cv
General Information
Full Name | Yilang Zhao |
Pronouns | He/Him/His |
Languages | English, Chinese |
Education
-
2023 Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction
University of Wisconsin–Madison - track: Design, Informal, and Creative Education (DICE)
- minor: Educational Psychology – Learning Sciences
- advisors: Dr. Matthew Berland & Dr. Mitchell Nathan
- dissertation title: Tiles, Game, and Coordinate Plane: Exploring Learning Vector Addition Through Concreteness Fading
-
2017 M. A. in Media and Information
Michigan State University - track: Human-computer Interaction
-
2017 Graduate Certificate in Serious Game Design and Research
Michigan State University -
2015 B. E. in the Internet of Things
Wuhan University of Technology
Experiences
-
2023 - 2025 Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Tennessee, Knoxville - Working on the MVP (Mathematizing, Visualizing, and Power) projectm, a transdisciplinary data science education project
- Leading data collection, processing, and analysis
- Leading the research team and participating in the curriculum design
- Establishing solid connections with community partners
-
2019 - 2023 Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Wisconsin–Madison - Teaching course C&I 277 Video Games and Learning for 9 semesters
- 35 students enrolled in this course per semester
- Course formats include in-person, synchronous online, and asynchronous online
-
2017 - 2018 Research Associate
Michigan State University - Developing Picky Birds 2.0, a language learning game
- Designing and developing a Japanese poetry learning app
-
2016 - 2017 Game Programmer
Michigan State University - Lead developer of Picky Birds, a language learning game
Scholarship, Fellowship, and Awards
-
2022 - UW-Madison the Graduate School Student Research Grants Competition ($1,500)
- UW-Madison Department of Curriculum and Instruction Travel Grant ($1,000)
- UW-Madison Department of Curriculum and Instruction Research Grant ($500)
-
2018 & 2021 - UW-Madison Graduate School Fellowship ($20,864 stipend plus tuition remission)
-
2017 - 2019 - Unity Certified Developer (Certificate No. 201703UCD1654)
-
2016 - MA Merit Award, the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University
Academic Interests
-
transdisciplinary STEM education
- data science education
- math education
- computer science education
-
computational research methods
- natural language processing (NLP)
- epistemic network analysis (ENA)
- Gen AI-booster qualitative research methods
- learning analytics and educational data mining
-
learning sciences
- embodied cognition
- constructionism
- game-based learning
Outside Academia
- Hobbies: fishing and hiking!