Accounting · Econometrics · Machine Learning

Ji Hoon Park

M.S. Student in Management Engineering, UNIST

My research interests include auditing, financial reporting and corporate disclosure, corporate governance, political economy, empirical capital markets, econometrics and causal inference, and machine learning in accounting.

jihoon426@unist.ac.kr Ulsan, Republic of Korea
Ji Hoon Park standing at a podium during a visit in Washington, D.C.

Research profile

I am a Master's student at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) with a background in Data Science and Mathematics. My work uses econometrics, time-series analysis, and machine learning in economics and accounting.

I aim to combine rigorous quantitative methods with real-world institutional settings.

Research

Solo-authored working paper · SSRN 7105059 2026

Designing Alliance Contracts under Uncertainty: Indexation, Renegotiation Risk, and the U.S.-ROK Special Measures Agreement

Studies the U.S.-ROK defense cost-sharing agreement as an incomplete contract, combining institutional analysis with contribution and inflation data to examine indexation, renegotiation risk, and contractual adaptation.

Political EconomyIncomplete ContractsInstitutional Analysis

Selected projects & outputs

2025

FOMC Sentiment Index Using FinBERT

Built a time-series sentiment index from Federal Reserve statements and minutes using FinBERT, including data preprocessing, sentence-level sentiment scoring, exploratory macroeconomic analysis, a real-time dashboard, and lag analysis.

Project repository →

2025

Identification of Age-Related Genes in Skeletal Muscle Using Ensemble Machine Learning

Zenodo publication using GTEx transcriptomic data and XGBoost-based ensemble methods to study gene-expression patterns associated with skeletal-muscle aging.

View publication →

2025

Creating a User-friendly Shiny App for Reproducible Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Studies

Invited presentation at the SDSU Data Science Symposium with Frederick Joseph Boehm.

Research experience

Sep. 2025 – Present

Graduate Research Assistant

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

Conduct data collection, preprocessing, and statistical analysis for research in economics and management science; apply econometric and machine-learning methods to large-scale datasets; prepare reports, visualizations, literature reviews, and reproducible empirical analyses.

Sep. 2024 – Mar. 2025

Rising Scholar

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Applied graph neural networks and protein language models to protein-structure and gene-expression data, managed biological datasets, and supported computational bioinformatics pipelines.

Oct. 2022 – Jan. 2024

Bioinformatics Research Assistant

South Dakota State University

Contributed to iDEP and computational-biology research involving RNA-Seq data, preprocessing, statistical analysis, visualization, and reproducible workflows.

Teaching

2026 – Present

Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Data Science Project

UNIST

Mentor undergraduate students in a FinBERT-based FOMC sentiment project involving NLP, data processing, macroeconomic analysis, and dashboard development.

Jun. 2024 – Aug. 2024

Teaching Assistant, Medlytics Program

MIT Beaver Works

Taught Python, statistics, and machine-learning applications in healthcare and supported hands-on student data-science projects.

Leadership

Apr. 2026 – Present

President, U-SPECK

Korea-U.S. Alliance Foundation (KUSAF)

Lead research and policy activities on the ROK-U.S. alliance, political economy, economic security, and institutional design.

May 2024 – Apr. 2025

President, Data Science Club

South Dakota State University

Led workshops, invited academic and industry speakers, and organized collaborative quantitative projects.

May 2023 – May 2024

President, Korean Student Association

South Dakota State University

Education

Expected Aug. 2027

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

M.S. in Management Engineering · Ulsan, Republic of Korea

Full Government Scholarship Recipient

May 2025

South Dakota State University

B.S. in Data Science · Minor in Mathematics · Brookings, SD, USA

Honors & awards

  • Full Government Scholarship RecipientUNIST
  • Second Prize, AI Challengers ProgramUNIST · 2025
  • Breakout Room Hero AwardMIT Medlytics · 2024

Certifications

  • Industrial Optimization: Models & Linear Programming Northeastern University · Aug. 2025 Credential →
  • Microeconomics Principles Specialization University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Aug. 2025 Credential →

Technical skills

Programming & data

Python, R, SQL, MATLAB, LaTeX; Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, XGBoost, R/Shiny, FinBERT.

Methods

Panel-data econometrics, fixed effects, time-series analysis, machine learning, deep learning, NLP, robustness and sensitivity analysis, reproducible workflows.

Languages

Korean (native); English (fluent).

Professional background

Mar. 2020 – Dec. 2021

Data Analyst

Republic of Korea Navy Headquarters / Naval Force Analysis Test Evaluation Group

Analyzed logistics and operational data to support decision-making and resource allocation.

Dec. 2021 – Jan. 2022

Data Analyst & Secretary

The Blessed Moon

Supported data-driven marketing and business analysis while providing administrative support.

Research inquiries and academic correspondence