AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS

Winner of the Learning Engineering Tools Competition 2024 ($50,000 Catalyst Prize) 

Winner of a multi-million dollar Edtech competition organized by OpenAI, Gates Foundation, and Schmidt Futures.

As the Lead Researcher, I co-authored the grant proposal and defined the pedagogical framework for a no-code AI teaching assistant platform.

Team: Yipu Zheng (Lead), Zhuqian Zhou, Xi Zhao.

Learn more from the news here

Winner of the Innovation Award 2023, Teachers College at Columbia University

I served as the Lead Researcher for a team that designed an AI-powered music journaling app. We emerged as winners after a 6-week incubator program involving rapid prototyping and pitch delivery.

Team: Dora Zhang, Jianan Liang, Shiyue Peng, Yolanda Xing.

Learn more from the news here

Winner of the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum Design Challenge Winner 2023

As the Project Lead, I guided my team in building an interactive STEM learning app. Our project was selected as the winner and is currently installed at the museum for public use.

Team: Junhao Li, Yifan Chen, Shiyue Peng, Zihe Liu, Chen Yi, Stella Guan.

Advisor: Dr. Yoo Kyuang Chang

 Learn  more from the news here

Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship, Teachers College at Columbia University

Selected to teach a multimedia curriculum to 25 inner-city youth. Over the school year, I led weekly workshops on video editing and storytelling, helping students produce original documentaries about their community.

Co-teacher: Pia Macedo

Advisors: Dr. Lalitha M. Vasudevan, Dr. Jacqueline Simmons.

Learning from When VR Did Not Work

Best Full Paper Nominee, Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) 2023.

I authored a systematic review challenging the assumption that VR always improves learning. The paper analyzes specific cases where low-immersion media outperformed VR, offering critical insights for effective edtech design.

Advisor: Professor Joey J. Lee.

Access the paper here

Songwriting Learning Platform for Music Novices

Published at FabLearn/Constructionism Conference 2023.

I designed and built "Write Your First Song," a web-based interactive platform that helps novices learn music theory through experiential learning. My design-based research paper details the platform's development and user outcomes. 

Advisor: Professor Paulo Blikstein.

Access the paper here

Inclusive Design Framework for a Media Literacy Digital Game 

International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting 2023.

Co-authored a theoretical paper introducing a new conceptual framework for inclusive Game-Based Learning (GBL). The work guides designers in supporting learners with diverse cognitive and motivational backgrounds.

Advisor: Dr. Yoo Kyuang Chang & Dr. Ioana Literat.

Co-authors: Lisa Lei, Helen Song, and Xingyuan Meng.