I'm a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher, currently an assistant professor appointed by the Department of Computer Science at City University of Hong Kong since 2022.

Short bio: I received my Ph.D. in Information Studies from University of Maryland in 2022 (advised by Dr. Eun Kyoung Choe), MS in Information Science and Technology from Penn State in 2017, and BEng in Computer Science from Southeast University in 2015, respectively. I was a UX researcher intern at Meta (People Engineering) in 2020 and Google (Android) in 2019.

In my Ph.D. thesis, I explored multimodal data input as a means of promoting rich and low-burden self-tracking across multiple health and wellbeing contexts (e.g., eating behavior, exercise, and productivity). Building on this foundation, my current work focuses on understanding human agency in using technology for self-care and building interative systems to foster cognitive growth, emotional resilience, and positive behavior changes.

Prospective students: Ph.D. admissions for Fall 2026 have closed. For future admission opportunities, please checkout the lab page.

A Glance of Active Projects

Health Behavior Promotion
How can digital tools be designed as personalized nudges that encourage positive and health behavior change?
• Healthy eating: [chi26-eating-disorders] [cui25-smarteats]
• Compulsive smartphone use: [chi24-stayfocused]
• Eco-friendly interaction: [imwut26-mobile-power-mode] AI for Thinking How can AI-driven systems be designed to proactively support, rather than undermine, the cognitive and emotional autonomy of humans?
• Productivity: [chi26-adhd-metacognition]
• Emotional support: [chi25-chatlab] [ijhcs25-prompt] Multimodal & Expressive Emotion Tracking How do humans express, record, and reflect on their emotions beyond language, and what can they leverage from technology in this process?
• Understanding emotion expression: [chi26-emoflow-drawing] [chi24-gesture]
• Therapeutic art-making: [multimodal-art]

Service

Student Research Competition (SRC) Co-Chair: ACM CHI 2025
General Co-Chair: Greater Bay Area (GBA) PreCHI 2025
Publication Co-Chair: ACM DIS 2023—2024
Student Volunteer Co-Chair: ACM DIS 2022
Associated Chair (AC) in Program Committee: ACM CHI 2023—2026 | ACM DIS 2026 | CSCW 2023 | CHI 2019 LBW
Conference Reviewer: ACM CHI 2019—2026 | IMWUT 2018—2024 | CSCW 2021—2025 | DIS 2021, 2026 | IDC 2020 | AIMA 2019
Journal Reviewer: ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare 2025 | International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) 2025 | ACM Transactions on Computing Surveys 2024 | ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 2021 | JMIR 2020—2021