Understanding and predicting membership retention

Combined survey research, machine-learning classification, and geospatial visualization to surface the factors associated with retention.

  • Machine learning
  • Tableau
  • Applied research
04

Computational Social Science

Studying leadership language at scale

Using natural language processing and topic modeling to examine how evaluations of leaders differ across social categories.

  • NLP
  • Topic modeling
  • Leadership

How I work

Experimental depth.
Computational reach.

I choose methods based on the question—not the other way around—and translate the result into a story decision-makers can use.

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Experimental design

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Statistical modeling

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Machine learning

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Natural language processing

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Network analysis

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Psychometrics

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Data visualization

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Qualitative research

Let's work on what's next

Complex questions deserve
more than one way of thinking.

I'm interested in research and applied opportunities at the intersection of people, data, organizations, and human-robot/AI systems.

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