Research
Research Interest
I work with Dr. Bernard J. (Jim) Jansen, Associate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. I have broad research interest including search, social media, human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-mediated communication (CMC), cognitive psychology, e-commerce, marketing, transaction log analysis, and experiment design. My specific interest is on human information behavior and especially on applying relevant theories from multiple disciplines to gain a better understanding of users, advance the theoretical framework, and have practical impact. I focus on both the theoretical and empirical aspects of how people gain access to information. I have been involved in a number of different types of user studies, ranging from qualitative studies to quantitative studies, surveys to interviews, lab studies to transaction log analysis. These studies provide me with rich experiences and a solid research background.
Research Skills
- Familiar with information theories, models, paradigms, and human-computer interaction theories
- Rich project experiences, ranging from qualitative studies to quantitative studies, surveys to interviews, lab studies to transaction log analysis
- Solid research and analytical skills: relational databases (ER diagram, database building, normalization and SQL), Python, experiment design, quantitative and qualitative data analyses, and statistical packages such as SAS, JMP, SPSS, R, and Minitab, specialize in multiple treatments experiment design and analysis, categorical data analysis, and time series
- Capable of undertaking various projects related with understanding people
Research Projects
Micro-blogging as online word-of-mouth branding |
May, 2008 – February, 2009 |
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- Partially funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Served as co-principal investigator, mentor and supervise one undergraduate.
- I led a study on examining the customers’ sentiment toward the brands.
- I performed a case study on Starbucks to understand exactly how the company employed micro-blog to manage its brand and communicate with its customers. I applied both quantitative and qualitative analysis skills in the case study including time series analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis.
Influences of mood on information seeking behavior |
February, 2007 – October, 2008 |
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- Partially funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- An independent project. Served as principal investigator.
- A controlled lab study. I designed this study from the scratch and consulted multiple professors and colleagues. I tried to extent three existing theories regarding mood to the Web search domain. I extensively borrowed established research instruments from other disciplines, modified them, and applied in the study. I performed in-depth statistical and content analyses to explore if there are differences in information seeking behavior between happy and sad people.
Search engine brand effects on perceived searching performance |
September – December, 2006 |
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- Partially funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- A controlled lab study. I was responsible to run the lab sessions, and qualitatively analyze the participants’ utterances to understand brand related factors that influences the participants’ judgment on the search engine performance. I created the fractional factorial design for the quantitative part of the study, and conducted comprehensive quantitative analysis to examine brands’ influences on different aspects of search engine performances.
Influences of candidate image on present day voters |
September – December, 2006 |
- College of Communications, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- A large scale survey study. I designed a 2×2×2×2×2 between-subjects factorial design to investigate five factors of candidate image influencing on voter preference for political candidates. I created the questionnaires, ran the paper-based questionnaire filling session in a large undergraduate class (N=343), and performed comprehensive quantitative data analysis.
Concept of interaction with information and information systems |
May – September, 2006 |
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- Partially funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- I performed a blanket style literature search and review on interaction regarding information and information systems, and assisted the principal investigator (Bernard J. Jansen) to create the model for interaction.
Gender differences on online shopping behavior |
February – May, 2006 |
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- A completely qualitative project. I conducted interviews and performed selective coding to understand if male and female have different online shopping behaviors and what the differences are.
Research in Press (selected)
- "One In Five Tweets Is Brand-Related" on brandchannel (February 12, 2010)
- "Top search marketing and social media research projects of 2009" on WorldStream (December 31, 2009)
- "Information ahead of opinion on Twitter" on eMarketer (October 2, 2009)
- "Tweeting provides benefits for business" on the Daily Collegian (September 30, 2009)
- "Tweeting is more than just self-expression" on Penn State Live (September 10, 2009)
- "Collaboration tracks Twitter comments, online reputations" on Penn State Live (June 3, 2008)
- "Faculty member, graduate student team for 'Best Paper'" on IST News Headline (April 10, 2008)
- "Brand matters – Even when searching" on Penn State Live (June 28, 2007)