People

Co-directors

Co-director

Xinning Gui

Human-centered AI and health informatics, health data privacy, and youth wellbeing.

Personal website

Co-director

Yubo Kou

Digital play, online communities, moderation, and platform governance.

Personal website

Ph.D. students

Ph.D. candidate · joined 2022

Rie Helene (Lindy) Hernandez

RESEARCH FOCUS

Gig workers’ self-tracking practices and how to design for them.

Personal website

Ph.D. candidate · joined 2022

Qiurong Song

RESEARCH FOCUS

Privacy and security risks of everyday technologies for at-risk users, such as people using period and fertility tracking apps, children, and content creators.

Personal website

Ph.D. candidate · joined 2022

Zinan (Zina) Zhang

RESEARCH FOCUS

How design decisions in games and platforms create safety risks for players, especially children, and co-designing safer play spaces with them.

Personal website

Ph.D. candidate · joined 2024

Yunhan Liu

RESEARCH FOCUS

Gambling and simulated gambling risks in young people’s digital environments.

Personal website

Ph.D. student · joined 2024

Elena Koung

RESEARCH FOCUS

Online communities and digital safety, with recent work on players’ experiences in competitive gaming.

Personal website

Ph.D. student · joined 2025

Kexin Chen

RESEARCH FOCUS

How families navigate online safety and platform governance together, from moderation decisions and incidents to emerging technologies such as AI agents.

Alumni

  • Yue You

    Ph.D. 2024

  • Renkai Ma

    Ph.D. 2024

    Assistant Professor, School of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati

  • Yiting Lin

    Former College of IST Master's student

  • Kon Woo Kim

    Former College of IST Master's student

  • John Zhuang

    Former College of IST IUG student

  • Andrew Woan

    Former College of IST IUG student