Kevin Zheng

Kevin is a researcher based in Northampton, MA and affiliated with the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at UMass Amherst, with interests in studying and building social media platforms, exploring how data shapes how we see ourselves and relate to others, and using technology to serve the public good. Working on the International Hate Observatory project since 2021, they are studying hateful content and recommender systems on YouTube by developing tools to collect and characterize large datasets of videos. At iDPI, they also manage community deployments of Smalltown, an experimental social network for local civic conversations.

Kevin received a BS in computer engineering and a BA in science, technology & society in 2022 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously, they have served as a Princeton Public Interest Technology Fellow at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, worked as an engineering educator at the Museum of Science in Boston, and developed software in a variety of industry and academic contexts.