DIAN YU

Mixed-methods research for customer, product, and market decisions in emerging technology

I use rigorous research to understand how people, organizations, and markets adopt new technologies, and translate that evidence into customer, market, and strategic insights.

My work focuses on AI, robotics, and automation, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to study technology adoption, customer and stakeholder behavior, market dynamics, and commercialization. I work across observational and quasi-experimental data, surveys, product-level data, and interviews to answer ambiguous real-world questions and inform decisions.

I hold a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where I studied how technology, markets, policy, and organizational incentives shape the adoption and commercialization of emerging technologies.

Explore my research, teaching and industry work below.

Research & Insights

I study how emerging technologies move from technical possibility to real-world adoption: how firms, workers, and institutions actually respond to drones, robots, and AI. I pair fieldwork and user interviews with multi-year data, so my insights hold up on the ground and at scale. More >

Teaching & Customer Discovery

I design and teach courses on emerging technologies, design thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship. My classes combine technical fundamentals with business and policy perspectives, and push students to connect technology with real-world impact. More >

Strategy & Industry Collaboration

I work with organizations to turn emerging technology into strategy, from advising drone startups to supporting university commercialization. I also convene the industry around these technologies, most recently a 100-person robotics-in-construction event. More >

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