Jessica H. Zhu

jeszhu [at] umd.edu

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Hi, I’m a Reliability Engineering PhD Student at the University of Maryland. I am advised by Professor Michel Cukier.

My research focuses on model transparency and measuring the social biases within language models for low resource communities. I am also interested in research on NLP for Positive Impact and AI ethics. I am currently partnering with gun violence researchers at PROGRESS through Professor Joseph Richardson, Jr..

I obtained my M.S. in Operations Research from MIT in 2019, and my B.S. in Operations Research and Chinese from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2017. I was an Active Duty Army Officer from 2017-2025.

My full CV is available upon request.

Fun Facts


I love a bit of pain with (elevation) gain: mountain biking, skiing, and trail running. But on quieter days, you can find me playing piano, reading, and gardening.

Selected Publications

  1. Nutrition facts, drug facts, and model facts: putting AI ethics into practice in gun violence research
    Jessica Zhu, Michel Cukier, and Joseph Richardson Jr
    Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2024
    DOI Website
  2. Determining a Positive Causal Relationship of Immigration on Living Standards
    Jessica Zhu and William Pulleyblank
    Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2020
    DOI
  3. Identification and detection of human trafficking using language models
    Jessica Zhu, Lin Li, and Cara Jones
    In 2019 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC), 2019
    DOI
  4. DocNet: Semantic Structure in Inductive Bias Detection Models
    Jessica Zhu, Michel Cukier, and Iain Cruickshank
    In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Web Science Conference 2025, , 2025
    DOI