Mingxuan Liu (PhD, University of Southern California) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Macau. She is the director of the Media Psychology, Entertainment Media, and Emerging Technology (MEET) Lab, and the co-director of the L3 Lab. 

Mingxuan investigates how emerging technologies shape user behavior, health, and well-being, with a focus on entertainment media, such as video game, streaming, and journalism industries. Her research leverages observational data, natural experiments, randomized experiments, psychophysiology experiments, and panel self-reports to understand the causal mechanisms underlying user behavior change.

Her work has been published in flagship peer-reviewed journals in Communication, including Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, Media Psychology, Health Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, Mobile Media & Communication, Journalism Studies, among others. 

Her work has also received several Top Paper Awards at the International Communication Association (ICA) and the National Communication Association (NCA), the two major scholarly associations in the field. 

She currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Games and is a member of the editorial board of Global Perspectives in Communication, one of the seven journals published by the International Communication Association

Jiaming Zhou is a Ph.D student in the Department of Communication at University of Macau. Her research focuses on  social and individual psychological and behavioral implications of emerging information and communication technologies in digitally mediated environments, such as AI-mediated communication, digital gaming, and journalism industries.

As a Ph.D. student in Communication, I specialize in Human–AI Interaction, studying how people form relationships with AI — from NPCs in video games to  AI companions. My research explores the frontier of social connection: what happens when artificial intelligence becomes a social actor rather than just a tool. My work asks what makes a connection feel real, when the other side of the relationship is artificial intelligence. 

Before diving into academia, I worked behind the scenes in the tech industry, managing digital communities and creator ecosystems at platforms like Bilibili, NetEase and Tencent, across game user research and KOL marketing. I spent years observing users form profound emotional attachments to the digital worlds and virtual characters themselves. 

Then generative AI arrived, and I noticed that the companions and influencers of the future might not be human at all. The emotional mechanisms I'd spent years observing — loyalty, attachment, parasocial intimacy — were about to find a new object.

That's what brought me here.

👋 Hi, I'm Leyan! I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at the University of Macau, holding an MPhil from HKUST(GZ) and an MSSc from CUHK.

My research investigates the mechanisms through which visual elements in digital media influence human emotion, cognition, and well-being. Leveraging my background in Colour Studies, I concentrate on decoding the nuanced psychological and behavioral outcomes of visual features.

Now my Research Focus on:

• Visuals & Bio-data Fusion: Combining computer vision and psychophysiological tools (such as fNIRS, skin conductance, and eye-tracking) to analyze human responses to visual elements.

• Social Media & Identity: Examining user behavior and digital identity on visual-heavy social media platforms, with a focus on female users.

Beyond research, I am a film photography and writing enthusiast, and I am always open to academic collaborations and discussions!

Jackson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at the University of Macau. His research interests lie in media psychology, emerging media technologies, and communication in digital environments. He is particularly interested in the psychological and behavioral effects of new media technologies, as well as how media shape public opinion, trust, and social perception. His work also examines topics such as journalism, Third-Person effect, and gender-related attitudes from a communication perspective.

Wu Kaibing is a senior Communication student at the University of Macau specializing in data-driven storytelling and research. His work applies quantitative tools to map and analyze communication patterns. He is dedicated to bridging the gap between complex data sets and meaningful social insights.