Alumni

BEDLab Alumni

Former faculty, doctoral students, masters alumni, research associates, and undergraduate alumni.

Former Faculty and Collaborators

Charles Zhang

Inaugural Member

Charles Zhang was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at UC Riverside from 2014 to 2023 and BEDLab's inaugural co-director. His research examined numerical judgment and inference, particularly how the precision of communicated numbers conveys meaning, as well as metaphor and embodiment.

He earned his PhD in Marketing from the University of Michigan and previously worked at Young & Rubicam and eBay.

Current Position: Research Professor at the Advanced Institute of Business, Tongji University

Doctoral Students

Hang (Henry) Shen

Inaugural Member

Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics

Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Data-Driven Marketing, IÉSEG School of Management, Paris, France

Yun (Joseph) Jie

Inaugural Member

Distinguished Research Fellow, School of Tourism Management, South China Normal University

Prior positions:

Initial Placement: Assistant Professor of Marketing, SolBridge International School of Business, Republic of Korea

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Sun Yat-Sen Business School, Guangzhou, China

Alyssa Wicker

Alyssa graduated with a PhD in Marketing. Alyssa’s research focuses on positive emotions and their influence on consumer behaviors. She is particularly interested in the effects of gratitude on tipping, forgiveness of service failures, and gullibility. Prior to coming to UCR, Alyssa examined the impact of positive emotions on income allocation, cultural differences in emotion experience, and emotion regulation choices, as well as worked to understand the boundaries of psychological inertia. She graduated with a Master in 2018 from San Francisco State University, where she wrote her thesis on psychological inertia.

Initial Placement: Marketing Specialist at GreenMatter Biotech

Ziyi Zhang

Ziyi Zhang graduated with a PhD in Management. Her research focused on the social and personal-cognitive foundations of organizational behavior, including how people's beliefs influence ethical and unethical behavior, performance, and emotions. Before joining UCR School of Business, Ziyi earned her Master's degree in Global Finance from Fordham University.

Initial Placement: Postdoctoral researcher in Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Masters Alumni

Sam Haoyang Fan

Sam Fan earned a Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Management Science. At BEDLab, he worked on interdisciplinary research connecting data science, management science, behavioral economics, and business.

Project: Using Natural-Language Processing to improve compliments in organizations

Summer Cheng Meng

Inaugural Member

Summer Cheng Meng studied Management at UC Riverside.

Ruby Romero

Xiang Shi

Xiang Shi graduated with a Masters of Analytics from Viterbi Engineering School at the University of Southern California. She has a bachelor's degree in Financial Engineering. She is interested in combining machine learning with consumer behavior, finance, and related areas.

Projects: Using NLP to improve Compliments; What predicts citations for Management papers

Next Steps: PhD Program in Economics at University of Nevada - Reno

Bill Tamayo Jr

Bill Tamayo Jr. founded Insight Strategy Lab, a research-driven consulting practice focused on integrating people, processes, and technology for mission-driven organizations. He earned a BBA in Human Resource Management, an MS in Management, and an MA in Military Studies. In BEDLab, he explored artificial intelligence, strategic foresight, and performance analytics in organizational systems.

Kathiroli Vasu

Kathiroli Vasu graduated from the University of California, Riverside with an MBA and served as a research assistant in BEDLab. Prior to joining UCR in 2024, he was an engineer developing cooling and fuel systems for Nissan Motor Co. and Norton Motorcycles. His interests lie at the intersection of human nature, behavioral economics, data analytics, and product strategy.

Next Steps: Technical Program Manager at Tesla

Undergrad Research Associates (led research projects)

Shreya Deshmukh

Shreya Deshmukh majored in economics at UCR and was interested in medicine. She joined BEDLab to learn more about behavioral economics and decision-making in healthcare, especially public health and patient adherence to treatment.

Project: Nudging gym attendance among UCR students

Next Steps: Medical school at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Matthew Dimandaal

Matthew Dimandaal majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analytics at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he explored the intersection of behavioral economics and decision-making, with a focus on how people perceive and respond to AI-driven interactions.

Project: Replicating and extending AI Hyper-realism (Miller et al. 2023)

Next Steps: Marketing Analytics Intern at Live Nation

Alyssa Fundal

Alyssa Fundal double-majored in Environmental Science and Psychology at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she researched the intersection of environmental sustainability, consumerism, and behavioral economics.

Project: Reducing food waste with social norms at UCR Residence Restaurants

Next Steps: CORO Fellowship - SoCal class of 2024-25

Milena Guidotti

Milena Guidotti majored in Business Administration at UC Riverside with a concentration in Finance and a minor in International Relations. Her BEDLab research examined the pain of paying and how different payment methods affect spending habits and emotions across age groups.

Project: Does paying with credit cards hurt more or less than cash? Pain of payment in young adults

Win Thant Tin Han

Win Thant Tin Han majored in Computer Science at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he studied how college students perceive and use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT as part of his Honors Capstone project.

Project: Exploring Perceptions of College Students Regarding Usage of Generative-AI tools (Honors Capstone)

Next Steps: Masters of Computer Science at USC

Helen Huang

Helen majored in Business Economics and was a part of the Honors Program. She completed her honors capstone research on how speeding up video advertisements changes how consumers perceive the ad. Her research was published in the UCR Undergraduate Research Journal. Helens plans to gain work experience after graduation in economics and then may pursue a master's degree.

Project: Speeding Up Ads

Publication: Helen Huang & Ye Li (2023). Less is Less: Fast Ad Delivery Undermines Impact. UCR Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume XVII, p.57-65.

UCR Undergraduate Research Symposium Talk (2023)

Karlee Labrador

Karlee Labrador joined BEDLab as a second year and graduated in Business with a concentration in Marketing. She was a member of UCR's Healthy Campus and a tutor for the University Writing Program. Her research interests include attitudes and social cognition toward sustainability. She completed a research project on UCR student sustainability attitudes and behaviors and what determines the gap between attitudes and action.

Project: Measuring the link between sustainability beliefs and behaviors at UCR

Iva Mihajlovic

Iva Mihajlovic majored in Economics at UC Riverside with minors in Finance and Mathematics. In BEDLab, she led projects on dietary habits, mindfulness, and decision-making related to health and well-being.

Projects: 1) Mindfulness and financial decision making, 2) Nudging healthy eating at Scotty's

Next Steps: PhD in Marketing at USC starting Fall 2025!

Gabriel Morada

Gabe joined BEDLab as a third year as a Honors student, where he eventually completed an honors capstone project on "Instagram Happiness." He was interested in understanding what contributed to satisfaction with using Instagram. He graduated with a concentration in Marketing.

Project Lead: What leads to greater satisfaction with Instagram usage?

Marah Salloum

Marah Salloum completed her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at UC Riverside after earning associate's degrees from Riverside City College in Psychology and Childhood/Adolescent Development. In BEDLab, she worked on her Honors Capstone project on anxiety and decision-making.

Project: Anxiety Effects on Decision Making by College Students (Honors Capstone)

Publications: Marah Salloum & Ye Li (2025). Anxiety Effects on Decision Making by College Students. UCR Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume XIX, p.101-108.

Michael Wong

Michael Wong joined BEDLab as a second-year student and completed his honors thesis on emotion, loneliness, and decision-making. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems and a minor in Applied Statistics.

Project: How loneliness impacts decision making among college students

Undergraduate Alumni

Soumya Agarwal

Soumya Agarwal graduated in Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analytics. In BEDLab, she applied data analysis to behavioral research involving AI, healthcare, decision-making, and psychology.

Radhika Aggarwal

Inaugural Member

Dhruv Ahuja

Dhruv Ahuja joined BEDLab as a Business Administration student concentrating in Finance. He was interested in data analysis, organizational design, and the intersection of human behavior and finance.

Transferred: UCSD

Reanna Alam

Reanna Alam majored in Computer Science with Business Applications. Her interest in consumer psychology led her to join BEDLab, where she contributed to research on consumer and managerial decision-making.

Devon Barnes

Devon Barnes majored in Business Management at UC Riverside. In addition to BEDLab, she worked as a Student Information Systems intern for UCR ITS and was interested in HR and organizational behavior.

Michael Beeli

Michael Beeli joined BEDLab as an Economics and Public Policy student. His research interests included behavioral economics and imperfect consumer rationality.

Transferred: Georgetown University.

Rohan Bijukumar

Rohan Bijukumar joined BEDLab as a data science student interested in applying analytical methods to business, economics, and behavioral economics.

Transferred: UC Berkeley.

Riya Borole

Riya Borole majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. In BEDLab, she explored how cognitive and emotional factors influence financial choices while gaining hands-on research experience.

William Bryant

William Bryant studied Statistics and Economics/Administrative Studies with a concentration in Production Management at UC Riverside. He was interested in data science, machine learning, and applications in finance, tech, and science.

Alberto Campos

Alberto Campos majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he strengthened his research skills and worked with data-driven approaches to business and decision-making questions.

Pa Kou Chang

Pa Kou Chang moved to Riverside from Fresno to study Psychology and Business Administration at UC Riverside, graduating in summer 2018. Her interests included psychology research on emotion and visual cognition, and she also contributed to youth tutoring, college preparation, and community volunteer work in Riverside.

Wesley Chang

Wesley Chang studied Economics and minored in Applied Statistics at UC Riverside. He was interested in data analytics and graduate study in statistics.

Next Steps: Masters of Information and Data Science at UC Berkeley

Bingru Chen

Bingru Chen studied Business at UC Riverside and joined BEDLab to learn more about decision-making. She was also interested in international business and enjoyed tennis, travel, and outdoor activities.

Transferred: Fordham to play tennis for their NCAA team.

Paulina Chiang

Paulina Chiang studied Business Administration with a concentration in Management. In BEDLab, she explored how socioeconomic background shapes consumer behavior and decision-making. After graduating in December 2020, she planned to take a gap year before graduate school.

Keerthi Chidella

Keerthi Chidella majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Management at UC Riverside. Her interests included organizational change, project management, and how organizations can make work more fulfilling.

Arini Derrick

Arini Derrick studied Business Administration with a concentration in Management. In BEDLab, she explored international political economy, psychology, decision-making, and the role of emotions in choices inside and outside organizations.

Samuel Dominguez

Inaugural Member

Lauren Foley

Lauren Foley pursued Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she explored advertising, persuasion, consumer behavior, and decision-making.

Victor Garcia

Shlok Garg

Shlok Garg studied Business Administration at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he explored the intersection of business and psychology and gained experience with behavioral research.

Nidhi Girish

Nidhi Girish majored in Business Administration at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she explored consumer behavior, socioeconomic and cultural factors, and the behavioral research side of business.

Oscar Guo

Oscar Guo majored in Business Economics at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he built technical skills in data collection and research while exploring macroeconomics, policy, and individual decision-making.

Gorang Gupta

Gorang Gupta studied Business Finance and Biology at UC Riverside. He became interested in behavioral decision-making and economics after helping with a negotiation study.

Rachelle De Guzman

Rachelle De Guzman majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analytics. Her research interests included consumer behavior and decision-making.

Jasmine Hanna

Jasmine Hanna majored in Computer Science with Business Applications at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she explored how behavioral economics and consumer psychology influence decision-making, while combining analytical and creative approaches to research.

Handy Ho

Handy Ho served as a BEDLab webmaster while majoring in Biochemistry with an emphasis on Medical Field Studies. He was also involved with the Chinese Student Association and explored consumer research, neural systems, and the psychology of human behavior.

Kaitlyn Huang

Business

Chloe Hwang

Business

Chloe Hwang studied Business Administration with a concentration in Finance through UC Riverside's University Honors Program. In BEDLab, she developed hands-on research skills while exploring global business strategy, consumer behavior, and influences on decision-making.

Prianka Iyer

Prianka Iyer majored in Business with a concentration in Information Systems. She was involved with the Chinese Student Association, Women in Business, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In BEDLab, she explored consumer behavior and its applications to marketing.

Shreya Jain

Shreya Jain joined BEDLab as a first-year economics student interested in behavioral economics and consumer psychology. She used BEDLab to build on her earlier experience with cognitive psychology research.

Transferred: UCSB

Ashika Jaiswal

Ashika Jaiswal joined BEDLab as a Pre-Business Administration student interested in business analytics, information systems, culture, and consumer choices.

Transferred: UC Santa Barbara

Anita Jamshidi

Anita Jamshidi majored in Marketing and minored in Media and Cultural Studies. She was involved with the American Marketing Association and Future Business Leaders of America and explored consumer psychology and behavioral economics.

Chuqi (Angel) Jin

Data Analyst

Chuqi (Angel) Jin majored in Statistics with a concentration in Statistical Computing and planned to minor in Accounting. In BEDLab, she explored behavioral economics, financial decision-making, and data-driven research.

Next Steps: Masters of Data Science, USC

Sungjoo Kim

Inaugural Member

Celine Korfali

Celine Korfali majored in Public Policy at UC Riverside with concentrations in Public Health Policy and Policy Processes and Institutions. In BEDLab, she examined decision-making and how well-designed policies could encourage healthier choices.

William Lam

William Lam majored in Economics at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he explored choice architecture and consumer decision-making.

Jordan (Grayson) Law

Jordan (Grayson) Law majored in Business Economics and minored in Mathematics at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he built technical skills for policy analysis and research.

Rebecca Lettes

Rebecca Lettes studied Education and Marketing at UC Riverside. She was involved with the American Marketing Association, Order of Omega, and Best Buddies, and planned to work in sales and marketing.

Andy Li

Andy Li majored in Statistics at UC Riverside. He was interested in analytics, graduate study in Business Analytics, and discovering the potential of data.

Next Steps: Masters in Data Science at University of Chicago

Muhao (Jimmy) Li

Muhao (Jimmy) Li studied Economics at UC Riverside. He was interested in economics, mathematics, human behavior, and expanding his research skills.

Transferred: UW - Madison

Linlin Liu

Linlin Liu majored in Statistics at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she learned about behavioral research topics and developed skills in data collection and data analysis.

Julian Lu

Data Analyst

Julian Lu majored in Economics at UC Riverside. His interest in behavioral economics led him to join BEDLab to gain hands-on experience with research and projects.

Next Steps: UT Austin for Masters of Business Analytics

Luis Macedo

Luis Macedo joined BEDLab as a third-year Business Administration student concentrating in Marketing. His research interests included consumer behavior, consumer decision-making, and brand persuasion.

Ashlynn Wan Kwan Mai

Ashlynn Wan Kwan Mai joined BEDLab as a first-year Biology student interested in psychology, human minds, and behavior. She was also involved with Brain Exercise Initiative, a student organization focused on cognitive exercises for people diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Transferred: Cornell

Kalyani Mantirraju

Data Analyst

Kalyani Mantirraju majored in Data Science with a minor in Mathematics. In BEDLab, she applied data analysis methods to behavioral research.

Chandrahaas Mariserla

Chandrahaas Mariserla majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems. In BEDLab, he studied consumer behavior and strengthened his data analysis skills.

Anika Mehta

Anika Mehta joined BEDLab to gain exposure to the research side of business. Outside BEDLab, she held student leadership roles in the Undergraduate Business Association and South Asian Federation.

Bidisa Mukherjee

Inaugural Member

Bidisa Mukherjee majored in Economics/Administrative Studies with a concentration in Finance and a minor in Applied Statistics. Her research interests included consumer research and behavioral economics.

Ooha Nakka

Ooha Nakka majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems and minored in Applied Statistics. In BEDLab, she applied analytical skills to consumer behavior and decision-making research.

Rainita Narender

Rainita Narender double-majored in Psychology and Economics. In BEDLab, she explored decision-making mechanisms while building on her experience in both BEDLab and the Sleep and Cognition Lab.

Sakul Nathwani

Inaugural Member

Anusha Nayak

Charlie Nguyen

Jenny Nguyen

Jenny Nguyen majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Management. In BEDLab, she explored behavioral research and its applications to decision-making in business environments.

Victor Nguyen

Victor Nguyen majored in Business Administration with a focus on Management. In BEDLab, he explored organizational behavior, behavioral science, AI, and decision-making in consumer and corporate environments.

Next Steps: Masters of Management at UCI

Fariha Patel

Fariha Patel majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems and an interest in finance. She explored how socioeconomic backgrounds affect consumer behavior and also worked as an AVID tutor for middle school students.

Harsh Patel

Harsh Patel studied Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance. In BEDLab, he explored consumer behavior and decision-making. He was also involved with Alpha Phi Omega and pursued opportunities related to finance and the stock market.

Ashwin Ramaseshan

Ashwin Ramaseshan majored in Computer Science at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he worked on research connecting statistical models, behavioral psychology, and consumer economics.

Nicholas Ramos

Nicholas Ramos studied Business with a concentration in Business Analytics. While at UCR, he also worked in the Basic Needs Department as an R'Pantry intern.

Raghav Rapaka

Raghav Rapaka joined BEDLab as an undergraduate business student interested in artificial intelligence and algorithms. In BEDLab, he explored how algorithmic and AI tools can make workplaces function more efficiently.

Joshua Schmidt

Joshua Schmidt majored in Economics with a minor in Business Administration at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, he studied factors that drive economic decisions by individuals and firms.

Melina Shafie

Marketing

Melina Shafie majored in Business with a concentration in Marketing at UC Riverside. In BEDLab, she explored consumer decision-making, beauty, branding, digital influence, identity, and self-perception.

Shayona Shah

Shayona Shah majored in Economics and Administrative Studies with a concentration in Marketing. In BEDLab, she explored connections between human behavior, economics, research, and business.

Nadine Shuhaibar

Nadine Shuhaibar majored in Business with a concentration in Information Systems. Her research interests included consumer research and behavioral studies.

Isaac Solnick

Economics

Adithi Suresh

Adithi Suresh joined BEDLab as a Pre-Business Administration student interested in finance, information systems, and data analytics. In BEDLab, she explored consumer choices and behavioral research in business.

Transferred: UC Berkeley

Amanda Sze

Inaugural Member

Amanda Sze served as BEDLab's inaugural webmaster while studying Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing at UC Riverside. She explored consumer behavior and brand awareness and served as a School of Business student ambassador and a consulting team lead for Students Consulting Non-Profit Organizations.