Mike Zheng Yu Yao

Roles and Affiliations: Professor at the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, Director of the Institute of Communications Research, and affiliated with multiple departments including Journalism, Business Administration, Communication, and Biomedical and Translational Sciences. Also an affiliate at the Siebel Center for Design. Holds a cross-disciplinary position within the University of Illinois' College of Media.

Research Interests: Focuses on intersections of technology and human behavior, particularly in AI-driven education, digital privacy, surveillance dynamics, and human-machine communication. Explores topics like conversational agents, recommendation systems, cognitive biases in digital search, and gender representation in AI interactions. Utilizes mixed-methods approaches to understand technology's societal impacts.

Notable Activities: Delivered a public lecture titled "I on the Media" addressing pandemic-era media challenges (May 2020). Active in cross-institutional collaborations, evidenced by international research networks and frequent media engagements.

Key Contributions: Over 40 scholarly outputs including peer-reviewed articles in Journal of Media Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior, and conference proceedings. Recognized for work on AI in special needs education and privacy in surveillance contexts. Popular articles like the 2023 gender identity study received significant social media attention.