CV

Dual PhD in Intelligent Systems Engineering and Complex Network Systems Indiana University Bloomington 2020 – present · NSF-NRT Fellowship Awardee

BS in Electrical Engineering (specialization in Machine Learning and Controls) University of California, San Diego 2013 – 2017

Research Assistant — Complex Network Systems Indiana University Bloomington · PI: Yong-Yeol Ahn (co-advisor) May 2021 – present

Research Assistant — Cognitive Science Indiana University Bloomington · PI: Michael N. Jones February 2021 – present

Research Assistant — Intelligent Systems Engineering Indiana University Bloomington · PIs: Gregory Lewis (co-advisor), Katy Börner July 2020 – present

Visiting Researcher — Department of Network and Data Science Central European University · NSF AccelNet MultiNet Fellow September 2023 – December 2023 Higher-order network embeddings for understanding fMRI time series data.

Visiting Researcher — Kando Lab National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo January 2023 – May 2023 Developed and piloted a physiological system for measuring engagement during museum visits.

Project Assistant — Affective Computing Group USC Institute for Creative Technologies · PIs: Mohammad Soleymani, Stefan Scherer February 2020 – July 2020 Multimodal affective computing models for understanding psychological interviews.

Research Assistant — Department of Psychology (SNAP Lab) Stanford University · PI: Ian Gotlib; Postdoc: Tiffany Cheing Ho September 2018 – July 2019 Machine learning analysis across psychiatric data (digital phenotyping, voice, survey) for adolescent depression research.

Research Manager — Department of Neurology (DigiPsych Lab) University of Washington, Seattle · PI: Reza Hosseini Ghomi April 2018 – June 2019 Led the lab’s data science team on voice biomarkers for depression, suicidal ideation, and cognitive decline.

Undergraduate Researcher — Department of Electrical Engineering UC San Diego · PI: Kenneth Kreutz-Delgado September 2016 – June 2017

Neuroscience + AI Research Intern — Advanced Technology Group, Multimodal Experiences Lab Dolby Laboratories September 2025 - December 2025, February 2026 - May 2026 Human-computer interaction research on media engagement

Research Intern — Human Centered AI Team, Future Product Innovations Toyota Research Institute · Mentor: Pablo Paredes September 2024 – December 2024 Human-AI interaction research on enhancing design creativity using wearable pupillometry

Research Intern — Human Sensing & Interaction Team, Vital Sensing and Estimation Sony Group R&D Japan · Mentor: Ryotaro Matsukawa June 2024 – September 2024 EEG signal processing algorithms research.

Research Intern — Digital Health Team, Wearables Samsung Research America · Mentors: Md Mahbubur Rahman, Mehrab Bin Morshed January 2024 – May 2024 Non-invasive cardiac monitoring algorithms for wearable devices.

Research Intern — Digital Health Team, Wearables Samsung Research America · Mentor: Viswam Nathan May 2023 – August 2023 Stress detection algorithms via wearable earbud sensors using morphology of PPG signals.

Research Manager Neurolex Diagnostics April 2019 – January 2020 Led research and data science projects and consultations for clients including Harvard, Stanford, Biogen, and LEO I-Lab.

Intern — Mixed Signal Design Validation NVIDIA, Mixed Signal Design Team March 2018 – March 2019 Deployed an automation framework to accelerate data collection and analysis from key GPU endpoints to analyze silicon health.

Intern — Tooling NVIDIA, Mixed Signal Design Team June 2016 – September 2016

AccelNet-MultiNet Fellow, Visiting Scholar — $10,000 stipend August 2023 – December 2023

Visiting Scholar, National Institute of Informatics, Japan — ~¥600,000 stipend January 2023 – May 2023

NSF-NRT in Complex Network Systems Fellowship — $34,000 stipend per annum August 2020 – August 2022

Young Investigator Award, Sage Assembly (hosted by Sage Bionetworks) July 2019

Personalized Models of Affect and Cognition Cognitive Assistive Behavioral Technologies Lab, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligent Project, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan January 2026

Human Signal Processing National Institute of Informatics, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan June 2024

Towards Cardiac Output Estimation Using Earbud Photoplethysmography Sensor Zhang L, Rahman MM, Morshed MB, Zhu L, Zhou H, O’Bryan J, Mendes WB, Kuang J · 47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) July 2025 Presented by Li Zhu

Morphological Photoplethysmography Features Enhance Stress Detection in Earbud Sensors Zhang L, Nathan V, Rosa C, Kuang J, Mendes WB, Gao JA · 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) July 2024 Presented by Viswam Nathan

Speech Behavioral Markers Align on Symptom Factors in Psychological Distress Zhang L, Kolacz J, Rizzo AA, Scherer S, Soleymani M · Tenth International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Nara, Japan September 2022

Probing Speech Generation via Semantic Fluency Networks in Aging Populations as a Proxy of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease Zhang L, Castro N, Cohen T, Hosseini Ghomi R · NetSci-X 2020, Tokyo, Japan January 2020

Evaluating Acoustic and Linguistic Features of Detecting Depression Sub-Challenge Dataset Zhang L, Driscol J, Chen X, Hosseini Ghomi R · AVEC 2019, 9th International Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge and Workshop, ACM Multimedia October 2019

Semforager: A Pipeline for Evaluating Semantic Foraging Methods in Semantic Fluency Research Apsel M*, Zhang L*, Kumar AA, Jones MN · SCiP Satellite, Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society (Virtual) November 2022

Using “Semantic Scent” to Predict Item-Specific Clustering and Switching Patterns in Memory Search Zhang L, Jones MN · Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Toronto, Canada July 2022

Speech Behavioral Markers Align on Symptom Factors in Psychological Distress Zhang L, Soleymani M · Conference of the International Society for Research on Emotion, Los Angeles, CA July 2022

Challenges in Estimating Dementia via Verbal Fluency Networks Zhang L, Castro N, Cohen T, Hosseini Ghomi R · Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society (Virtual) November 2020

Acoustic Vocal Features in the Subtyping of Adolescent Depression Using Machine Learning Walker J*, Zhang L*, Hosseini Ghomi R, Gotlib IH, Ho TC · Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, Chicago, IL May 2019