Team

Lab Director

Jessie Chin
Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences (iSchool), and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

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; (b) use-inspired basic research: to model the fundamental mechanism of interactive human behavior in the complex environments; and (c) translational and intervention research: to develop both theory-grounded technologies and pragmatic intervention to augment human cognition and promote health behavior.

The overarching goals of our research programs are (a) to advance our understanding about how human minds across the lifespan interact with evolving technologies; (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
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DvYvHnUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Current Students

Doctoral Students

Tre Tomaszewski
PhD Candidate in Information Sciences
Research Interests:
Cognitive generative agents, cognitive informatics, multi-agent behavior, search as learning, information foraging, misinformation

Morgan Lundy
PhD Candidate in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Health informatics, social informatics, micro-video social media, online health communities, and disability, women’s and LGBTQIA+ health advocacy, storytelling

Kexin Quan
PhD Student in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Human-AI interaction, multi-agent and human cooperation (ideation creation), decision-making AI aids, information sampling and search, behavioral modeling, digital health

Philo (Jiaqi) Wang
PhD Student in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Educational games, cognitive generative agents, human-agent interaction

Precious Olalere
PhD Student in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Health literacy, health information seeking, health equity, social health informatics

Ziyang (Hugo) Xu
PhD Student in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Generative agents, mental state representation

Postdoctoral Researcher

Bogeum Choi
Postdoc Researcher in Information Sciences
Research interests:
Human information interaction, human-computer interaction, and health informatics, especially on how people seek and use information and how they interact with technology including generative AI in contexts to support specific tasks, daily life, and their health and wellbeing.

Master’s Researcher

Wen-Ning Chen
Master’s Student in Library and Information Sciences
Research interests:
Science communication; social and cultural impacts of language and communication technologies.

Zhifeng Wang
Master’s Student in Computer Science
Research interests:
Using computer and information technology to understand and enhance human learning; Human-Computer Interaction; Artificial Intelligence

Alumni

Advisees

  • Michelle Bak, PhD in Information Sciences (2025). First position after graduation: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany.
  • Smit Desai, PhD in Information Sciences (2024). First position after graduation: Postdoctoral Research Associate and Incoming Assistant Professor (2025) in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University. Please check Smit’s most recent work here.
  • Lixcy Vega, MS in Library and Information Sciences (2023). Joseph Rediger Librarian as Humanist Award.

Other lab student members

  • Caywin Zhuang, MD in Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Current: University of Iowa, Anesthesiology Residency.
  • Yimei Jiang, BS in Psychology (2023). Undergraduate Research Support Grant. First position after graduation: Project Coordinator, University of California Berkeley.
  • Sheny Lin, MS in Information Management (2023). First position after graduation: UX Research Intern at Michigan Medicine
  • Abhisha Tarimane, MS in Information Management (2023). First position after graduation: Deloitte.
  • Mia X. Smith, BS in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences and Informatics. First position after graduation: Graduate program in Biomedical and health Informatics at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
  • Yuwei Lai, MS in Information Management (2022). Faculty Special Award of Merit. First position after graduation: Delta Electronics.
  • Abhinav Reddy Thimma, Master in Computer Sciences. First position after graduation: Bloomberg.
  • Eileen Lopez, MS in Library and Information Sciences (2020). Information Systems & Technologies Award.
  • Vaishnavi Myadam, BS in Statistics and Computer Sciences (2020).
  • Anoosheh Ghazanfari, BS in Applied Psychology (University of Illinois at Chicago) (2019). First position after graduation: Master in Information at University of Toronto.
  • Ana S. Ongtengco, BS in Mathematics (University of Illinois at Chicago). First position after graduation: MD program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2020).