The Chihiro Lab
The Chihiro Lab studies how children and young people engage with digital media, and how these experiences shape their development and well-being. Collectively, our work spans the motivations behind and effects of digital media use among young people, as well as the design systems, structures, and policies that mediate those effects. The goal is to understand how technology can be shaped to support healthier development. The lab takes its name from the protagonist of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away where Chihiro is a child navigating an unfamiliar and overwhelming world with resilience - much like the young people at the center of our research.
Li Zongyi
PhD Student
Zongyi is a PhD candidate working at the intersection of human–computer interaction and communication. Her research asks how emotionally responsive AI agents can support mental well-being and foster relational bonds through interaction. Ultimately, her work aims to bridge the gap between computational system design and the mechanisms of human–AI relationship formation.
Alexandra Chernyavskaya
PhD Student
Alex is a PhD candidate whose research asks how the value of child protection, as articulated in children's rights frameworks and policy, reaches or fails to reach the engineers who build digital products, including those that enable technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. Her work aims to close the gap between what we already know about children's rights and the design decisions that determine whether digital technologies protect or endanger the children who use them. Alexandra’s research draws on 14 years of experience across the non-profit sector, academia, and industry.
Adeline Tay
PhD Student
Adeline is a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, where she is a recipient of the NTU-WKWSCI Research Scholarship. Her research centres around digital parenting, young children and digital media. She has published in academic journals, presented at conferences, and shared her expertise with educators, parents, teenagers, and the wider public through talks, radio interviews, and opinion pieces on children and media in Singapore.
Interested in joining the lab? Get in touch.