AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS

Innovation Award Winner 2023, Teachers College at Columbia University

Innovation award is a design thinking incubator program as a part of the Teachers College's EdTech Initiative.

After a six-week design process that included user interviews, research, prototyping, marketing video creation, and pitch delivery, our team emerged as the winning team with an AI-powered music journaling app design featuring an adorable cat assistant. This was inspired by our desire to help young people express themselves.

I am the lead researcher. The other team members are Dora Zhang, Jianan Liang, Shiyue Peng, and Yolanda Xing.

Learn more from the news here

Brooklyn Seltzer Museum Design Challenge Winner 2023

The Brooklyn Seltzer Museum is located inside one of the oldest seltzer works in New York City. After a 3-week design challenge, which included a site visit, a needs assessment, design, iteration, and pitching to the client and subject matter expert, our team was one of the two whose winning pitches were selected for a 10-week process in the design of an interactive digital simulation app for STEM learning. 

I am the lead product designer of the STEM learning app, which is installed on four tablets placed in the museum for all visitors. 

This work is advised by Dr. Yoo Kyung Chang. The other team members are Junhao Li, Yifan Chen, Shiyue Peng, Zihe Liu, Chen Yi and Stella Guan.

 Learn  more from the news here

Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship, Teachers College at Columbia University

This is a financial aid award for Teachers College students to work with disadvantaged inner-city youth in New York. As a Zankel Urban Fellow, I taught 25 fifth graders for one session every week during the 2023-24 school year on the topic of Media and Social Change. We conducted different activities in the classroom, including digital collage making, zine making, filming, video editing, and documentary filmmaking, all centered around the theme of community. 

This work is advised by Dr. Lalitha M Vasudevan and Dr. Jacqueline Simmons. My co-teacher is Pia Macedo.

Learning from When VR Did Not Work

It is easy to assume that virtual reality will naturally lead to improved learning outcomes. However,  several research studies reveal surprising or counter-intuitive findings – for example, when low-immersion media led to better learning outcomes than VR. 

I authored and presented a systematic review and discuss specific cases in which results were not as expected, published at Immersive Learning Research Network 2023. This paper was nominated for Best Full Paper of the year.  

The work is advised and co-authored by Professor Joey J. Lee.

Access the paper here

Songwriting Learning Platform for Music Novices

The abstract and symbolic nature of music theory often intimidates novices seeking self-expression through music writing. To overcome these barriers, I created “Write Your First Song,” a web-based interactive platform that enables novices to learn music theory using experiential learning and keyboard-based tasks. 

I authored and presented a design-based research paper detailing the process and findings of the project, published at the FabLearn/Constructionism Conference 2023.

This work is advised and co-authored by Professor Paulo Blikstein. 

Access the app here

Inclusive Design Framework for Media Literacy Digital Game 

Game-based learning (GBL) provides opportunities to support diverse learning goals. However, how GBL can support diverse learners -- with different cognitive, motivational, and gaming backgrounds -- remains relatively unclear. 

I contributed to a theoretical paper in which we introduce a conceptual framework to guide the design and research of inclusive GBL and present a case study in media literacy education. This paper has been submited to International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting 2023.

This work was led by Dr. Yoo Kyuang Chang and Dr. Ioana Literat, and co-authored with MASC Lab students Lisa Lei, Helen Song, and Xingyuan Meng.