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Purdue Mitch Daniels School of Business logo
Zhiwei Zhu

Zhiwei Zhu, Ph.D.

Clinical Associate Professor
Daniels School of Business, Purdue University

Academic Focus

Dr. Zhu’s work centers on decision-oriented analytics, forecasting design, and the impact of generative AI on business education and organizational intelligence. His scholarship bridges theoretical foundations of data science with applied executive experience.

Teaching & Curriculum Leadership

  • Core faculty in BS and MS Business Analytics programs
  • Departmental and curriculum coordination
  • Experiential Education course development mentorship
  • Integration of AI into analytics curriculum
  • Textbook development (graduate and undergraduate)

Courses taught:

  • QM 672 Advanced Business & Generative Intelligence
  • QM 473 Business Data Mining
  • QM 174 AI and Decision Analytics
  • MGMT 690 Data Analytics for Accounting
  • MGMT 590 Practicum Projects
  • MGMT 405 Statistical Quality Control
  • MGMT 305 Business Statistics

Sample Professional Engagement

  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar (Europe, 2024)
  • Invited seminars at a dozen of European business schools
  • IEEE Conference on AI (Committee Member)
  • Joint Statistical Meetings (Session chair or presenter)

Scholarship & Intellectual Contributions

Recent Thought Leadership:

  • “Forecast by Design: Decision Oriented Time Series Analytics in the Age of AI,” Kendall Hunt, 2026
  • “Rethinking Data Science Singularity,” Harvard Data Science Review (2024)
  • “Generative AI’s Enduring Significance in Data and Analytics,” INFORMS (2024)
  • “Data Science: Connecting the Past and Pioneering the Future of Analytics,” INFORMS Analytics Conference (2024)

Earlier peer-reviewed contributions:

  • North American Actuarial Journal
  • Journal of Stochastic Processes
  • Journal of Rural Health
  • American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Research Themes:

  • AI and epistemology of data science
  • Decision system design
  • Risk modeling and survival analysis
  • Structured vs generative analytics
  • Corporate data and analytics strategies

Industry Experience (Integrated Impact)

Former SVP and VP leading enterprise analytics units at global leading insurance companies Swiss Re, SCOR, and Assurant, bringing practical insight into analytics governance and risk systems.

Education

Ph.D., Statistics – Michigan State University

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