ASAP Lab Team Members
Director, Associate Professor
Sue-Ming Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. She received her PhD from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on mental health and wellness within the criminal justice system, simulation and experimental research methods, and violent extremism in the United States. Her work emphasizes the use of rigorous experimental and simulation-based approaches to study complex public safety challenges. Dr. Yang is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP) and a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. Her recent study, conducted with Charlotte Gill, Yi-Fang Lu, Muneeba Azam, and L. Cait Kanewske, received the Outstanding Experimental Field Trial award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Experimental Criminology.
Co-Director, Associate Professor
Beidi Dong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. He earned his PhD from the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research examines how crime and violence affect the health and well-being of individuals and communities, integrating social-contextual and developmental perspectives to understand how exposure to these conditions accumulates and influences people and places over time. His work also examines firearm violence and policy, including the consequences of gun violence for local communities, youth gun carrying, and the effects of firearm laws and policy interventions. Methodologically, Dr. Dong explores the use of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and other emerging technologies to address criminological and public health questions, as well as how these technologies may themselves shape public safety, policing, and health. He is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP)
Lab Coordinator & Graduate Research Student
Hannah De Wolf is a doctoral student in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. She supports Dr. Sue-Ming Yang as a Graduate Research Assistant and also works as a Research Assistant for the Virginia CIT Coalition, where she analyzes training program data and translates findings for CIT practitioners statewide. Hannah received her B.S. in Sociology with Honors from Union University and her M.A. in Criminology, Law and Society from George Mason University. Her current research focuses on the relationship between religion and crime, including religious terrorism, the victimization of religious people and places, and the spatial distribution of crime in and around places of worship. She is also a member of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP).
Graduate Research Student
Kristen Fite is a doctoral student in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. Her work includes research focused on improving public safety responses to individuals experiencing mental health crises. She recently worked with Drs. Sue-Ming Yang and Yasemin Irvin-Erickson on a project examining approaches to enhancing police response to mental health crises in Virginia. She also spent two years working with the Virginia CIT Coalition as a Research Assistant, where she assisted with data analysis and translation to practitioners across the state. Her current research examines police responses to intimate partner violence, including whether race and ethnicity are associated with police follow-through and whether law enforcement responses meet victims’ expectations. She is also a member of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP).
Graduate Research Student
Bojeong Kang is a doctoral student in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. She recently worked with Drs. Beidi Dong and Jin R. Lee. Her research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, cybercrime, online interpersonal violence, and technology-facilitated sexual violence. She is particularly interested in online child sexual exploitation, deepfake sexual exploitation material, children’s privacy on AI and social media platforms, risk assessment, and the use of large language models in research methods and victim support. Her current work includes LLM fine-tuning and the development of app-based, multi-agent AI systems designed to support victims of deepfake sexual exploitation. Bojeong earned her B.S. in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Northeastern University and her M.A. in Forensic Psychology from Kyonggi University in South Korea. She is also a member of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP).
ASAP Lab Affiliated Scholars
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Ziwei Zhu is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University. Zhu is broadly interested in data mining, machine learning, and information retrieval, with a special emphasis on augmenting responsibility in AI-powered user-centered systems to provide fair, unbiased, accountable, and trustworthy information services for both end users and society at large.
Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Leadership, and Educational Sciences
Stephanie Dailey is an Associate Professor of Counseling at George Mason University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on community mental health and public safety, with particular emphasis on school safety, crisis response, and law enforcement decision-making. She uses simulation and experimental methods, including immersive and virtual reality, to study behavior and evaluate training in complex, high-stakes settings. Her work also explores artificial intelligence and decision-support technologies to strengthen behavioral health assessment, decision-making, and crisis-response systems.
Chair, Professor (Georgia State University)
Joshua Hinkle is Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University. His research interests include evidence-based policing, crime and place, the disorder-crime nexus, and fear of crime. The National Institute of Justice and the National Science Foundation have funded his work. It appears in journals such as Criminology, Criminology & Public Policy, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and the Journal of Experimental Criminology. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Criminal Justice Review and lead editor of the SpringerBriefs series on Crime and Place.
Senior Research Scientist, Adjunct Professor
Haikun “Quincy” Huang is an adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science and a Senior Research Scientist at the Design Computing and Extended Reality (DCXR) Group at George Mason University. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMass Boston, where his dissertation on AI-driven computational design received the Graduate Program Award. His work spans human-centered XR, computational design, HCI, graphics, simulation, computer vision, and AI-assisted 3D content creation. He also develops reusable Unity research tools—including Flow Core and UPython—and leads applied game, VR, and AI systems through Great Victory Legends.
Craig Yu is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and leads the Design Computing and Extended Reality (DCXR) Group at George Mason University. His research group conducts research in computer graphics, computer vision, and human-computer interaction and virtual reality. They are also interested in interdisciplinary research in topics that explore how to incorporate AI/ML techniques to devise convenient, efficient and powerful design tools; how humans and robots can collaborate seamlessly in design and problem-solving; and how to better understand human perception towards everyday surroundings so as to create user-friendly design tools and interfaces.
Professor, Department of Computer Science