Member Bios
Stephen Aguilar
Dr. Stephen J. AguiIar is an Assistant Professor at the USC Rossier School of Education, in the Educational Psychology concentration. His areas of expertise include motivation and self-regulated learning as they relate to the design and implementation of educational technologies. He specializes in learning analytics, the digital equity gap, and gameful approaches to teaching and learning.
Andrea Macias
Andrea Macias is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and Ph.D. student at the USC Rossier School of Education in the Educational Psychology concentration. She is also an Applied Data Science master’s student at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Her area of expertise include self-efficacy, sense of community/belonging, and help-seeking at the intersection of technology, particularly generative AI.
Yuqing Kyra Xing
Yuqing (she/her) studies personal and proxy agency in higher education, focusing on how students engage with generative AI not merely as a tool, but as a cognitive collaborator in tasks such as brainstorming, writing, coding, and problem-solving. Her research explores how these interactions influence students’ academic self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and evolving notions of authorship and support.
She also investigates the role of conversational AI in early childhood mathematics learning, particularly through storytelling as a pedagogical bridge to support engagement and understanding. In addition, Yuqing examines how AI-assisted writing reshapes academic practices in higher education by analyzing student-AI collaboration through digital traces, writing artifacts, and reflective narratives.
Le Rosie Xiu
Le Rosie Xiu (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D. student with a concentration in Educational Psychology at the USC Rossier School of Education. She serves as a research assistant at the Center for Generative AI & Society. Her research areas include empowering educators with Generative AI tools, AI Literacy Development, and learning analytics related to Educational Technology.