Department of Decision Analytics and Operations

Prof. SUN Zhankun (孫占坤教授)

PhD - Statistics and Operations Research (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
BE - Industrial Engineering (Tsinghua University)

Associate Professor

Contact Information

E-mail:
Address:	7-266, Lau Ming Wai Academic Building City University of Hong Kong
Phone:	+852 34428650
Fax:	+852 34420189
zhanksun@cityu.edu.hk

Research Areas

Stochastic Modeling
Optimal Control
Healthcare Operations
Battery Swapping Management

I received my bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University and my Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research from UNC Chapel Hill. My research interests are within the area of modeling, analysis, and control of stochastic systems with applications arising from healthcare operations and smart-city operations. I received the College Research Excellence Awards in 2023. Find more about my research here: https://zhanksun.github.io/

Awards

Award Title	Institution
College Research Excellence Awards	City University of Hong Kong
Best Student Paper Competition	POMS-Hong Kong International Conference
Best Service Science Student Paper Award	INFORMS Conference on Service Science
Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellowship	Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
Excellence in Teaching Award	University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Graduate Fellowship	Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute
George E. Nicholson Award	University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Research Grant

PI: "Investigation of Fast-Track Routing Decisions and Its Impact in Hospital Emergency Departments ", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council , Amount: 555,933 (2022-2024) , Yuqian Xu
co-PI: "Hong Kong RECAP: A Systematic Response Strategy for Novel Infectious Disease Pandemic", Collaborative Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council , Amount: 3,952,247 (2021-2023) , Huiyin Ouyang, Eric Park, Haipeng Shen, Dan Yang
PI: "Investigation of Patient Prioritization Behaviors in Hospital Emergency Departments ", General Research Fund - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council , Amount: 651,380 (2020-2022) , Zhankun Sun
PI: "Prediction and Optimal Control of Triage Nurse Ordering: A Data-Driven Approach to Improve Patient Flow in Hospital Emergency Departments", General Research Fund (ECS) - The Hong Kong Research Grants Council , Amount: 483,340 (2018-2020) , Zhankun Sun
PI: "Promoting Practice-Based Learning in Gateway Education Class", Teaching Start-Up Grant - City University of Hong Kong , (2017-2018) , Zhankun Sun
PI: "Predicting Triage Standing Orders in Hospital Emergency Departments", Start-Up Grant - City University of Hong Kong , Amount: 300,000 (2016-2018) , Zhankun Sun

Publications

Journal Publications and Reviews
He, Xinyu; Li, Lishuai; Mo, Yanfang; Sun, Zhankun; Qin, S. Joe / Air Corridor Planning for Urban Drone Delivery: Complexity Analysis and Comparison via Multi-Commodity Network Flow and Graph Search. January 2025; In: Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Vol. 193, pp. 103859 Hao, Shuai; Sun, Zhankun; Xu, Yuqian / Emergency Care Efficiency vs. Quality: Uncovering Hidden Consequences of Fast-Track Routing Decisions. January 2025; In: Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 75-93 Taiwo, Enayon Sunday; Zaerpour, Farzad; Menezes, Mozart B.C.; Sun, Zhankun / A complexity-based measure for emergency department crowding. 2024; In: International Journal of Operations and Production Management. Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 768-789 Li, Wenhao; Sun, Zhankun; Hong, L. Jeff / Who Is Next: Patient Prioritization under Emergency Department Blocking. May 2023; In: Operations Research. Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 821–842 Wang, Zixiang; Liu, Ran; Sun, Zhankun / Physician Scheduling for Emergency Departments Under Time-Varying Demand and Patient Return. April 2022; In: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Zaerpour, Farzad; Bivank, Marco; Ouyang, Huiyin; Sun, Zhankun / Scheduling of Physicians with Time-Varying Productivity Levels in Emergency Departments. February 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 645-667 Hu, Bin; Sun, Zhankun / Managing Self-Replicating Innovative Goods. January 2022; In: Management Science. Vol. 68, No. 1, pp. 399–419 Ouyang, Huiyin; Wang, Junyan; Sun, Zhankun; Lang, Eddy / The impact of emergency department crowding on admission decisions and patient outcomes. January 2022; In: American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Vol. 51, pp. 163-168 Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay Tanık; Ziya, Serhan / When to Triage in Service Systems with Hidden Customer Class Identities?. January 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 172-193 Zheng, Zhuang; Sun, Zhankun; Pan, Jia; Luo, Xiaowei / An integrated smart home energy management model based on a pyramid taxonomy for residential houses with photovoltaic-battery systems. September 2021; In: Applied Energy. Vol. 298 Li, Yutong; Zhu, Ruoqing; Qu, Annie; Ye, Han; Sun, Zhankun / Topic Modeling on Triage Notes With Semiorthogonal Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. 2021; In: Journal of the American Statistical Association. Vol. 116, No. 536, pp. 1609-1624 Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay T.; Ziya, Serhan / Patient Triage and Prioritization under Austere Conditions. October 2018; In: Management Science. Vol. 64, No. 10, pp. 4471–4489

Journal Publications and Reviews

He, Xinyu; Li, Lishuai; Mo, Yanfang; Sun, Zhankun; Qin, S. Joe / Air Corridor Planning for Urban Drone Delivery: Complexity Analysis and Comparison via Multi-Commodity Network Flow and Graph Search. January 2025; In: Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Vol. 193, pp. 103859
Hao, Shuai; Sun, Zhankun; Xu, Yuqian / Emergency Care Efficiency vs. Quality: Uncovering Hidden Consequences of Fast-Track Routing Decisions. January 2025; In: Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 75-93
Taiwo, Enayon Sunday; Zaerpour, Farzad; Menezes, Mozart B.C.; Sun, Zhankun / A complexity-based measure for emergency department crowding. 2024; In: International Journal of Operations and Production Management. Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 768-789
Li, Wenhao; Sun, Zhankun; Hong, L. Jeff / Who Is Next: Patient Prioritization under Emergency Department Blocking. May 2023; In: Operations Research. Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 821–842
Wang, Zixiang; Liu, Ran; Sun, Zhankun / Physician Scheduling for Emergency Departments Under Time-Varying Demand and Patient Return. April 2022; In: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
Zaerpour, Farzad; Bivank, Marco; Ouyang, Huiyin; Sun, Zhankun / Scheduling of Physicians with Time-Varying Productivity Levels in Emergency Departments. February 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 645-667
Hu, Bin; Sun, Zhankun / Managing Self-Replicating Innovative Goods. January 2022; In: Management Science. Vol. 68, No. 1, pp. 399–419
Ouyang, Huiyin; Wang, Junyan; Sun, Zhankun; Lang, Eddy / The impact of emergency department crowding on admission decisions and patient outcomes. January 2022; In: American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Vol. 51, pp. 163-168
Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay Tanık; Ziya, Serhan / When to Triage in Service Systems with Hidden Customer Class Identities?. January 2022; In: Production and Operations Management. Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 172-193
Zheng, Zhuang; Sun, Zhankun; Pan, Jia; Luo, Xiaowei / An integrated smart home energy management model based on a pyramid taxonomy for residential houses with photovoltaic-battery systems. September 2021; In: Applied Energy. Vol. 298
Li, Yutong; Zhu, Ruoqing; Qu, Annie; Ye, Han; Sun, Zhankun / Topic Modeling on Triage Notes With Semiorthogonal Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. 2021; In: Journal of the American Statistical Association. Vol. 116, No. 536, pp. 1609-1624
Sun, Zhankun; Argon, Nilay T.; Ziya, Serhan / Patient Triage and Prioritization under Austere Conditions. October 2018; In: Management Science. Vol. 64, No. 10, pp. 4471–4489