Hello.
I’m a third year Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University. I am advised by Prof. Bob Kraut.

My current research examines two specific types of online communities: peer production community (e.g. Wikipedia) and health support community (e.g. Cancer Survivor Network). Specifcially, I am interested in how members' experience varies depending on their tenure in the community. I examine socialization tactics that help newcomers integrate, as well as solutions to challenges faced by oldtimers.

Before coming to CMU, I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, where I was advised by Prof. Sue Fussell. Back then, I worked on multi-cultural communication with CMC tools with Ge Gao.

I contribute contents to HUPU 虎扑 China. I wrote for the Chinese "Go" magazine Weiqi World 《围棋天地》.

I love cats.

NEWS
2019.04.18
Invited talk at HCIL, University of Maryland.
2019.04.04
Submitted new work to CSCW 2019. Learned a ton from this experience.
2018.11.03
Attended CSCW 2018 at Jersey City. LOTS OF FUN!
2018.04.19
Submitted our self-dislocure paper to CSCW 2018.
2017.10.22
New piece on Shin Minjun 6P and Shin Jinseo 8p will be featured on Issue 21 of Weiqi World 2017. [pdf]
2017.09.22
Finished and passed my PhD "comm talk".
2017.07.01
I wrote about the TV series Reply 1988 on Issue 13 of Weiqi World. [pdf]
2017.05.10
Wrapped up my first year as a PhD student. Learned a ton!
2017.04.27
Two papers subumitted to CSCW 2018. Huge thanks to my advisors and collaborators.
2017.02.28
Our ICWSM submission is accepted as a poster!
2017.01.17
Landed at Pitts and started my second semester.
2017.01.13
Our paper on self-disclosure was submitted to ICWSM-17, thanks to Diyi！
2017.01.08
I have a new piece featured on Issue 3-4 of Weiqi World about Park Junghwan 9P. [pdf]
2016.12.16
Wrapped up my very first semester at CMU. Now to home and cats!
2016.09.28
Officially matched up with my advisor Bob Kraut!
2016.08.31
First day of class at CMU. First day as a PhD.
2016.08.22
Orientation started! Glad to see our cohort again :)
2016.08.05
Wrapped up my internship. Rocked the poster session! Olympic time!
2016.05.29
Started my second summer REU at CMU.
2016.05.25
Graduated from Cornell after five years! Bye-bye, Ithaca.
more...
PUBLICATIONS
  1. The Channel Matters: Self-disclosure, Reciprocity and Social Support in Online Cancer Support Groups
    Diyi Yang, Zheng Yao, Joseph Seering, and Robert E. Kraut.
    CHI 2019, Best Paper Honerable Mention. [Full Paper]
  2. Applications of Social Identity Theory to Research and Design in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
    Joseph Seering, Felicia Ng, Zheng Yao, and Geoff Kaufman.
    CSCW 2018, Best Paper Award. [Full Paper]
  3. Mentor Academy: Engaging Global Learners in the Creation of Data Science Problems for MOOCs
    Rebecca Quintana, Christopher Brooks, Cinzia Smothers, Yuanru Tan, Zheng Yao, and Chinmay Kulkarni.
    ICLS 2018. [Poster]
  4. Self-disclosure and Channel Difference in Online Health Support Groups
    Diyi Yang, Zheng Yao, and Robert E. Kraut.
    ICWSM 2017. [Poster]
  5. (Infra) structures of Volunteering
    Amy Voida, Zheng Yao, and Matthias Korn.
    CSCW 2015. [Full Paper]
  6. Two is better than one: improving multilingual collaboration by giving two machine translation outputs.
    Ge Gao, Bin Xu, David C. Hau, Amy Voida, Zheng Yao, Dan Cosley, and Susan R. Fussell.
    CSCW 2015, Best Paper Honerable Mention [Full Paper]