Finance · AI · Education
I’m Cinder Zhang. I teach finance at Purdue, study how information moves through financial markets, and build with AI.
Across my teaching and writing, I keep returning to one question: what do we come to understand as AI helps us do more?
Explore my work Read my essays01 / Teaching & learning
Materials for students learning to work with data and AI, and educators bringing that work into their classrooms.
Online materials pairing financial concepts with Python and AI.
IFinancial ManagementStart with the foundations of finance. IIFinancial ModelingTurn financial questions into working models. IIIEssentials of InvestmentStudy valuation, portfolios, and investment decisions.For educators / The DRIVER approach
AI can help students build something they could not build before. The next question is what they can explain, question, and apply to a new problem. DRIVER gives that practice a structure; the understanding has to become their own.
Read about the teaching approach02 / Research
My research spans corporate bond markets, institutional investors, and information economics, and AI in financial analysis.
2026
Austin Francis and Cinder Xinde Zhang
Finance Research Letters · Volume 103, Article 110127
A blinded comparison of AI-generated equity research and professional analyst reports. Non-expert readers perceived comparable report quality; neither set of portfolio recommendations outperformed an equal-weighted benchmark.
2020
Z. Jay Wang, Hanjiang Zhang, and Xinde Zhang
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
2020
Yongxian Tan, Xuan Tian, Xinde Zhang, and Hailong Zhao
Journal of Corporate Finance
2018
Xinde Zhang and Simiao Zhou
Journal of Banking & Finance
03 / Writing & reflection
I write in English and Chinese about teaching, understanding, and finding oneself in a world increasingly shaped by AI.
On understanding · July 2026
What remains with us after the work is done? On capability, inward reflection, and the limits of what technology can give us.
与 AI 同修On teaching · May 2026
How the DRIVER workflow makes room for both AI-assisted work and the effort of understanding.
Student work · April 2026
Students building financial applications and explaining the work in their own words. A few people I’m proud to introduce.
04 / Projects & tools
I build tools as part of learning and teaching. These public projects range from finance workflows to the everyday tools that make building easier.
AI workflows
A practical implementation of the DRIVER methodology for finance and quantitative work.
Financial analysis
Financial analysis workflows packaged as a Claude Code plugin.
Developer tools
A browser-based terminal multiplexer in Go for Windows.
A little more about me
Also published as Xinde Zhang
AI Finance Faculty | AI-Integrated Curriculum Architect
Daniels School of Business, Purdue University
I bring a background in finance, mathematics, and computer science to my work. Before Purdue, I developed the Financial Data Analytics program at the University of Arkansas. I am also Co-Founder of Driver AI.
I care about the opportunities students gain through their work, and the judgment they carry into whatever comes next.
Useful starting points