Chih-Hao (Justin) Ku, Ph.D.

Associate Professor · Information Technology and Decision Sciences
G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas

I study how natural language processing, large language models and visual analytics can turn large volumes of text, such as reports, reviews and social media, into knowledge decision makers can act on. My work has appeared in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information & Management, Tourism Management, JASIST, Government Information Quarterly and the Journal of Business Research, among others.

I am an Associate Editor of the Journal of Computer Information Systems. I received my M.S. and Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University and taught at Cleveland State University before joining UNT in 2023. Research collaboration is welcome.

chih-hao.ku@unt.edu Google Scholar LinkedIn ResearchGate UNT Faculty Page Office BLB 323D

Selected Publications

Predicting aspect-based sentiment using deep learning and information visualization: The impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry
Chang, Y.-C., Ku, C.-H., & Nguyen, D.-D. L. (2022). Information & Management, 59(2), 103587. DOI
Online critical review classification in response strategy and service provider rating: Algorithms from heuristic processing, sentiment analysis to deep learning
Zhu, J. J., Chang, Y.-C., Ku, C.-H., Li, S. Y., & Chen, C.-J. (2021). Journal of Business Research, 129, 860–877. DOI
Using deep learning and visual analytics to explore hotel reviews and responses
Chang, Y.-C., Ku, C.-H., & Chen, C.-H. (2020). Tourism Management, 80, 104129. DOI
A crime reports analysis system to identify related crimes
Ku, C.-H., et al. (2011). Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. DOI

All publications on Google Scholar →

Research

Text analytics and visual analytics for decision support, applied to public safety, hospitality and tourism, and online platforms.

Current work

Large language models
Generative AI and human oversight
AI governance and policy
Content moderation on digital platforms
Trust and transparency in AI-assisted decisions

Selected projects

Crime report analysisEntity extraction, document similarity and visualization to help analysts link related crimes.

Online reviews and response strategyDeep learning and linguistic features to identify the critical reviews firms should answer first.

Deep learning and tourismVisual analytics and convolutional neural networks on 113,685 TripAdvisor reviews and managerial responses.

COVID-19 and the airline industryAspect-based sentiment analysis with BERT on airline reviews before and during the pandemic.

Social media analyticsSentiment analysis, aspect extraction and deep learning on user-generated content in hospitality.

Crowdsourcing analysisTopic modeling and sentiment analysis of crowdsourcing tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk and of executives' social media.

Teaching

University of North Texas

BCIS 3610Basic Information SystemsChapter Labs
BCIS 5910Agentic AI App DevelopmentCourse site
DSCI 5360Data Visualization for AnalyticsCourse site

Previously taught

Cleveland State University · Data Mining · Advanced Systems Analysis & Design · Systems Analysis & Design · IT for Competitive Advantage

Lawrence Technological University · Visual Analytics (archive) · Database Modeling & Administration · MIS · Systems Analysis & Design · IT Capstone · Database I and II · Web Design

Middle Georgia State University · Web Development · Database Principles · Introduction to Java · Web App Development · E-Commerce

Students & Mentoring

Current

Safari, Ali · Doctoral student, Research Assistant (2024–)

Singh, Dushyant Pratap · Instructional Assistant (2026–)

Dissertation & thesis committees

Padma, Susarla · DBA, UNT · Member (2025–2026)

Hamed Javidi · Ph.D., Computer Science, Cleveland State · Member (2021–2023)

Dylan S. Zsigray · Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Cleveland State · Chair (2021)

Former research & teaching assistants

Pulugurta, Sarvamangala Sahithi · UNT, Summer 2026

Feleke, Etsub · UNT, 2025–2026

Kadiyala, Bhavana · UNT, 2024–2025

Polagoni, Anudeep Kumar · UNT, 2023–2024

Jahnavi Chetankumar Trivedi · Cleveland State, 2022–2023

Dnyanesh Vinay Nerkar, Jayant Mandhare · Cleveland State, 2020–2021

Rahul Jakkam, Mohammed Hussain, Jinkai Xu · Lawrence Tech, 2014–2018