PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Qian Yang

Also known as 杨倩

Qian Yang is a human-AI interaction researcher who studies how to turn frontier AI technologies into software that provides value for users, organizations and society. Born and raised in Shanghai, she worked in design consultancy and industry from 2007 to 2014, then completed a Ph.D. in human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon, and SIGCHI named her a 2021 Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient. In 2022 she coauthored CoAuthor, a dataset of writers working with GPT-3, founded Cornell's Digital and AI Literacy Initiative with Natalie Bazarova, and became one of 15 inaugural AI2050 Early Career Fellows. Her 2023 CHI paper “Why Johnny Can’t Prompt” examined how non-AI experts try to design LLM prompts. She is an assistant professor of information science at Cornell, where she directs the DesignAI Group.

Timeline

  1. 2007–2014

    Design consultancy and industry

    Born and raised in Shanghai, she holds a bachelor's of engineering in industrial design from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She works in design consultancy and industry from 2007 to 2014; her past roles include research lead at a design trend research consultancy and concept car designer.

  2. 2020–2021

    Ph.D. and a SIGCHI award

    She defends her thesis on artificial intelligence as a material for user experience design at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute in May 2020, with John Zimmerman and Aaron Steinfeld as co-chairs, and completes a Ph.D. in human-computer interaction. In 2021, SIGCHI names her one of three recipients of its Outstanding Dissertation Award. By October 2021, she is an assistant professor of information science at Cornell.

  3. 2022

    The CoAuthor writing dataset

    In 2022, she coauthors CoAuthor with Mina Lee and Percy Liang. The dataset captures interactions between 63 writers and four instances of GPT-3 across 1445 writing sessions.

  4. November 2022

    Founding Cornell's literacy initiative

    In November 2022, she and Natalie Bazarova found Cornell's Digital and AI Literacy Initiative, which develops digital literacy resources for underserved communities. Two Cornell colleges award the pair $300,000 in seed funding.

  5. 2022–2025

    AI2050 Early Career Fellowship

    In November 2022, she is named one of 15 inaugural Schmidt Futures AI2050 Early Career Fellows, a fellowship that runs from 2022 to 2025. Her project examines how generative models such as GPT-3 and Dall-E affect people's cognitive processes in creative work, with the aim of enhancing human cognition. Her digital pathology system design improves pathologist-AI teams' cancer diagnostic accuracy by 30%.

  6. 2023

    Why Johnny can't prompt

    In 2023, she coauthors “Why Johnny Can’t Prompt” with J.D. Zamfirescu-Pereira, Richmond Y. Wong and Bjoern Hartmann, a CHI paper on how non-AI experts try and fail to design LLM prompts. She also coauthors “Herding AI Cats”, a DIS paper on lessons from designing a chatbot by prompting GPT-3. Her 2020 and 2023 research on profiling AI as a design material is among the most widely read papers on the ACM Digital Library.

  7. 2025

    A CHI 2025 honorable mention

    Her paper “Beyond Code Generation: LLM-supported Exploration of the Program Design Space” receives an honorable mention at the 2025 ACM CHI Conference in Yokohama, Japan.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leading the DesignAI Group

    She is an assistant professor of information science at Cornell, where she directs the DesignAI Group and studies how to turn emerging frontier AI technologies into software that provides value for users, organizations and society. She co-directs the Cornell Digital and AI Literacy Initiative and is a senior fellow at the Cornell Brooks School Tech Policy Institute. In 2026, she coauthors “Framing Responsible Design of AI for Mental Well-Being” for CHI.

Career

  1. Since 2021Cornell UniversityAssistant Professor of information science, Co-founder

Education

  1. 2020Carnegie Mellon UniversityPh.D. in human-computer interaction
  2. Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityBachelor's degree in industrial design

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Cornell University. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Cornell University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Cornell University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Cornell University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Qian Yang yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Qian Yang | Department of Computer Science | Cornell Bowers cs.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Qian Yang qianyang.co. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. PhD Thesis Defense: Qian Yang, "Understanding Artificial Intelligence as a Material for User Experience Design" | Human-Computer Interaction Institute hcii.cmu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. [Hcitaly] I: SIGCHI 2021 award winners - Hcitaly - ISTI mailman.isti.cnr.it. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Qian Yang / Human-AI Interaction Design at Scale: Practices, Methods, Challenges / 10.22.21 – Tech/Law Colloquium tlc.cis.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. [2201.06796] CoAuthor: Designing a Human-AI Collaborative Writing Dataset for Exploring Language Model Capabilities arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Cross-cutting initiative to promote AI and digital literacy | Cornell Chronicle news.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Yang named Schmidt Futures AI2050 Fellow | Cornell Bowers bowers.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Qian Yang - AI2050 ai2050.schmidtsciences.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Why Johnny Can’t Prompt: How Non-AI Experts Try (and Fail) to Design LLM Prompts | Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts iac.gatech.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Bowers shines at CHI 2025 with 34 papers and prestigious faculty honor | Cornell Bowers bowers.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. Cornell researchers contribute more than 40 papers to CHI 2026 | Department of Computer Science | Cornell Bowers cs.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  13. Home | Human-AI Interaction Design @ Cornell designai.infosci.cornell.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.