Education
Oct 2021 - Dec 2025 (exp.)
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Doctoral Candidate, Computer Science
Supervised by Prof. Mikko Kivelä, advised by Dr. Barbara Keller.
Feb 2023 - Mar 2023
CENTAI Institute, Turin, Italy
Visiting researcher
Sep 2019 - Aug 2021
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
M. Sc. in Computer, Communication and Information Sciences (with Honors)
Majored in Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Supported by the doctoral track program.
Sep 2012 - Jun 2017
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
B. Eng. in Software Engineering
Sep 2015 - Dec 2015
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Exchange student
Publications
2025
Gronow, Antti, Yan Xia, Arttu Malkamäki, Mikko Kivelä, and Tuomas Ylä-Anttila. "Do external threats decrease political polarization? Climate change and immigration discussions on Finnish Twitter after the Russian invasion of Ukraine." Under review.
2025
Xia, Yan, Corrado Monti, Barbara Keller, and Mikko Kivelä. "Integrated or Segregated? User Behavior Change After Cross-Party Interactions on Reddit." In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, vol. 19, pp. 2044-2061. 2025.
2024
Xia, Yan, Antti Gronow, Arttu Malkamäki, Tuomas Ylä-Anttila, Barbara Keller, and Mikko Kivelä. "The Russian invasion of Ukraine selectively depolarized the Finnish NATO discussion on Twitter." EPJ Data Science 13, no. 1 (2024): 1-12.
2022
Xia, Yan, Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, and Mikko Kivelä. "Limits of multilayer diffusion network inference in social media research." In Proceedings of the international AAAI conference on web and social media, vol. 16, pp. 1145-1156. 2022.
2021
Xia, Yan, Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, and Mikko Kivelä. "Spread of tweets in climate discussions: A case study of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize announcement." Nordic Journal of Media Studies 3, no. 1 (2021): 96-117.
2020
Xia, Yan, Haiyi Zhu, Tun Lu, Peng Zhang, and Ning Gu. "Exploring antecedents and consequences of toxicity in online discussions: a case study on Reddit." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-computer Interaction 4, no. CSCW2 (2020): 1-23.
Presentation
Jun 2025
ICWSM 2025 @Copenhagen, Denmark
Title: Integrated or Segregated? User Behavior Change After Cross-Party Interactions on Reddit
Mar 2024
Cambridge Social Psychology Seminar Series @University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
Title: Integrated or Segregated? User Behavior Change After Cross-Party Interactions on Reddit
Jan 2024
Oxford Research Forum @Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, U.K.
Title: Did the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Depolarize Political Discussions on Finnish Social Media?
Jan 2024
OII Social Data Science Reading Group @Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, U.K.
Title: Depolarizing Social Media? Empirical Analyses of Polarized Discussions on Twitter and Reddit
Jul 2023
IC2S2 2023 @Copenhagen, Denmark
Title: Did the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Depolarize Political Discussions on Finnish Social Media? (Poster)
Jun 2022
ICWSM 2022 @Atlanta, U.S. and online
Title: Limits of Multilayer Diffusion Network Inference in Social Media Research
Feb 2021
Title: Examining the Spreading Virality of Tweets in Climate Discussions
Oct 2020
CSCW 2020 @online
Title: Exploring Antecedents and Consequences of Toxicity in Online Discussions: A Case Study on Reddit
Supervision
Jun 2024 - Sep 2024
Longtao Wang & Hitesh Goel, Summer Intern
Title: Intragroup and Intergroup Dynamics on Reddit
Co-supervised with Dr. Barbara Keller.
Jan 2024 - May 2024
Lassi Aho, Bachelor's Thesis
Title: Opinion Polarization and Intergroup Dynamics on Reddit
Co-supervised with Dr. Barbara Keller.
Sep 2023 - Dec 2023
Lauri Lappalainen, Bachelor's Thesis
Title: Persuasion and Opinion Change on Reddit r/ChangeMyView
Co-supervised with Dr. Barbara Keller.
Funding
Jan 2024
HIIT Activity Funding, co-applied with Dr. Barbara Keller
Covered the cost of the visit to the U.K. to give two talks at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Feb 2023
HIIT Activity Funding, co-applied with Dr. Barbara Keller
Covered half the cost of the research visit to the CENTAI Institute, Italy.
Teaching
2022 - 2025
Computational Social Science @Aalto University
Teaching assistant, supervised by Prof. Mikko Kivelä
Designed, tested, and improved course assignments; hosted exercise sessions and graded course projects.
2024
Basics in Programming @Aalto University
Guest lecturer, supervised by Dr. Barbara Keller
Gave two lectures on Object-Oriented Programming.
Review
2024, 2025
Best Reviewer Award 2025
Other Experience
Jan 2016 - May 2016
Media Technology Intern @New York University Shanghai, China
Assisted with the design, setup, testing and evaluation of websites for academic use; supported faculty in teaching by producing course videos.
