Ryan Yen

HCI Researcher / Entrepreneur / Developer
Human-AI Collaboration Systems/ Social Computing Systems
Profile Picture

I am currently a Human-AI Researcher. In the past, I was a full-stack developer, and I aspire to become an entrepreneur in the future. My present research is centered on the design of collaboration systems that facilitate human interaction with AI-driven Programming Tools. Additionally, I am focusing on Social Computing Systems that promote community building and engagement on online social medias.

I am pursuing my Thesis-based Master's in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, mentored by Dr. Jian Zhao of the WatVis Lab at UWaterloo. In the past, I was guided by Dr. Zhicong Lu from DEER Lab and Dr. Can Liu of the ERFI Lab at CityU HK. After obtaining my Master's, I would like to continue on a PhD journey, continuing my research in Human-AI Interaction & Social Computing.

Current State

I am open to collaborating on research projects and actively seeking a PhD opportunity.

  • Research Interest
    HAI/ Online Community/ Visual Analytics
  • Job Fit Research Engineer/ Backend developer/ Data Scientist/ Cloud Architecture/ Project Manager
  • Hobbies Violin/ Swimming/ Board Game
  • Skills

Latest News

Paper Accepted by CUI! 🔤2023-02-26

This work explores literature from Cognitive Science to synthesize relevant theories and findings for the HCI audience to reference. Thanks to wonderful supervisor Can Liu and co-authors, Brinda Mehra and Kejia Shen.

Paper Accepted by CHI! 📖2023-01-16

I'm coming to the CHI23 conference at Hamburg, German in 2023. I will present my work on the collaboration between human and code generation models. I will also present my work on moderating online social media and fostering the sense of community.

Paper Accepted by CSCW23! 👬2023-01-07

Wizundry is a WoZ platform that allows multiple Wizards to collaboratively operate a speech-to-text based system remotely. Our findings reveal the promises and challenges of the multi-Wizard approach and open up new research questions.

Publications

CHI 2023

Paper Image Preview

StoryChat: Designing a Narrative-Based Viewer Participation Tool for Live Streaming Chatrooms [pdf] [doi] [video]

Ryan Yen, Li Feng, Brinda Mehra, Ching Christie Pang, Siying Hu, Zhicong Lu

A narrative-based viewer participation tool that utilizes a dynamic graphical plot to reflect chatroom negativity. We discovered that StoryChat encouraged viewers to contribute prosocial comments, increased viewer engagement, and fostered viewers' sense of community.

Social Media Viewer Participation Narrative Online Community CHI23 System + Emperical Study

CUI 2023

Paper Image Preview

Gist and Verbatim: Understanding Speech to Inform New Interfaces for Verbal Text Composition [pdf] [doi] [video]

Brinda Mehra, Kejia Shen, Ryan Yen, Can Liu

Exploring speech input in HCI, we address editing challenges. Our study combines Cognitive Science with HCI, revealing memory patterns and proposing new interaction concepts for efficient speech editing.

Memory System Understanding Speech Input CUI23 Emperical Study

CSCW 2023

Paper Image Preview

Wizundry: A Cooperative Wizard of Oz Platform for Simulating Future Speech-based Interfaces with Multiple Wizards [pdf] [doi] [video]

Siying Hu, Ryan Yen, Ziwei Yu, Mingjian Zhao, Katie Seaborn, Can Liu

A real-time, web-based WoZ platform that allows multiple Wizards to collaboratively operate a speech-to-text based system remotely. Our findings reveal the promises and challenges of the multi-Wizard approach and open up new research questions.

WizardOfOz System Wizard-AI Interaction HAI CSCW23 Workflow

Working Experience (full-time)

AI Research Intern

May 2021 - Jan 2022

Huawei Research Centre

  • Lung Cancer Detection, CV, AI Explainability in pathology diagnosis
  • MindSpore Pathology Diagnosis AI Challenge organizer
  • Online AI training, testing and evaluation platform
  • Speaker of Training AI Model on Huawei Cloud ModelArts AI Platform
  • Opening Speaker of Huawei AI challenge
  • Invited guest to Huawei Cloud Summit 2021
  • Computer Vision Deep Learning Explainable AI Full-Stack Development
Applied Research Computer Vision Cancer Detection Explainable AI Full-Stack

CTO, Co-Founder

Oct 2021 - April 2021

Nérocean

We have developed a patented sensor for measuring dissolved oxygen in the ocean and used its fast and real-time nature to build AI network, which is dedicated to monitoring water quality in real time and predicting the health of the ocean within three months.

  • Ocean water sensor & Dissolved Oxygen prediction AI model
  • Deep-Learning based real-time classifier for ocean water quaity prediction
  • Funding from HK Government
  • Funding from Hong Kong Science Park
  • Funding from HKTech300, CityU
  • Startup Deep Learning Full-Stack

    Full-Stack Intern

    Sep 2020 - May 2021

    Networld Tech Ltd.

    I am part of a new team at Networld, nearD, a social networking site with a focus on privacy, multi-identity, and locality.

  • Cross-platform user interface, data visualization in nearD admin panel
  • Several Campaign Websites built with Leveral and React
  • Docker, K8s containerized and auto deployment to Google Cloud
  • Server side network and API management and scaling
  • CI/CD and two-step authorization on IP network restriction
  • Full-Stack Container Database Cloud Laravel

    Education

    Research-based Master Degree

    Jan 2023 - Present

    University of Waterloo

    David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

    • UW Grad Scholarship
    • International Masters Award Excellence Scholarship
    • Graduate Research Studentship Scholarship
    • TA Funding
    • Research Assistant in WatVis Lab

    Visting Student

    June 2021 - Aug 2021

    Stanford University

    Department of Statistics

    • HKSAR Government Reaching Out Awards Funding
    • CGPA 4.0/4.0

    Bachelor Degree

    Sep 2018 - June 2022

    City University of Hong Kong

    Department of Computer Science

    • Vice President of Computer Science Student Chapter
    • 4 years Full CityU International Student Scholarship
    • Awarded Dean's List
    • HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund
    • HK STEM Internship Scholarship
    • Department Overseas Learning Funding
    • English Proficiency Scholarship
    • Departmental Research Funding
    • Research Assistant in DEER Lab
    • Research Assistant in ERFI Lab
    • Research Assistant in MEI Lab

    Communities & Events & Volunteers

    Lead

    • Google Developers Student Club
    • CityU CS Student Chapter
    • Microsoft Learn Ambassador
    • AWS Educate Ambassador
    • IEEE Student Chapter
    • CityU IT Team

    Organizer

    • AWS Cloud AI workshop 2021
    • CityU IT Team Tech seminars
    • CityHack 2018-21
    • MindSpore AI Challenge 2021
    • CityU AWSome Day 2020-21
    • Google Cloud Summit 2021
    • Google I/O Extend 2021
    • Python Workshop Series 2019

    Volunteer

    • Stage actor - Mikado Children Theatre
    • Hospital Violinist (Taipei)
    • International Educational Volunteer (Thailand)