Renkai Ma

Renkai Ma

HCI Researcher focusing on HCI, social computing, trust & safety

Biography

👋 Hi! I start my postdoctoral scholar position in Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Computer Science, under the guidance of Dr. Pamela J. Wisniewski in October, 2024. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Informatics (Human-Computer Interaction) at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology in Aug, 2024, under the guidance of Dr. Yubo Kou in the Health and Play Lab.

🔬Trust and safety (T&S) are essential to the online ecosystem, where users depend on platforms to protect their security and shield them from harm, including scams, harassment, and misinformation. T&S enact the practices, policies, and technologies that online platforms implement to create secure and trustworthy environments for users.

My research focuses of Trust & Safety through a human-centered approach
My research focuses of Trust & Safety through a human-centered approach

As an interdisciplinary scholar, I use a human-centered approach to address three areas of T&S: (1) Economic implications of T&S, exploring how T&S practices impact creator and platform economies; (2) Justice-oriented T&S, enhancing fairness, transparency, and accountability in platform moderation and governance; (3) Designing T&S for vulnerable populations, especially children, through technological innovations, policy changes, and education.

Interests
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Social Computing
  • Creator/content moderation
  • Content Creation (e.g., AI-generated content)
  • Children’s Online Safety

Skills

Research
Qualitative methods
Quantitative methods, Data Science
Programming
Hobbies
Hiking, Skiing
Pet others’ dogs and cats
Music, Karaoke

Research Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Vanderbilt University's Department of Computer Science
Postdoctoral Scholar
Vanderbilt University’s Department of Computer Science
October 2024 – October 2025 Tennessee
 
 
 
 
 
Pennsylvania State University's College of Information Sciences and Technology
Doctoral Researcher
Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology
August 2020 – August 2024 Pennsylvania
 
 
 
 
 
Meta/WhatsApp
User Experience (UX) Research Intern
Meta/WhatsApp
May 2023 – August 2023 California
 
 
 
 
 
SiriusXM/Pandora
UX Research Intern
SiriusXM/Pandora
May 2022 – August 2022 Remote
 
 
 
 
 
Syracuse University
Research Assistant
Syracuse University
March 2019 – April 2020 Syracuse

Projects

Child Safety Meets Creator Moderation
A project I lead to investigate how creators can collaborate with other stakeholders for child safety protection in (creator) moderation context.
Game Community Moderation
A project I facilitate with the PI, Dr. Yubo Kou to understand how esports gamers experience punishments issued by moderation systems, how they reason about moderation mechanisms, and how they adjust their future behaviors.
Creator Moderation
A project I lead to investigate how creators like YouTubers or influencers on Instagram or TikTok, while performing profitable content creation, experience creator moderation.