Zachary Samson Pangan

Staff Members

Zachary Samson Pangan

Assistant Professor
Department of Advanced Human Sciences

Research Specialization	Information Science; Computational Social Science; Research Data Management
Individual Research Projects	LLM-based simulation and recommendation in sociotechnical systems; uncertainty- and provenance-aware integration and governance of heterogeneous humanities research data.

research map

https://researchmap.jp/zacharypangan

Academic Qualifications

2026–present	Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, National Museum of Ethnology
2026	Doctor of Engineering (Ph.D.), Nara Institute of Science and Technology
2021	M.S. in Computer Science, Ateneo de Manila University
2019	B.S. in Management Information Systems, Ateneo de Manila University

Research Specialization

My research examines large language models as components of sociotechnical information systems, with a focus on computational social science, agent-based simulation, social network analysis, graph recommendation, and natural language processing. I study how language generation, user actions, temporal networks, recommendation, and information diffusion can be modeled and evaluated together. In parallel, I work on research data management for heterogeneous humanities and linguistic resources, including provenance, spatiotemporal metadata, uncertainty-aware semantic integration, AI-use traceability, validation workflows, and reusable data infrastructure.

Research Keywords

Large Language Models (LLMs); Computational Social Science; Agent-Based Modeling; Social Network Analysis; Recommender Systems; Natural Language Processing; Research Data Management; Spatiotemporal Data; Knowledge Graphs; Data Provenance

Current Research Topics

Trustworthy language-grounded social-media simulation under uncertain feed exposure
LLM-enhanced graph recommendation balancing semantic and topological information
Research data management and uncertainty-aware semantic integration for spatiotemporal linguistics and heterogeneous humanities data

Selected Publications

2025	Pangan, Z. S., Peng, S., Wakamiya, S., & Aramaki, E. “Toward Diversified Graph Recommendation via Semantic and Topology Augmentation With LLMs.” IEEE Access, 13, 205957–205977. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3637140
2024	Teng, T. R. Y., de Lara-Tuprio, E. P., Estuar, M. R. J. E., Pulmano, C. E., Ong, L. C. S., Pangan, Z. S., et al. “Enhancing mathematical models for COVID-19 pandemic response: A Philippine study.” Alexandria Engineering Journal, 109, 914–924. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2024.08.055
2023	Pangan, Z., Aramaki, E., Wakamiya, S., Liew, K., Yada, S., & She, W. J. “100-Bot Convo: Social Media Simulation Using a Pre-Trained Language Model-Based Agent Network.” 9th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2).
2022	Estuar, M. R. J. E., Abao, R., Aureus, J., Pangan, Z., Tamayo, L. P., de Lara-Tuprio, E., et al. “Development of an Explicit Agent-Based Simulation Toolkit for Opening of Schools: An Implementation of COMOKIT for Universities in the Philippines.” Social Computing and Social Media: Applications in Education and Commerce, 48–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05064-0_4
2021	Pangan, Z. S., & Estuar, M. R. J. E. “FASSSTrace: Embedding Micro and Macro Social Network Analysis in Modeling Contact Tracing during the Early Stages of the Pandemic.” ICMHI 2021, 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472813.3472822
2021	Estuar, M. R. J. E., Victorino, J. N. C., Pulmano, C. E., Pangan, Z., et al. “wapr.tugon.ph: A Secure Helpline for Detecting Psychosocial Aid from Reports of Unlawful Killings in the Philippines.” Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80387-2_23