About Me

I'm Jie Cai (蔡杰). I am an Assistant Research Professor at College of IST, Penn State University and co-lead the Collaboration and Innovation Lab with John M. Carroll. I received my Ph.D. in the Ying Wu College of Computing at New Jersey Institute of Technology. I was supervised by Dr. Yvette Wohn and also worked at the Social X Lab. My researh was generously supported by two NFS projects about content moderation on social media: (1) Handling Online Risks and Creating Safe Spaces: Content Moderation in Live Streaming Micro Communities; (2) Augmenting Social Media Content Moderation.

My research areas are in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). My research topics sit at the intersection of interactive media, accessibility, marginalization, and platform governance in HCI, encompassing exploration of both the positive and negative dimensions of user experiences online with mixed methods (e.g., observation, interview, survey, participatory design): (1) I explore users' immersive interactions in novel online spaces. (2) I focus on harassment (e.g., racism and sexism) and content moderation in interactive social spaces.
My research has been published in premier HCI venues, such as CHI (an Honorable Mention Award) and CSCW. As a researcher, I actively engage in the HCI communities with leadership roles: organizing committee (ACM CSCW 2024 publication co-chair, ACM CHI 2022 Assistant to Technical Program Chairs, ACM IMX 2021 proceedings co-chair), program committee (ACs at CSCW, CHI, CHI PLAY), and workshop organizer (CHI 2023, 2024). I was invited to give talks in the industry (Twitch) and was interviewed by the Center for Democracy and Technology to broaden my research impact.