About

Huiling Ding is a Professor of English at North Carolina State University, where she is also a University Faculty Scholar, Director of Labor Analytics and Workforce Development at the Data Science Academy, and a faculty member in the Ph.D. program in Communication, Rhetoric, & Digital Media. Her research focuses on responsible AI, AI ethics, risk communication, labor analytics, health communication, technical communication, medical rhetoric, social justice, and digital rhetoric. She has authored the award-winning book titled "Rhetoric of a Global Epidemic: Transcultural Communication about SARS," which received the 2016 Best Book Award in Technical and Scientific Communication from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Her scholarly work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Nell Ann Pickett Award for Best Article in Technical Communication Quarterly and the Editor’s Pick New Scholar Award for Written Communication. Ding’s recent projects explore the intersections of artificial intelligence, communication technologies, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and social justice. She has been involved in numerous funded research initiatives, including NSF and NEH grants, and holds leadership roles in professional organizations such as SIGDOC and ACM. Her contributions extend to editorial roles, conference leadership, and academic advising, reflecting her active engagement in advancing the fields of technical and professional communication, AI ethics, and intercultural risk communication.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Knowledge management
• Public relations
• Artificial Intelligence
• Sociology
• World Wide Web
• Psychology
• Data science
• Medicine
• Business
• Engineering ethics
• Marketing
• Engineering
• Economic growth
• Multimedia
• Pedagogy
• Labour economics
• Economics

Selected publications

• Parameter Calibration and Experimental Study of a Discrete Element Simulation Model for Yellow Cinnamon Soil in Henan, China

  Agriculture · 2025-06-25 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  To investigate the interaction mechanism between agricultural tillage machinery and soil, this study established a precise simulation model by integrating physical and numerical experiments using typical yellow cinnamon soil collected from western Henan Province, China. The discrete element parameters for soils with varying moisture contents were calibrated based on the Hertz–Mindlin (no slip) contact model. Through Plackett–Burman screening, steepest ascent optimization, and Box–Behnken response surface methodology, a predictive model correlating moisture content, parameters, and repose angle was developed, yielding the optimal contact parameter combination: interparticle static friction coefficient (0.6), soil–65Mn static friction coefficient (0.69), and interparticle rolling friction coefficient (0.358). For the Bonding model, orthogonal experiments coupled with NSGA-II multi-objective optimization determined the optimal cohesive parameters targeting maximum load (673.845 N) and displacement (9.765 mm): normal stiffness per unit area (8.8 × 107 N/m3), tangential stiffness per unit area (6.85 × 107 N/m3), critical normal stress (6 × 104 Pa), critical tangential stress (3.15 × 104 Pa), and bonding radius (5.2 mm). Field validation using rotary tillers and power harrows demonstrated less than 6% deviation in soil fragmentation rates between simulations and actual operations, confirming parameter reliability and providing theoretical foundations for constructing soil-tillage machinery interaction models.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Future of Risk Communication and Ethics

  2025-01-13 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The World Economic Forum's 2023 Global Risks Report identifies critical global threats across economic, environmental, geopolitical, and technological domains. Addressing social justice in risk communication involves fair distribution of consequences, transparent decision-making, and respectful treatment of affected individuals. Ethical frameworks guide this communication to balance outcomes with moral obligations. Effective risk communication requires interdisciplinary collaboration and acknowledgment of emotional responses. Additionally, transcultural communication and hybrid forums are essential for bridging the expert-layperson divide, which helps promote inclusive and comprehensive management of global risks. Risk communication measures should be both ethically grounded and responsive to the dynamic, interconnected nature of contemporary global risks.

  PublisherDOI

• Co-Kriging model-based multi-fidelity regression for refining milling stability predictions of variable tool overhang length using limited experimental data

  International Journal of Production Research · 2024-10-02 · 5 citations

  article

  Determining chatter-free machining parameters is critical in process planning since chatter vibrations significantly affect machining quality and production efficiency. Stability lobe diagram is essential in selecting chatter-free machining parameters, but its predictions confront challenges in both theoretical accuracy and experimental efficiency. To address this, the Co-Kriging modelling is introduced to predict the tool overhang length-dependent stability limits with limited experiments. First, tool tip dynamics and cutting force coefficients of a source overhang length are roughly identified to obtain sufficient low-fidelity (LF) theoretical stability limits. The entropy-based sampling and affine transformation are used to sequentially obtain high-fidelity (HF) experimental stability limits and update LF stability limits. HF and updated LF datasets are combined to train a multi-fidelity (MF) Co-Kriging model. For a target overhang length, MF stability limits of the source overhang length serve as LF data, and a minimum mean absolute percentage error (MAPE)-based sampling guides the acquisition of HF stability limits. Combining HF data and LF data processed by affine transformation to train a target Co-Kriging model. Case studies reveal that the proposed method exhibits lower MAPE values and significantly outperforms other comparison methods in predicting experimental stability limits, particularly when confronted with limited experimental data.

  PublisherDOI

• Theorizing knowledgescape as a transnational mediating force: Artificial intelligence and global flows

  Global Media and Communication · 2024-03-18 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  As a global technoscientific form involving various forces and stakeholders, research and development (R&D) in artificial intelligence (AI) transcends corporate, national and institutional boundaries. Incorporating transnational rhetorical analysis and corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this article examines the global cultural flows surrounding AI constructed in official and media discourses in the US and China. We propose a new theoretical concept of knowledgescape that expands the toolkits of global flows and provides new explanatory power about global innovation and competition. This concept sheds light on the global processes, mechanisms and power dynamics of the production, dissemination, consumption and contestation of cutting-edge knowledge.

  PublisherDOI

• Language of the Student Personal Statement

  Elsevier eBooks · 2024-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Critical Contextualized Approach to Studying Clashing Risk Cultures

  SUNY Press eBooks · 2023-09-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Risk Communication about COVID-19 in India: Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Mainstream News Reports about India’s Wave I and Wave II Outbreaks

  Journalism and Media · 2023-07-18 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This study employed critical rhetorical analysis and corpus-assisted discourse analysis in analyzing the news coverage of India’s transition from Wave I to Wave II Focusing on news coverage from the Times of India, we examined how COVID-19 was constructed in the public and technical spheres and how India’s COVID-19 risk communication was shaped by unique geopolitical, cultural, infrastructural, and material factors. Our analysis highlights the tendency to datify COVID as statistics and case numbers, which both dehumanizes the patients and caretakers while erasing human suffering. It also reveals the critical roles played by the geopolitical, socioeconomic, infrastructural, and material conditions in shaping the national and regional capacities to respond to such far-reaching crises. Last but not least, affect and trust play prominent roles in the public coping with emerging pandemics given the uncertainties on all fronts, and thus should be centrally highlighted and addressed in public policies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Critical Contextualized Approach to Studying Clashing Risk Cultures:

  State University of New York Press eBooks · 2023-09-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Efficient Prediction of Stability Boundaries in Milling Considering the Variation of Tool Features and Workpiece Materials

  Sensors · 2023-11-03 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Theoretical stability analysis is a significant approach to predicting chatter-free machining parameters. Accurate milling stability predictions highly depend on the dynamic properties of the process system. Therefore, variations in tool and workpiece attributes will require repeated and time-consuming experiments or simulations to update the tool tip dynamics and cutting force coefficients. Considering this problem, this paper proposes a transfer learning framework to efficiently predict the milling stabilities for different tool–workpiece assemblies through reducing the experiments or simulations. First, a source tool is selected to obtain the tool tip frequency response functions (FRFs) under different overhang lengths through impact tests and milling experiments on different workpiece materials conducted to identify the related cutting force coefficients. Then, theoretical milling stability analyses are developed to obtain sufficient source data to pre-train a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) for predicting the limiting axial cutting depth (aplim). For a new tool, the number of overhang lengths and workpiece materials are reduced to design and perform fewer experiments. Then, insufficient stability limits are predicted and further utilized to fine-tune the pre-trained MLP. Finally, a new regression model to predict the aplim values is obtained for target tool–workpiece assemblies. A detailed case study is developed on different tool–workpiece assemblies, and the experimental results validate that the proposed approach requires fewer training samples for obtaining an acceptable prediction accuracy compared with other previously proposed methods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Content Strategy and Intercultural Communication: Analysis of International Websites of Chinese Universities

  Journal of Technical Writing and Communication · 2023-05-16 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  This study examines the content strategies of 12 Chinese universities’ international websites. Going beyond the Hofstede–Hall model, we explore a novel mixed-method study using both content strategy analysis and user research to investigate intercultural web-based communication strategies. Our study identifies the impacts of Chinese cultural and socio-political values on web content and the mismatch between such values and the information needs of globally distributed prospective students. We conclude that universities’ web content strategies should fully understand target audiences’ needs. Designers benefit from doing stakeholder interviews and competitor analysis to provide relevant, accurate, and accessible information to users from different cultures.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Convergence Accelerator Phase I (RAISE): Developing Intelligent Tech. for Workforce Empowerment: Credential Gap Diagnostics and Personalized Recommenders for Jobs and Retraining

  NSF · $985k · 2019–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Yeqing Kong

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Xiaoli Li

  Institute for Infocomm Research

  3 shared

• Jianfen Chen

  2 shared

• Elizabeth A. Pitts

  North Carolina State University

  2 shared

• Xin Ding

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  2 shared

• Zhishan Guo

  North Carolina State University

  1 shared

• Jiacheng Wang

  Huazhong University of Science and Technology

  1 shared

• Feng Tan

  1 shared

Labs

• Research and EngagementPI

Awards & honors

• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference on…
• 2013 Nell Ann Pickett Award for Best Article in Technical Co…
• 2008 Editor’s Pick New Scholar Award for Written Communicati…
• Faculty Innovation Fellow, Business and Higher Education For…
• Provosts Faculty Fellow, Office of the Executive Vice Chance…