CV (last updated Oct 26, 2026)

HCI Researcher, 07/2026 – Present

Smoking Cessation Project, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Design interview protocol to evaluate chatbot design for online support groups for smoking cessation.
• Translate HCI concepts and design principles for the project PI, who is with the business school at the university.

Research Assistant, 10/2020 – Present

PITCH Lab/CBITs, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL and University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Led peer-reviewed publications and poster presentations to distribute the results of different projects.
• Served as the lead researcher to design and coordinate the development of a voice-based smart speaker application to pilot in a randomized-controlled trial.
• Prototyped a voice-based smart speaker application using Figma, Voiceflow, and Miro.
• Led 20+ remote participatory design sessions to understand the voice assistant’s role in supporting older adults’ mental health.
• Conducted 10+ and analyzed 40+ interviews for a project on understanding the mental well-being of software engineers.
• Designed digital prototypes for usability testing sessions.
• Created product requirements for developers to build an Alexa Skill for older adults and a web app for family caregivers.

HCI Researcher, 07/2023 – 08/2025

Cyrus Tang Foundation Project, Beijing Normal University and University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Worked with an interdisciplinary research team (psychology, statistics, and public health) in both the U.S. and China to assess college students’ mental health in China, maintaining communication through WeChat and regular meetings in both the U.S. and China.
• Developed research protocol, conducted and evaluated interviews with 13 college therapists in Chinese.
• Sole HCI designer and worked with a software developer to develop a functional prototype of a digital mental health application, hosted as a WeChat mini program.
• Created qualitative survey questions and helped identify usability scales to evaluate digital mental health interventions (i.e., DBT and SSIs) among 1500+ college students in China.
• Adapted and translated English digital mental health interventions to Chinese for pilot studies.

Researcher, 06/2022 – 08/2025

Asian Mental Health Collectives (AMHC)

• Collaborated with another PhD student to create a co-design protocol and facilitated 5 sessions of co-design workshops virtually on Zoom.
• Conducted and analyzed 4 focus groups to understand the Asian American mental health experience and the technologies used to manage mental health challenges.
• Developed new research ideas for AMHC, including program evaluation strategies.

Research Assistant, 10/2018 – 05/2019

Empathetic Research Lab, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• Conducted literature review for independent study on child-centered approach in behavioral interventions for children with special needs.
• Led a team of 4 to design protocol, conduct interviews, and analyze results.
• Presented in a poster session at University of Michigan’s Exposition, with over 200 attendees from the university and in the industry.

Research Assistant, 02/2015 – 06/2017

VECTR Lab, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

• Collected data from over 50 participants through go-no-go tasks, flanker test, and care sorting for lab studies on cybersecurity and human factors.
• Developed procedures for lab studies, such as card sorting and concept mapping.
• Entered, organized, and compiled quantitative data for 4 studies via Excel and SPSS.
• Conducted literature review on cybersecurity, cognitive task analysis, and situational awareness to assist with publication submission.

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Instructor, 06/2026 - 09/2026

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Taught Informatics 131 (Introduction to HCI) to 34 undergraduate students.
• Adapted existing curriculum to include in-class activities that demonstrate and encourage the appropriate use of AI at each stage of the design process.
• Designed and ran 4 Figma workshops throughout the quarter for students to learn and practice design and prototyping skills, starting with an introduction to Figma and its functionality to finishing with an exploration of Figma Make.

Instructor, 3/2025 – 06/2025

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Taught ICS 4 (Designing Computing Technologies for People) to 178 undergraduate students.
• Designed curriculum to include relevant HCI topics such as ubiquitous computing, AR/VR, accessibility, and design process.
• Managed and coordinated 3 teaching assistants (TAs) for grading, facilitating group activities during class, and answering students’ questions and requests relevant to course materials.

Teaching Assistant, 09/2021 - 12/2021

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA

• Answered project related questions over Slack for a graduate level asynchronous course.
• Mentored graduate students enrolled in a professional HCI Master’s program through office hours and scheduled meetings.

Guest Lecturer, 2/13/2024 and 2/9/2026

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

• Held a guest lecture for an undergraduate-level course, CS475-HCI, comparing my industry and academic experiences in HCI.

Graduate Student Instructor, 09/2018 – 05/2019

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• Led a team of 4 graduate student instructors to create testing materials and manage testing logistics for 300 undergraduate students.
• Taught over 75+ students on Introduction to Cognitive Psychology through 3 discussion sections for 2 semesters.

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Product Designer, 05/2019 – 08/2021

NowPow (a Unite Us company), Chicago, IL

• Sole user experience researcher and designer supporting 5 different products; designed and launched 1 new product with another nearing launch before I left.
• Lead all user research through interview, usability testing, and participatory design, ranging from 10 to 15 sessions each month.
• Implemented UXArmy, the first user research vendor the company had, to help facilitate unmoderated usability testing sessions.
• Create design system to increase hand-off efficiency and design consistency; system includes a UI kit built with Adobe XD.
• Collaborate with product managers, developers, QA, and customer success to validate designs, prioritize features, and determine products’ future directions.

UX Designer Intern, 06/2018 – 08/2018, 01/2019 – 04/2019

TechSmith Corporation, Okemos, MI

• Primary UX designer in the early stage of product cycle, defined project scope and user groups through various research methods, such as comparative analysis.
• Created designs for desktop application – implemented in the 2019 release update.
• Participated in user interviews and synthesize results to support design decisions.

Graduate Student Instructor, 09/2018 – 05/2019

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• Led a team of 4 graduate student instructors to create testing materials and manage testing logistics for 300 undergraduate students.
• Taught over 75+ students on Introduction to Cognitive Psychology through 3 discussion sections for 2 semesters.
• Created and executed learning activities based on students’ learning styles.

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• Yuna L., Informatics master's student, PITCH Lab (Ongoing)
• Christine W., Psychology undergraduate student, TEAM Lab
• Athena R. V., Informatics undergraduate student, PITCH Lab (Completed honors thesis)
• Nai-Yu C., Informatics master's student, PITCH Lab (Completed and published master's thesis)
• Jia-Yu Y., Informatics master's student, PITCH Lab (Completed and published master's thesis)
• Alumni mentor for SJSU undergraduate students: Monique T., Rio Y. M., Leilani T., Chi N., Charlene K., and Nora S.

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Reviewer Experience

• 2026: Social Sciences & Humanities Open, ICWSM, Mensch und Computer, Interactive Health, DIS, CHI
• 2025: UIST, DIS, JMIR Mental Health, CHI, CSCW, HRI
• 2024: CHI, Frontiers in Psychiatry (Digital Mental Health), International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
• 2023: CSCW

Leadership Experience

• Co-President, The Equity and Action Special Interest Group (SIG) at ISRII, 08/2024 – 08/2026
• President, Informatics Graduate Student Association (IGSA) at the University of California, Irvine, 04/2024 – 04/2025
• Communications Chair, Informatics Graduate Student Association (IGSA) at the University of California, Irvine, 03/2023 – 04/2024
• Southern California Regional Planning Committee Member, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), 08/2022 – Present
• FRC Judge Advisor, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), 08/2022 – Present
• Coach/Mentor for students aged 8 to 18, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), 08/2014 – 08/2023
• Lead Graduate Student Instructor, University of Michigan, 09/2018 – 05/2019
• President, Learning Education Technology at the School of Information (LETSI) at the University of Michigan, 09/2018 – 05/2019

Volunteer Experience

• Judge for Project Team Demos, Design at UCI, 03/2025 – Present
• Judge for Design Exposition, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 03/2024 – Present
• Member of Communications Committee, Society of Digital Mental Health (SDMH), 04/2024 – Present
• Event Volunteer (Judge, Referee, Announcer, etc.), For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), 09/2014 – Present
• Graphic Designer, Asian Mental Health Collective (AMHC), 01/2023 – 08/2025
• Research Team Member, Asian Mental Health Collective (AMHC), 06/2022 – 08/2025
• Newsletter Designer, National Alliance of Mental Illness Washtenaw County (NAMI-WC), 06/2021 – 10/2025
• Student Volunteer: DIS 2024, CHI 2024, CSCW 2023, DIS 2022

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• Dissertation Completion FellowshipUniversity of California Irvine, School of Informatics and Computer Science
• Grad Slam 2024 Semi-finalist, University of California Irvine, Graduate Division
• Mental Health for College Students Hackathon 2022 Finalists, University of California Irvine, ANTrepreneurship Center
• Chair Award 2021, University of California Irvine
• Graduation commencement speaker , University of Michigan School of Information 2019 spring commencement
• Half merit scholarship, University of Michigan School of Information
• Volunteer od the Year 2017, Western Region Robotics Forum
• President scholar 2016 and 2017, San Jose State University
• NSF Research Experiences of Undergraduate Fellowship 2016 and 2017, at San Jose State University

Language (Fluent, excluding English)

• Chinese: Mandarin/Cantonese
• Japanese: Conversational
• HTML/CSS

Application (Intermediate/Advanced)

• Figma/FigJam
• Sketch/InVision
• Voice Flow
• Microsoft Office

Application (Proficient)

• R/SPSS
• Python/SQLite

Research Method

• Affinity Diagram
• Card Sorting
• Interview/Contextual Inquiry
• Participatory Design
• Personas/Empathy Map
• Survey Design and Analysis
• Usability Testing