Ying Ma


Hi there! 👋 I’m a PhD Candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Group at The University of Melbourne, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Jorge Goncalves, Dr. Jarrod Knibbe and Dr. Zhanna Sarsenbayeva.

My research encompasses the domains of human-computer interaction, social computing, LLM and geo-location informatics. Especially, my research focuses on online communities such as social networking sites, including the perception and behavior of individuals regarding their online privacy, strategies to combat misinformation and facilitate informed credibility decisions, designing novel interventions & interfaces to enhance user experiences in online environments, etc.

Feel free to contact me in case you have interest or questions regarding my work. 🤝

📮Email: ying.ma1[at]student.unimelb.edu.au

📖 Publications

2025

  • Ying Ma, Shiquan Zhang, Dongju Yang, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Jarrod Knibbe, Jorge Goncalves (2025). Raising Awareness of Location Information Vulnerabilities in Social Media Photos using LLMs. The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’2025)

  • Namrata Srivastava, Jennifer Healey, Rajiv Jain, Guanli Liu, Ying Ma, Borano Llana, Dragan Gasevic,Tilman Dingler, Shaun Wallace (2025). Priming at Scale: An Evaluation of Using AI to Generate Primes for Mobile Readers. Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI LBW'2025)

    • 2024

  • Ying Ma, Cherie Mei Yee Sew, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Jarrod Knibbe, Jorge Goncalves (2024). Understanding Users' Perspectives on Location Privacy Management on Smartphones. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 8, Issue MHCI (MobileHCI).

  • Ying Ma, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Jarrod Knibbe, Jorge Goncalves (2024). Exploring the effects of location information on perceptions of news credibility and sharing intention. International Journal of Human - Computer Studies (IJHCS).

  • Shiquan Zhang, Ying Ma, Le Fang, Hong Jia, Simon D'Alfonso, Vassilis Kostakos.s (2024). Enabling On-Device LLMs Personalization with Smartphone Sensing. Adjunct Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp’2024).

    • 2023

  • Ying Ma, Qiushi Zhou, Benjamin Tag, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Jarrod Knibbe, Jorge Goncalves (2023).“Hello, Fellow Villager!”: Perceptions and Impact of Displaying Users’ Locations on Weibo. Proceedings of the 19th IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT’23) 🏆 Best Student Paper Nomination

    • Academic Service

  • Paper Associate Chair: CSCW 2025
  • Social Media Chair: MobileHCI 2024 (Logo Design & SNSs Management)
  • Web Chair: Augment Humans 2024 (Website Design and Development)
  • Paper Reviewer: CHI, CHI-LBW, CHI-student desgin competition, CSCW, ISS, IDC, CUI, DIS, MobileHCI, INTERACT, UbiComp, ISWC
  • Student Volunteer: IEEE VIS 2023; MobileHCI 2024; Ubicomp 2024; Unimelb CIS-DC 2024

    • 🎓 Education

    University of Melbourne

    📍 Melbourne · Victoria · Australia

    PhD Candidate in HCI
    School of Computing and Information Systems
    2022 - 2025

    New York University

    📍 Brooklyn · New York · United States

    Master of Computer Engineering
    Tandon School of Engineering

    GPA: 3.7

    Related Courses: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, System Programming, Embedded Systems

    2019 - 2021

    Northwestern Polytechnical University

    📍 Xi'an · Shaanxi · China

    Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology
    School of Computer Science

    985&211, Double First-Class A+

    Advanced Program language, Signal and System, Principles of Database, Computational Social Science

    2015 - 2019

    National Taipei University of Technology

    📍 Taipei · Taiwan

    Exchange Student
    School of Computer Science and Information

    GPA: 4.0

    Related Courses: Web Programming, Computer Algorithms, Software Engineering, Digital Image Processing

    2018

    📖 Teaching

    Academic Tutor - University of Melbourne

    INFO90002 Database Systems & Information Modelling

  • Delivered weekly tutorials, provided guidance on conceptual and logical data modelling, and offered feedback on student progress through weekly zoom consultations.
  • Designed and administered assessments, including exams and assignments, to evaluate students' understanding of database concepts, SQL, and data modelling principles.
    • 2024 sesmeter 2 & 2025 semester 1

    COMP10003 Media computation

  • Delivered weekly in-person two-hour tutorials to undergraduate students, conducting hands-on exercises, and addressing student questions and difficulties
  • Offered individual consultations, assessed student progress, and provided constructive feedback to enhance their skills in web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Reviewed and graded projects and tests, offering feedback to enhance student understanding
    • 2023 & 2024 semester 1

    COMP90018 Mobile Computing Systems Programming

  • Instructed students on using Android Development, including the setup, workflow, debugging, and deployment of applications
  • Taught students to incorporate various sensors from mobile devices into Android applications, enabling the creation of interactive and context-aware functionality
    • 2023 semester 2

    INFO10003 Fundamentals of Interaction design

  • Delivered weekly online and in-person tutorials to undergraduate students
  • Provided one-on-one and small group instructional support to students in various areas such as UI/UX design and academic writing
  • Reviewed and graded assignments and prototypes, offering feedback to enhance student understanding
    • 2022 semester 2

    Master's Thesis Co-Supervisor - University of Melbourne

  • Master in Computer Science: Dongju Yang [H1] (2024)
  • Master in Information Technology: Mehrnoosh S.Rizi (2023)

    • Teaching Certificates

  • Melbourne Teaching Certificate, The University of Melbourne 2024

    • 💼 Experience

    Graduate Researcher Academic Associate - University of Melbourne

    📍 Melbourne · Victoria · Australia   👩‍💻 0.3 FTE

  • Tutoring
  • Regular consultation with students
  • Assessment
  • Teaching-related management and administration
    • From July 2024 - Now

    Vice President of AI Development Group - University of Melbourne

    📍 Melbourne · Victoria · Australia

  • Organizing weekly meetups to discuss AI-related topics.
    • From March 2024 - Now

    Research Assistant - University of Melbourne

    📍 Melbourne · Victoria · Australia

  • Social Media data analysis
    • From Nov 2023 - Feb 2024

    Software Development & Test Engineer - Baidu, Inc.

    📍 Beijing · China   👩‍💻 Full - time

    Xiaodu Smart Speaker Divsion
  • Developed programs to enhance testing efficiency, facilitate real-time monitoring of online issues & alarm, and constructed automatic test framework
  • Experienced working for different modules and products includes Smart Speaker, Smart Dictionary Pen and membership and payment
  • Worked in Technology Center to implement disaster recovery transformations, ensuring the resilience and robustness of services
    • Oct 2021 - Mar 2022

    Research Intern - Dartmouth College

    👩‍💻 Remote

  • Investigated and analysis users' interaction needs for different smart things using computational material and makers' needs for large scale fabrication
  • Research on algorithms for object localization and recognition of computational material
    • Dec 2020 - Apr 2021

    Full Stack development Intern - Union Group USA, Inc.

    📍 NYC · United State   👩‍💻 Part - time

  • Lead a team to develop a full-stack website use Bootstrap for front-end and PHP-Laravel for backend
  • Finished the functions includes job/article/video posts, archives, user management, personal recommendation, login control, live assistant, station message, share to the third part, etc
  • Determined the structure and design of web pages and ensure web design is optimized for portable devices
    • June 2020 - Feb 2021

    🏆 Awards & Scholarships

    • Google Travel Scholarship 2025
    • People's Choice Best Best Lightning Talk - CIS Doctoral Colloquium, The University of Melbourne 2024
    • ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick PhD Thinkers Program & Travel Grant, The University of South Australia 2024
    • People's Choice Best Poster - CIS Doctoral Colloquium, The University of Melbourne 2023
    • Eng & IT / CIS Conference Travel Scholarship, The University of Melbourne 2023
    • Melbourne Research Scholarship, The University of Melbourne 2022 ~ 2025
    • Second Prize Scholarships, Northwestern Polytechnical University 2017 ~ 2018
    • Exchange Travel Scholarships, Northwestern Polytechnical University 2018
    • 1st The 11th ICAN International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Western Division 2017
    • 1st The 12th “NXP” Cup College Student Smart Car Competition Western Division 2017
    • 2nd China Undergraduate Mathematical contest in Modeling Competition Shaanxi Division 2017