Xinlan Emily Hu
xehu@wharton.upenn.edu · (502) 526-1982 · xinlanemilyhu.com
Education
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Ph.D., Department of Operations, Information, and Decisions Decision Processes Track Committee: Profs. Duncan J. Watts (Advisor/Chair); Abdullah Almaatouq (External Member from MIT); Katherine L. Milkman; and Dean Knox
| 2021 – 2026 |
Stanford University, Stanford, CA M.S., Symbolic Systems Computer Science + Psychology + Philosophy + Linguistics Advisors: Profs. Melissa A. Valentine and Michael S. Bernstein
| 2019 – 2021 |
Stanford University, Stanford, CA B.S.H., Computer Science, Honors Program Human-Computer Interaction Track Advisor: Prof. Michael S. Bernstein | 2016 – 2020 |
Awards and Grants
IACM Technology Innovation Award - Honors a scholar who has made innovative use of technology in research, teaching, or practice in the area of negotiation and conflict management
- Awarded in recognition of the Toolkit for Analyzing Team Communication
| 2024 |
Negotiation and Team Resources Institute Grant Recipient ($16,000) - Research Title: Harmony in Discord: A Multimodal Exploration of Conflict Expressions for Constructive Disagreements
- With Burint Bevis (Imperial College London), James Houghton (University of Pennsylvania), and Mark T. Kennedy (Imperial College London)
| 2024 |
George James Travel Award ($1,000) | 2023 |
Winkelman Fellowship, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - Awarded to one rising 3rd year PhD student annually who has shown the greatest academic job potential across all departments at Wharton
| 2023-26 |
Analytics at Wharton Grant Recipient ($20,832) - Project Title: “Roadmap to a Better Team: A Solution-Oriented Understanding of Team Processes” [Public Announcement]
| 2022 |
Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center | 2022 |
Symbolic Systems Distinguished Teaching Award, Stanford University - Recipient of inaugural award to recognize outstanding contributions by course staff to the Symbolic Systems program [Public Announcement]
| 2021 |
Dean’s Fellowship, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania | 2021 |
Robert K. Jaedicke Award, Stanford Graduate School of Business (declined) - Awarded in Recognition of Outstanding Academic Accomplishments and Potential for Contributing to Research in Business-Related Fields
| 2021 |
Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society - Top 20% of Class at Stanford School of Engineering
| 2020 |
Stanford Program on Democracy and the Internet Grant Recipient ($25,000) | 2019 |
Bing Overseas Study Program at Oxford University | 2019 |
Boothe Prize for Excellence in Writing, Stanford University - One of 6 selected out of 1400+ first-year students
| 2017 |
Coca-Cola Scholar - One of 150 students selected out of 87,000 applicants
| 2016 |
United States Presidential Scholar - One of 160 students selected out of 3 million graduating high school seniors
| 2016 |
Publications
Xinlan Emily Hu, Rebecca Hinds, Melissa A. Valentine, and Michael S. Bernstein. 2022. A “Distance Matters” Paradox: Facilitating Intra-Team Collaboration Can Harm Inter-Team Collaboration. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 6, CSCW1, Article 48 (April 2022), 36 pages. [~25% acceptance rate.] [Paper] [Inc. Article] [Video]
Xinlan Emily Hu, Mark E. Whiting, and Michael S. Bernstein. 2021. Can Online Juries Make Consistent, Repeatable Decisions?. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21), May 8–13, 2021, Yokohama, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 16 pages. [~25% acceptance rate.] [Paper] [Video] [Mini-lecture for SYMSYS 200]
Naijia Liu1, Xinlan Emily Hu1, Yasemin Savas1, Matthew A. Baum, Adam J. Berinsky, Allison J.B. Chaney, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Andrew M. Guess, Dean Knox, Christopher Lucas, Rei Mariman, and Brandon M. Stewart. “Short-term exposure to "filter-bubble" recommendation systems has limited polarization effects: Naturalistic experiments on YouTube.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 122 (8) e2318127122 (2025). [Paper][Press Release – February 2025]
1 joint first-authorship.
Papers Invited for Resubmission
Xinlan Emily Hu, Linnea Gandhi, Mark E. Whiting, Duncan J. Watts, and Abdullah Almaatouq. “The Task Space: A Multidimensional Representation of Team Tasks.” (2nd Round Revise and Resubmit at Management Science.) [Preprint]
Selected Research in Progress
Mark E. Whiting1, Xinlan Emily Hu1, Duncan J. Watts, and Abdullah Almaatouq. “Integrative Experiments Identify the Effects of Tasks on Group Performance.” (Under Review.)
Xinlan Emily Hu. “A Flexible Python-Based Toolkit for Analyzing Team Communication.” (Manuscript in prep. Winner of the IACM Technology Innovation Award.)
[Extended Abstract] [Project Website] [Press Release - August 2024]
[Penn Today Feature - The Mechanics of Collaboration]
Xinlan Emily Hu, Mohammed Alsobay, Jared R. Curhan, and Abdullah Almaatouq. “Rich Talk: How Communication Predicts Cooperative Behavior.” (Analysis in Progress.)
1 joint first-authorship.
Refereed Conference Papers and Invited Talks
AI as Explorer: Quantifying Conversations with Natural Language Processing Xinlan Emily Hu. - Program on Negotiation (PON) AI Summit (March 8 - 9, 2025)
| 2025 |
Making Robust Inferences from Text Data: LLMs and the Natural Language Processing Toolkit Xinlan Emily Hu, Sudeep Bhatia, and Michael H. Yeomans - Organizer of Special Session at SJDM 2024: The Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting (November 25, 2024)
| 2024 |
What you say or how you say it? Predicting Conflict Outcomes in Real and LLM-Generated Conversations.
Priya Ronald D’Costa, Evan Rowbotham, and Xinlan Emily Hu†.
† senior author; first two authors are student mentees. - The NeurIPS 2024 Workshop on Behavioral Machine Learning (December 14, 2024) [Paper]
| 2024 |
Recipe for Success: Quantifying the Relative Influence of Teamwork Facets on Performance.
Xinlan Emily Hu, Abdullah Almaatouq, Mark E. Whiting, and Duncan J. Watts. - Oral Presentation, ACM Collective Intelligence 2024 (June 26 - 29, 2024)
- Oral Presentation, IC2S2 2024: 10th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 17-20, 2024)
- Symposium Presentation, AOM 2024: the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (August 9-13, 2024)
- Organizer and Presenter in “Decoding Teamwork: The Computational Science of Collaboration” (CM Division)
| 2024 |
A Flexible Python-Based Toolkit for Analyzing Team Communication
Xinlan Emily Hu. - Poster Presentation, IC2S2 2024: 10th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 17-20, 2024)
- Symposium Presentation, AOM 2024: the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (August 9-13, 2024)
- Presenter in “What Are We Talking About? Natural Language Processing in Organisations” (CTO, OB, and RM Divisions)
| 2024 |
The Task Space: A Multidimensional Representation of Team Tasks
Xinlan Emily Hu, Linnea Gandhi, Mark E. Whiting, Duncan J. Watts, and Abdullah Almaatouq. - Invited Oral Presentation in the Research Lab of Professor Matthew Groh, Department of Management & Organizations, Northwestern University (August 13, 2024)
- Oral Presentation, IACM 2023: The 36th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Conflict Management (July 9-12, 2023)
- Oral Presentation, IC2S2 2023: 9th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 17-20, 2023)
- Oral Presentation, 12th Wharton-INSEAD Doctoral Consortium (November 1-3, 2023)
- Poster Presentation, SJDM 2023: The Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting (November 17-20, 2023)
| 2023-24 |
Saying the Right Thing at the Right Time: An Integrative Study of Communication Using Computational Social Science
Xinlan Emily Hu. - Poster Presentation, IC2S2 2023: 9th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 17-20, 2023)
- Oral Presentation, The 4th Annual Rising Scholars Conference (October 25-26, 2023)
| 2023 |
Making the Case for Diversity: How Diversity Narratives Influence
Team Performance
Xinlan Emily Hu, Linda W. Chang, and Katherine L. Milkman. - Oral Presentation, 11th Wharton-INSEAD Doctoral Consortium
(October 13-14, 2022) - Poster Presentation, SJDM 2022: The Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting (November 10-13, 2022)
- Symposium Presentation, AOM 2023: the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (August 4-8, 2023)
- Presenter in “Advancing Diversity and Reducing Inequality in Organizations” (OB Division)
- Rapid-Fire Talk, Diversity in Management and Organizations Conference (September 5, 2023)
| 2022-23 |
Predicting and Understanding Team Outcomes Through
Digital Trace Data
Xinlan Emily Hu, Hancheng Cao, and Mark E. Whiting. - Oral Presentation, IC2S2 2022: 8th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 19-22, 2022)
| 2022 |
A “Distance Matters” Paradox: Facilitating Intra-Team Collaboration Can Harm Inter-Team Collaboration
Xinlan Emily Hu, Rebecca Hinds, Melissa A. Valentine, and Michael S. Bernstein. - Oral Presentation, CSCW 2022: The 25th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
(Nov 8-22, 2022) - Guest Lecture for CS 278 — Social Computing, Stanford University
(May 4, 2022) - Guest Lecture for Pareto (June 22, 2021)
- Guest Lecture for MS&E 184 — Future of Work: Issues in Organizational Learning and Design, Stanford University (May 19, 2021)
- Stanford Symbolic Systems Public Forum (May 17, 2021)
| 2021-22 |
Can Online Juries Make Consistent, Repeatable Decisions?
Xinlan Emily Hu, Mark E. Whiting, and Michael S. Bernstein. - Oral Presentation, IC2S2 2021: 7th International Conference on Computational Social Science (July 27-31, 2021)
- Oral Presentation, 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (May 8-13, 2021)
| 2021 |
Disarming Loaded Words: Addressing Gender Bias in Political Reporting Irena Hwang, Dylan Grosz, Xinlan Emily Hu, Anjini Karthik, and Vivian Yang∗. * equal contribution. - Politics Panel, Computation + Journalism Symposium 2021
(February 19, 2021) [Paper]
| 2021 |
Professional Experience
Associate Product Manager Intern, Google Editors (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) and Growth - Led specification, design, and execution of a new Google Editors (Docs/Sheets/Slides) feature. Presented and approved at a directors’ review.
| Jun. – Sep. 2020 |
Program Manager Intern, Microsoft | Jul. – Sep. 2019 |
Cortana Shared User Experience Team - Led user research and developed long-term strategy for open-source UX framework, used across all Cortana endpoints.
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Explorer Intern (PM + Software Engineer), Microsoft Cortana At Home Team | Jun. – Sep. 2018 |
Teaching Experience
STAT/OIDD 7770 (Introduction to Python for Data Science) | Spring 2025 |
OIDD 1010 (Introduction to Operations, Information, and Decisions) | Fall 2023; Spring 2024 |
OIDD291, MGMT291, LGST206 (Negotiations) | Spring 2023 |
NETS 1120 (A Networked Life) - Head Teaching Assistant (led 6-member staff)
- Taught the “Teams and Organizations” Module
- Average Teaching Rating: 4.86 / 5.00
| Autumn 2022 |
SYMSYS 200 (Minds and Machines) | Autumn 2020 |
CS 278 (Social Computing) - Course Assistant and Designer of Discussion Sections
| Spring 2020; Spring 2021 |
COMM 230A,B,C / CSRE 230C (Digital Civil Society) | Autumn 2019 – Spring 2020 |
COMM 230X (Digital Civil Society +1 Series) - Teaching Assistant and Organizer of Speaker Series
| Autumn 2019 – Spring 2020 |
CS 110 (Principles of Computer Systems) | Winter 2019 |
Leadership and Service
Co-Chair, ACM Collective Intelligence Doctoral Colloquium
(June 29, 2024, Boston, MA) | 2024 |
President, Wharton Doctoral Council Executive Board Member, Wharton Doctoral Council Executive Board - Representing Wharton Doctoral Students’ interests as liaison to the Wharton Doctoral Program office.
- Managing $12,000 budget and 14-member Executive Board.
- Collaborating across departments, schools, and organizations to support diversity and inclusivity initiatives in business academia, advocate for students’ research and funding interests, and voice students’ concerns to improve the graduate student experience.
- Organizing social events to facilitate greater student interaction.
- Mentoring under-represented students applying to graduate schools as part of the PhD Project.
| 2023 – Present 2021 – Present |
Planning Committee Member, 12th Annual Wharton-INSEAD Doctoral Symposium (November 1-3, 2023, INSEAD Singapore) - Organized $60K+ budget, paper submission, programming, and logistics for a three-day interdisciplinary forum for Wharton and INSEAD PhD students to present research and foster collaboration.
| 2023 |
Director of Budget and Executive Board Member, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) at the University of Pennsylvania - Managed GAPSA’s $3M+ budget and the 6-member Budget Committee.
- Created open-source automated procedures to establish financial planning practices, ensure transparent reporting of finances, and equitably distribute resources to Penn’s 12 Graduate Schools, student groups, and advocacy programs.
| 2022 – 2023 |
Representative, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) at the University of Pennsylvania - Represented Wharton’s doctoral students in GAPSA, the official government body for graduate and professional students at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Advocated for the well-being of PhD students by writing and passing resolutions about providing dental insurance and addressing cost-of-living concerns; advocacy efforts resulted in the largest-ever increase to Penn’s PhD stipend.
| 2021 – 2022 |
President, Stanford Viennese Ball - Managed $80,000+ budget and 20-member team. Directed logistics and led marketing activities for the largest social dance event in the Stanford community, with 1000+ attendees.
| 2019 – 2020 |
Member-at-Large, American Parliamentary Debate Association - Elected national representative in the 6-member governing board of all U.S. Parliamentary debate, overseeing 62 universities.
- Led Expansion Committee, responsible for integrating and providing resources to underprivileged debate teams.
| 2018 – 2019 |
Vice President, Stanford AI Group - Led the Ethics in AI Initiative in Autumn 2019, in partnership with the Stanford Law School.
| 2018 – 2020 |
Professional Activities
Session Chair (Invited)
- “Sociality” Parallel Session at the 2024 ACM Collective Intelligence Conference
Academic Reviewer
- AOM: Academy of Management Annual Meeting
- IACM: The International Association for Conflict Management
- INGRoup: Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research
- IC2S2: International Conference for Computational Social Science
- ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- CSCW: The ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
- Years Reviewed: 2022, 2023, 2024
- Wharton-INSEAD PhD Consortium
- Years Reviewed: 2022, 2023
Professional Affiliations
Academy of Management (AOM)
International Association for Conflict Management (IACM)
Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM)
Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research (INGRoup)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Students Advised
Pradnaya Pathak - B.S. Student in Economics (Behavioral Economics and Statistics), University of Pennsylvania
| Sept. – Dec. 2024 |
Amy Zheng - B.S. Student in Computer Science and Economics, University of Pennsylvania
| Jan. – Dec. 2024 |
Shruti Agarwal - B.S.E. Student in Computer Science and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
| May 2023 – Dec. 2024 |
Priya DCosta - M.S. Student in Computer and Information Technology, University of Pennsylvania
| Sept. 2022 – Present |
Evan Rowbotham | June – July 2024 |
Helena Zhou - B.S Student in Computer Science (Legal Studies / History Minor), University of Pennsylvania
| Jan. 2024 – June 2024 |
Nikhil Kumar - B.S. Student in Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania
| Jan. 2023 – May 2024 |
Yashveer Singh Sohi - M.S.E. Student in Data Science, University of Pennsylvania
| Jan. 2023 – Present |
Yuluan Candice Cao - M.S. Student in Social Policy and Data Analytics, University of Pennsylvania
| Sept. 2022 – May 2023 |
Eric Zhong - B.S. Student in Computer Science and Psychology, Cornell University
| July – Dec. 2022 |