Lab Director
Jessie Chin
Assistant Professor, School of Information Sciences (iSchool)
I am a translational cognitive scientist with multidisciplinary research training in cognitive science, human factors, human-computer interaction and health informatics. These experiences enrich my research spectrum to approach research questions systematically by conducting (a) applied research: to understand the human behavior in the context (e.g., user study, cohort study); (b) use-inspired basic research: to model the fundamental mechanism of interactive human behavior in the complex environments (e.g., experimentation, predictive modeling); and (c) translational and intervention research: to develop both theory-grounded and pragmatic intervention and to validate its feasibility, acceptability, efficacy and effectiveness on human behavior and health (e.g., randomized controlled trial study).
The overarching goals of our research programs are (a) to advance our understandings about how human minds across the lifespan adapt to the complex information environments through information search and uptake; (b) to translate the findings in (a) to design information technologies that support complex cognitive activities (such as learning and decision-making); and (c) to apply the findings in (b) to develop sociotechnical solutions for health promotion and addressing health disparities.
Email: chin5@illinois.edu
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jessie_Chin
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DvYvHnUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Current Students
Graduate Students
Smit A. Desai
PhD Student in Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Current Projects:
- Designing instructional conversational agents for older adults
- AI-assisted agents in informal/self-regulated learning
- Examine the dynamics between enrichment seeking and cognitive/socioemotional well-being among the adults in their midlife and older ages
- Applying infodemiology on HPV vaccine related topics
PhD Student in Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Current Projects:
- Combing learning theories and machine-learning to design interactive learning interfaces
- Identifying False HPV-Vaccine Information and Modeling Its Impact on Risk Perceptions
- Search for learning: Building intelligent learning agent
PhD Student in Informatics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Current Projects:
- Exploring the Design of Sociotechnical Solutions for the People with Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms
PhD Student in Information Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research interests:
Health misinformation, digital mental health, precision medicine
Current Projects:
- Identifying False HPV-Vaccine Information and Modeling Its Impact on Risk Perceptions
- Building a generalized model of misinformation growth in social media
- Bridging digital phenotype and behavioral promotion models to address evolving needs across the cancer continuum
- Developing a motivational-interview agent to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake
- Development of a Chatbot for Delivering Long-Term Motivational Interviewing for Improving Exercise Adherence in Hemodialysis Patients
- Evidence identifying and foraging in domain-specific decision-making (medical and judgment systems)
PhD Student in Information Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Research interests:
Health informatics, social informatics, micro-video social media, online health communities, and disability, women’s and LGBTQIA+ health advocacy
Current Projects:
- AI-assisted agents in informal/self-regulated learning
- Examining Tik Tok health misinformation and coping behavior for patients with invisible chronic illness
MD Student in Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Current Projects:
Undergraduate Students

Mia X. Smith
- Developing a motivational-interview agent to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake
- Promoting Physical Activity with Conversational Agents for Sedentary Older Adults
Alumni
Graduate Students
Personal Website: https://suwenyu.github.io
Current Position: Software Engineer, Amazon
Eileen M. Lopez
MS, Library and Information Science, 2020
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Shashi Roshan
MS Student in Statistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Undergraduate Students
Sizhi Tan
BS Program in Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Current Position: Master Student of Information, University of Toronto (Fall 2019)

University of Illinois at Chicago
Current Position: Doctoral Program of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago (Fall 2020)
Current Position: Doctoral Program of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University (Fall 2020)
University of Illinois at Chicago