Wang to join iSchool faculty

Yang Wang

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Yang Wang will join the faculty as an associate professor in August 2019, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He is currently an assistant professor and co-director of the Social Computing Systems Lab (SALT) in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.

Wang's research interests include usable privacy and security technologies, social computing, human-computer interaction, and explainable artificial intelligence. His research has received support from the National Science Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services, Google, Alcatel-Lucent, and The Privacy Projects, and has appeared in news outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and China Daily. Wang's honors include the NSF CAREER Award, a Best Paper Honorable Mention at the ACM CHI Conference, and a Top Privacy Paper for Policy Makers selected by the Future of Privacy Forum.

"I'm thrilled to join the world-class iSchool at Illinois because of the exciting opportunities to develop and collaborate on human-centered computing research and education as well as the excellent environment for technology, design, and innovation," he said.

Wang earned his PhD in information and computer science from the University of California, Irvine.

"Yang is well-known for his pioneering work on understanding the security and privacy needs of underserved and understudied populations, an obviously serious and timely contemporary challenge," Dean Allen Renear said. "I am very excited that he will be joining us and continuing his work here at the iSchool."

Tags:
Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Chin receives NSF CAREER award

Assistant Professor Jessie Chin has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to support lifelong learning and foster information literacy. This prestigious award is given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Chin’s project, “Search as a Mechanism for Learning,” will be supported by a five-year, $629,451 grant from the NSF.

Jessie Chin

What are the effects of trade restrictions on digital technologies?

President Donald Trump has threatened to levy higher tariffs on more than two dozen countries and on various products in the past few months. China in particular has been a target of the administration’s trade wars, aimed at preventing its dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence, although the U.S. government announced recently that it would sell advanced semiconductors used in AI to China. Assistant Professor Meicen Sun spoke with News Bureau arts and humanities editor Jodi Heckel about the effects of trade restrictions.

Meicen Sun

School welcomes specialized faculty

The iSchool is pleased to announce the appointment of two specialized faculty members. Yildiz Esener and Nitin Verma will join the School as teaching assistant professors in August 2025.

iSchool to present research at the Digital Humanities 2025 conference

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will present their research at DH2025, the annual conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), which will take place on July 14–18 in Lisbon, Portugal. The digital humanities (DH) conference is the largest event of the international DH community and unites scholars from across the globe.