Yan Leng

Yan Leng serves as Assistant Professor at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, with a courtesy appointment at the School of Information. She is a core member of the UT Machine Learning Lab and affiliate of the MIT Media Lab.

Education:

• Ph.D. from MIT Media Lab (2020)
• Dual Master's degrees in Computer Science and Transportation Engineering at MIT

Dr. Leng's research bridges computational social science and network science, developing interpretable deep learning methods to analyze information spread and human behavior in complex systems. Her work investigates LLMs' human-like tendencies through high-dimensional representation analysis, spanning social/business networks, human mobility, and generative AI applications. She employs AI and network analysis grounded in social science theories to decode digital-physical interaction dynamics.

Awards:

• Trammell/CBA Foundation Teaching Award for Assistant Professors (2023-2024)
• McCombs BBA Faculty Honor Roll (2021, 2023, 2024, 2025)
• National Science Foundation CRII Award (2022)

Her research programs are funded by NSF, NIH, Marketing Science Institute, UT Good Systems, Texas Global, and UT McCombs grants. While student advisement details aren't specified in source materials, her interdisciplinary work connects business analytics with social computing through sponsored projects. Dr. Leng actively contributes to the UT Machine Learning Lab's research ecosystem and maintains collaborative ties with the MIT Media Lab for cross-institutional innovation in AI ethics and network science.