After earning a Ph.D. in Operations, Information and Decisions from the University of Pennsylvania, Jing Peng began his work at UConn six months ago. Peng is an Assistant Professor in the School of Business Operations and Information Management (OPIM) Department. He currently teaches students at the graduate level in Data Mining and Business Intelligence (OPIM 5671).

When he is not teaching, Peng is working on research. Peng’s current research focuses on business analytics in relation to social media marketing, recommender systems and data mining. His goal is to provide actionable insights regarding who to target on social media and e-commerce platforms and how to effectively reach these target people. His goal in his research is to provide actionable insights to managers in order for them to use social media and digital platforms more effectively, he said.

With the flexible hours of academia, Peng is able to teach, while conducting his research at the same time. This is one of the many reasons that he likes working as a professor, he said. His favorite part about his career as a whole is that he is able to align his work focus with his personal interests in the information technology field.

The best part about the field for Peng is the wide range of interesting topics and the sustainability of a career in the field, he said.

“It’s a growing field covering a wide range of topics. It’s easy for anyone to find a topic he or she is interested in,” Peng said.

Peng advises students to enter the information technology field because it encompasses a wide range of topics that are extremely fascinating to learn about. He said the skills obtained with a degree in the field are some of the most sought after in the business world today.

In the future, Peng hopes to have his research papers published in premier journals, as well as receive tenure from the university as a professor. Outside of his professional career, Peng said he enjoys photography, basketball and swimming.

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