CSTL Student Perspectives

Curious about what it is like to be a student in the CSTL Division?

Azevedo, Renato

Renato Azevedo

Renato is a PhD Student in Educational Psychology (CSTL). He holds a M.Sc. in Applied Statistics from UIUC, a M.Sc. in Accounting Education & Research from University of Sao Paulo (USP), B.S. in Information Systems and B.S. in Accounting. At UIUC he serves as Research Assistant at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and as Teaching Assistant (EPSY 456 - Human Performance and Cognition in Context). Within Cognitive Psychology, he has been working with Prof. Daniel Morrow, on the nature of complex human problem solving and learning. The current research projects aim to improve self-care (e.g. taking medications) and health outcomes among older adults. These interdisciplinary projects leverage expertise in computer science, medicine, human factors, and education to improve provider/patient collaboration related to self-care. 

He has further interest in investigating relationships among professional expertise, cognition, decision-making, risk perception, and workload in complex task domains such as accounting and behavioral economics. He is currently working on his dissertation entitled "Accounting Expertise and Decision-Making through the Lens of Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT)". His interest in this domain reflects his own experiences in the field as lecturer and researcher in Accounting in Brazil at the University of Sao Paulo. He has been teaching accounting and business undergraduates since 2007 and MBA students since 2009. 

Jack Dempsey

Jack Dempsey

I grew up in Champaign county and received a BA in Linguistics from the University of Illinois in 2015. Since then, I've worked as a lab manager for a year at Penn State's Center for Language Science and returned to receive an MS in Educational Psychology here at Illinois.

My PhD adviser in CSTL is Dr. Kiel Christianson, and together we research various aspects of language processing. Specifically, my research revolves around experience and frequency in syntactic parsing and differences between real-time, online comprehension and more meta, offline comprehension measures. I have experience being a research assistant in our Educational Psychology Psycholinguistics Lab where we conduct numerous reading studies with methods like self-paced reading and eye-tracking. I am serving for the second time on the planning committee for the Illinois Language & Linguistics Society (ILLS) graduate conference, have worked as a communications partner, evaluator, and tutor in the Accountancy program in the Gies College of Business, and work with Dr. H Chad Lane in Educational Psychology with projects concerning the use of technology in learning.

In my spare time, I love learning and practicing foreign languages (French, German, and Italian so far) and, admittedly, playing well-developed, story-driven video games.

Sherry Yi Sherry Yi

Sherry Yi is a doctoral student studying educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is examining how interest is developed and sustained over time. Her current project investigates the triggering of interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics using entertainment technologies like video games. Most recently she has led the Graduate Student Conference, served on the  College Research Committee, and reviewed applicants for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. She is currently serving on the EPSY Executive Committee as a student representative. In her spare time, she likes to draw, explore and grow bits of nature, and keep up with the latest tech.