Mike Yao

Biography

Mike is Professor of Digital Media and Director of the Institute of Communications Research in the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also Professor of Communication and Professor of Business Administration by courtesy of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Gies College of Business and has affiliate appointments at the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research, the Informatics program in the iSchool, and the Siebel Center for Design (SCD).  Mike is the Experiential Factors theme lead for IMMERSE. His research explores the interplay between media, technology, and social behavior by examining how users engage with emerging technologies like AI and XR across diverse social settings and how these interactions influence social behavior and human communication in digitally mediated spaces.