Yingjia Wan

Yingjia Wan

Master’s student in Natural Language Processing

Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge

About

I am a master’s student in NLP from the Language Technology lab, University of Cambridge, supervised by Dr Ivan Vulić. My interests include LLM reasoning, debiasing, multimodality, and cognition-inspired NLP. My master’s dissertation was on multimodal prompt-tuning language models with human cognition signals.

I came from a interdisplinary educational background of humanties and computer science: I obtained a B.A. in English and a minor in CS from the University of Macau where I graduated top of the cohort as a valedictorian. Before working on NLP, I used to be active in labs studying multilingualism and social psychology.

Interests
  • Large Language Models (LLMs) for Social Impacts
  • LLM Reasoning
  • Cognition-Inspired NLP
Education
  • M.Phil. in Theoretical & Applied Linguistics (NLP track), 2022-2023

    University of Cambridge

  • Funded Exchange, 2019-2020

    University of Michigan

  • B.A. in English Studies, 2017-2021

    University of Macau

Research Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Dept of Data Science & Analytics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Guangzhouh
Research Assistant
January 2021 – February 2022 Macao S.A.R, China
Topic: LLMs for Formal Mathematics; LLM reasoning.
 
 
 
 
 
Language Technology Lab (LTL), Uniersity of Cambridge
Research Student
February 2022 – Present Cambridge, UK
Topic: Intergrate LLMs with Human Cognition Data via Multi-Modal Finetuning.
 
 
 
 
 
Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Uniersity of Macau
Research Assistant
January 2021 – February 2022 Macao S.A.R, China
Topic: Examining Bilinguals’ Cognitive Attention to Content Words During Listening Assessments.
 
 
 
 
 
Depts of Computer Science & of Psychology, University of Macau
Research Intern
July 2019 – December 2020 Macao S.A.R, China
Topic: Applying NLP in Developmental Psychology.
 
 
 
 
 
Department of Education & of Psychology, University of Michigan
Research Student (Hybrid)
April 2020 – July 2021 Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Topic: A Cross-Cultural Survey on College Instructor Experiences with Online Instruction during COVID-19 at Universities in USA and China.

Publications

(2023). Multimodal Tuning with Human Cognition Data as Prompts. (Master’s Dissertation).

PDF

(2022). Reading-While-Listening vs. Reading-Only in A Second Language at Different Language Proficiencies: an Eye-Tracking Study. In AsiaTEFL 2022 (also presented at The LELPG Conference 2023 at the University of Edinburgh).

PDF

(2021). Pedagogy in a Pandemic: College Instructor Perspectives on Online Instruction during COVID-19 at Universities in USA and China. In AERA 2022 Annual Meeting.

Record (Script Undisclosed)

Accomplish­ments

Macau Foundation
Fundação Macau Academic Prize
MOP 10,000 (equivalent of GBP 1,000)
Represented the graduating class of 2021 at the congregation speech.
My very first dip into NLP that sparked my academic passion.
Full waiver of tuition & college accomodation fees during four academic years, overseas exchange covered.

Contact