About
I am Qiuyue (Joy) Zhong, a Computer Science Ph.D. student in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, advised by Professor Ravi Karkar. My research focuses on positive computing, social computing, and AI alignment and governance.
Drawing on my cross-disciplinary background in business, law, and information systems, I bring socio-legal and organizational perspectives to the design of human-centered technologies. My research explores how these technologies can support emotional regulation, meaningful interpersonal interaction, and organizational decision-making that promotes collective well-being, with a focus on value-aligned and socially accountable AI.
Publications & Posters
AI on My Shoulder: Supporting Emotional Labor in Front-Office Roles with an LLM-based Empathetic Coworker
DYMOND: A Seamful Approach to Passive Sensing for Digital Phenotyping in Mental Health
Research Projects
AI for Workplace Communication Skills
Advisor: Ravi Karkar
- Prototyping an AI system for workplace communication that delivers personalized, context-aware feedback by modeling relationship dynamics, communication intent, and user-defined goals while preserving user agency and authenticity.
Understanding Long-Term Gratitude Practice for Positive Technology Design
Advisors: Ravi Karkar, Koustuv Saha, DongWhi Yoo, Violeta J. Rodriguez
- Led artifact-based semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis with 17 long-term gratitude participants to examine how gratitude practices evolve over time.
- Developed an engagement evolution model with five gratitude pathways, translating findings into design implications for context-aware, multimodal, and data-driven wellbeing technologies.
Knowledge Gatekeeping in Media Ecosystems
Advisors: Ravi Karkar, Ethan Zuckerman
- Led a large-scale computational analysis of media coverage and academic research dissemination, developing an LLM-driven pipeline to examine how institutional gatekeeping shapes knowledge diffusion.
Repair Rupture in Human-AI Chatbots
Advisors: Ravi Karkar, Koustuv Saha, DongWhi Yoo, Violeta J. Rodriguez
- Co-investigated rupture recognition in AI chatbots and evaluated its alignment with clinician assessments. Designed clinically informed repair mechanisms to support safe and effective human-AI collaboration in mental health contexts.
AI on My Shoulder
Advisors: Vedant Das Swain, Varun Mishra
- Designed and evaluated an LLM-based empathetic coworker system to support emotional labor in frontline workplace settings, examining how AI augmentation influences individual and workplace well-being.
Baidu Web Design and Development & “Doorstep” Online-to-Offline Business
Role: Co-Founder
- Led a cross-functional team to design and launch user-centered web interfaces that improved Baidu’s online sales performance. Developed an innovative online-to-offline platform that secured ¥1M in venture capital funding.
Industry Experience
CEL Consultant — Teachfloor
Formulated product development and market expansion strategies for educational software.
- Used Google Analytics to support product and market analysis.
- Evaluated competitors to identify product positioning and growth opportunities.
- Interviewed technology professionals to understand market needs and user expectations.
Investment Banking Intern — CITIC Securities
Supported IPO preparation, industry research, and financial/legal due diligence for an education technology company.
- Assisted in prospectus preparation and coordinated with clients, lawyers, accountants, auditors, and cross-functional teams.
- Conducted industry research using profit models, business models, client interviews, and supplier interviews.
- Supported financial audit, internal control testing, and legal due diligence to ensure accuracy, transparency, and risk mitigation.
Legal Associate — Jingsh Law Firm
Worked on litigation and capital market legal services.
- Handled civil and commercial litigation and enforcement cases.
- Conducted due diligence for listed-company projects and supported mergers and acquisitions.
- Communicated with judges, mentors, clients, and stakeholders to support favorable case outcomes.
Assistant to the Director — Beijing China International Travel Service Co., Ltd.
Supported business development, supplier negotiation, and organizational strategy implementation.
- Led supplier negotiations to support business growth and attract new clients.
- Implemented integrated online and offline strategies to improve collaboration and work efficiency.
- Helped develop a “benefit-sharing community” performance assessment mechanism and organized business conferences.
Co-Founder — Baidu Sales Department's Vendor
Led a team to create user-friendly websites for Baidu’s sales team.
- Guided designers and engineers in UI/UX design and front-end development using HTML and CSS.
- Established front-end and back-end connectivity through RESTful APIs.
- Supported Baidu’s sales operations through user-centered web design and product development.
Sales and Marketing Intern — Mobvoi
Supported sales and marketing strategies for smart hardware and e-commerce platforms.
- Contributed to Mobvoi’s sales performance in the global smart hardware market.
- Executed marketing and sales strategies for e-commerce platforms.
- Collaborated with Amazon, JD.com, and Suning on joint marketing initiatives, placements, discounts, and subsidies.
Skills
Research Methods
- Interview protocol design
- Semi-structured and artifact interviews
- Thematic analysis
- High-fidelity prototyping & user studies
- Survey Design and Crowdsourcing
LLM fine-tuning and alignment
- LoRA / PEFT fine-tuning
- DPO, TRL, SFT→DPO pipelines
- Hugging Face
Programming & Tools
- Python, Java, and SQL
- MongoDB, Git, Flask, Django, and React
- Figma and Qualtrics
Life Experience Officer
Beyond research, I collect new perspectives from mountains, oceans, and every adventure in between.
