Hi, I’m Yanna Lin
I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Waterloo, working with Prof. Jian Zhao in the WVisdom research lab.
Before joining Waterloo, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and obtained my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), under the supervision of Prof. Huamin Qu in the VisLab. My Ph.D. was supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme and recognized with the HKUST RedBird Academic Excellence Award for three consecutive years. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering from Sun Yat-sen University, ranked 1/447. During my undergraduate studies, I was honored with the National Scholarship for three consecutive years (top 0.5%).
My research lies at the intersection of Human-AI Collaboration, Data Visualization, and Intelligent Interactive Systems. I study how users communicate intent to AI and understand AI behavior in complex analytical and data-intensive workflows. My work combines visualization, interaction, and AI techniques to develop human-centered systems for multimodal intent expression, AI reasoning interpretation and debugging, and data-driven decision-making.
I am actively seeking academic positions and industry research opportunities. Please feel free to contact me if you have any relevant openings or opportunities :)
Publications
2026
DiLLS: Interactive Diagnosis of LLM-based Multi-agent Systems via Layered Summary of Agent Behaviors
Capability at a Glance: Design Guidelines for Intuitive Avatars Communicating Augmented Actions in Virtual Reality
Open-ended Structured Question Assessment with Human-LLM Collaboration
VeriLLMed: Interactive Visual Debugging of Medical Large Language Models with Knowledge Graph
2025
DataWink: Reusing and Adapting SVG-based Visualization Examples with Large Multimodal Models
InterLink: Linking Text with Code and Output in Computational Notebooks
Unmasking Deceptive Visuals: Benchmarking Multimodal Large Language Models on Misleading Chart Question Answering
2024
Designing Spatial Visualization and Interactions of Immersive Sankey Diagram in Virtual Reality
2023
DMiner: Dashboard Design Mining and Recommendation
InkSight: Leveraging Sketch Interaction for Documenting Chart Findings in Computational Notebooks
2022
Saliency-aware color harmony models for outdoor signboard
Let Every Seat Be Perfect! A Case Study on Combining BIM and VR for Room Planning
*:equal contribution2021
2020
