Shi Ding
Ph.D. Candidate · Georgia Institute of Technology
Expressive Machinery Lab · Advised by Regents' Professor Brian Magerko
About
Hello! I'm Shi (Stella) Ding, a Ph.D. student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. My research focuses on human–AI interaction and alignment in real-world AI systems. I study how AI systems behave in practice and develop approaches to better understand, assess, and improve their performance in complex, real-world interactions. I work within the NSF-funded EarSketch project, a large-scale learning platform used by over 1.5 million learners, where I design and evaluate LLM-powered systems that support code interaction and learning workflows in authentic educational settings. My work spans machine learning and human–computer interaction, with a focus on human–AI alignment and accessible learning systems. Previously, I worked as a research scientist at a U.S.-based AI startup, applying human-centered AI research to product development.
Selected Achievements
- Fellowship: AI Child Safety Lab Fellowship Recipient (2026)
- Award Recipient: CRIDC Research Conference, Georgia Tech (2025)
- Invited Talks: Harvard University (2026), Georgia Tech (2025)
- Area Chair: DIS 2026 (Works-in-Progress Track)
- Reviewer: CHI, DIS, FAccT, AMIA, C&C (2026); NeurIPS, SIGCSE TS, CogSci (2025)
- Peer-reviewed Publications: Publications at leading venues across AI, HCI, and Learning Science, including ACM IDC (2024, 2026), ACM ASSETS (2025), AIED (2025), ACM SIGCSE TS (2026), and ISLS (CSLS 2026).
- Workshop: First-author paper accepted at the NeurIPS 2025 Workshop on Socially Responsible and Trustworthy Foundation Models; indexed in the Stanford SCALE AI Repository.
- Co-founder: Deeproject AI, Quadrant-i Startup Grant, Georgia Tech (2025)