About
I am studying Human–AI Interaction in art education. My research examines how generative AI can be designed as teacher-mediated learning support for art learning, creative practice and interpretation across diverse learning contexts. I focus on steerable interfaces, contestable AI outputs, and curriculum-grounded support that preserves teacher and learner agency. AI outputs should remain open to guidance, questioning and revision within classroom practice, rather than function as fixed answers or autonomous instruction. My work follows a Research-through-Design approach, combining co-design, interactive system development, and deployment and evaluation in real educational settings. Alongside my research, I am an educator with a background in design and creative computing.
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Education
Newcastle University
PhD in Open Lab, School of Computing, 2024–present
Human–AI Interaction · Art Education · Teacher-Mediated AI · Classroom Orchestration
University of the Arts London
MA Graphic Design Communication
Speculative Design · Human–AI Relationships · Performative Design · Participatory Practice
South China University of Technology
BFA in Product Design, School of Design
Interaction Design · System Design · Service Design · Smart Wearables
teaching
I worked full-time as a design tutor at an art education institution in Shanghai from 2021 to 2023, teaching and mentoring undergraduate and postgraduate students across interaction design, UX design, service design, digital media, and visual communication. I later became Head of the Creative Computing Section, responsible for teaching development, supporting and reviewing student self-directed projects, tutor support, and academic coordination. I continue to teach and mentor students alongside my doctoral research.
Publications
– Ma, M.C., Shi, L., Li, H., Cheng, J. and Kirk, D. (2026). Implicit Affective Steering: A Design Probe for Generative Curatorial Storytelling. Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. New York: ACM. doi:10.1145/3800645.3812861.
– Wang, D., Zhou, C., Zhao, D., Liu, X., Ma, M. C., Ushaw, G., & Davison, R. (2026). TowerMind: A Tower Defence Game Learning Environment and Benchmark for LLM as Agents. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 40(31), pp. 26151–26159. doi:10.1609/aaai.v40i31.39818.
– Wang, Y., Shi, L., Shu, X., Ma, M. C., Oliveira, W., & Kharrufa, A. (2026). Quiz Traveller: A Crowdsourced Educational Game on Chat-Based Interactive Live-Streaming Platforms. Proceedings of the 10th Annual International GamiFIN Conference 2026. New York: ACM, Article 21, pp. 1–15. doi:10.1145/3789624.3789631.
– Wang, D., Zhao, D., Liu, X., Ma, M.C., Liu, X., Zhou, C., Ushaw, G. and Davison, R. (2026). MARS-RA: Rank Aggregation for Credit Assignment via Multimodal Comparisons in Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperation. Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). doi:10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.1349.
Academic & Creative Activities
– Bridging Contexts · UK–Brazil, 2026
Contributing to a British Council-funded collaboration between Newcastle University and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul on inclusive AI co-design, doctoral exchange and educational technology.
– ACM DIS 2026 · Singapore
Presented Implicit Affective Steering: A Design Probe for Generative Curatorial Storytelling at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference.
– ECTEL 2025 · Newcastle upon Tyne
Volunteer Chair for the Newcastle venue of the European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, coordinating volunteers and supporting local conference delivery.
– Slowly Calculation, Infinite Spaces · Ningbo, 2021
Curated and presented a solo exhibition at Yunhui Art Space exploring human–technology relationships through digital art, moving image, film and performance.
