About me
I study how health care-seeking unfolds across digital media and everyday life, with particular attention to the societal and ethical dimensions of multimodal and AI-mediated communication, including emerging disparities and risks associated with video-based social media and AI companions. I further inform and design care-oriented AI systems that facilitate emotional expression and peer support. My previous work made three major contributions to Information Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science, and Health Behavior:
- Revealing disparities of sensitive disclosure on video-based social media, through LLM-assisted computational analysis of videos informed by self-presentation theory and semiotics.
- Identifying care encounters as moments of change in real-world mental health help-seeking, through in-depth interviews with marginalized young adults.
- Informing human-centered AI for mental well-being and emotional support, by developing ethical design guidelines for emotion AI systems that preserve human connections and strengthen peer support.
My work has been published across top computing (ACM CSCW, ACM CHI, IEEE HRI), information science (JASIS&T, ASIS&T, L&ISR, ACM CHIIR), and health venues (JMIR, IEEE ICHI). I have received 4 research awards, including two Best Paper Awards from ASIS&T and two Honorable Mentions from the iConference and IEEE International Conference on Health Informatics. I have also received dissertation funding from the UT Austin Graduate School ($52,000) and the Berkeley Center for New Media ($2,500).
Some of my ongoing and future projects will explore the critical literacy of human–AI intimacy, unpack disparities in algorithm-mediated multimodal communication on short video platforms through large language models, and advance responsible AI to support the mental well-being of vulnerable communities. ✨ I’m always passionate about connecting and collaborating with like-minded researchers! Let’s stay connected — find me on socials or drop me an email!
I am lucky to be advised by Dr. Yan Zhang, who always supports my research and personal growth. I am also a research associate at the Computational Affective and Social Cognition Lab at UT Austin, led by Prof. Desmond C. Ong (Psychology) and Prof. Jessy Li (CS). Before my doctoral study, I graduated from Peking University in 2021 with two B.S. degrees in Information Management and Economics.
Recent Updates
- 🖌️ CSCW 2025 — attended the Doctoral Consortium, presented two papers, and met so many wonderful people! Nov, 2025
- 🤝 Co-organized Workshop — “Design as Hope: Reframing Complex Societal Challenges Through Collaborative Reflection” at CSCW 2025. Nov, 2025
- 🏫 Attend the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS) — Stanford University, Aug 4–15, 2025
- 🎓 Attend Oxford Internet Institute–UC Berkeley Doctoral Program — Full scholarship ($2500), Jul 25, 2025
- 📄 Full paper accepted by ASIS&T 2025 — “Video‑Mediated Emotion Disclosure: A Study of Mental Health Vlogging by People with Schizophrenia on YouTube”, Jun 25, 2025
- 🛠️ Attend the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST) — Syracuse University, May 28–Jun 1, 2025
- 📄 Full paper accepted by CSCW25 — “From Regulation to Support: Centering Humans in Technology-Mediated Emotion Intervention in Care Contexts”, Jun 25, 2025
- 🤖 CHI25 LBW Accepted — Experimented with LLMs’ visual concept understanding with social media videos on depression, Feb 25, 2025
- 📄 New CSCW 25 Preprint — “When I lost it, they dragged me out”: How Sociotechnical Ecosystem of Resources Empower Marginalized Young Adults’ Mental Health Care-Seeking, Feb 25, 2025
- 🏆 Best Paper Awards from ASIS&T SIG-USE & SIG-HLTH — Young Adults’ Mental Health Help-Seeking Journey, Oct 24, 2024
- 🖌️ CSCW 24 Poster — “Using Large Language Models to Assist Video Content Analysis: An Exploratory Study of Short Videos on Depression”, Jul 24, 2024 (on arXiv)