About
I’m a fifth-year Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), specializing in human-agent dispute resolution. My work focuses on AI-mediated dispute resolution and negotiation, preference elicitation, agent design, and embodiment. I design and run large-scale human-subject studies to evaluate these systems.
5,000+ study participants
International conference talks
LLMs • RL • Human-AI experiments
Education
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University of Southern California — Los Angeles, CA
Ph.D. student in Computer Science (Expected Dec 2026), advised by Dr. Jonathan Gratch
M.Sc. in Computer Science -
University of Tulsa — Tulsa, OK (May 2021)
B.S. in Computer Science & Mathematics, Minor in High-Performance Computing — GPA 3.97 (Magna Cum Laude)
Experience
USC — Graduate Research Assistant
Aug 2021 – Present- Presented 5 AI talks at international conferences/workshops (Greece, Portugal, England, Australia, Singapore).
- Designed within/between-subject and mixed-factor experiments for human-AI research.
- Ran online studies with 5,000+ participants (MTurk, Prolific, USC student pool).
- Statistical analysis in Python and R (ANOVA, regression, correlation, moderation).
- Supervised 5 undergraduate + 5 graduate interns; mentored 3 REU interns.
- Experience with deep learning, reinforcement learning, and large language models.
USC — Graduate Teaching Assistant
Aug 2024 – May 2025- CSCI 534 Affective Computing: ran in-class experiments, office hours, grading.
- CSCI 102 Fundamentals of Computation: led labs, office hours, proctored exams, grading.
Publications
Google ScholarSelected
- Kwon, Shrestha, Han, Lin, Hale, Gratch, Mataric, Lucas. “Can LLMs Truly Embody Human Personality? Analyzing AI and Human Behavior Alignment in Dispute Resolution.” AAAI (AI for Social Impact), 2026.
- Rakshit, Hale, Chawla, Brett, Gratch. “Emotionally-Aware Agents for Dispute Resolution.” ACII, 2025.
- Hale, Kim, Gratch. “Provably fair algorithms may perpetuate racial and gender bias: A study of salary dispute resolution.” Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (Citizen-Centric AI Systems), 2025.
- Hale, Rakshit, Chawla, Brett, Gratch. “KODIS: A Multicultural Dispute Resolution Dialogue Corpus.” NAACL, 2025.
- Hale, Schweitzer, Gratch. “Pitfalls of Embodiment in Human-Agent Experiment Design.” IVA, 2024.
- Hale, Kim, Gratch. “Preference Interdependencies in a Multi-Issue Salary Negotiation.” IVA, 2022.
All
Talks
- Hale, Lin, Wu, Rong, Chawla, Lucas, & Gratch. “Instilling discipline in LLM-based negotiating agents.” IACM (87th annual conference), 2024.
- Schweitzer, Hale, Fast, Mell, Gratch. “Animated Agents in Negotiation.” IACM (86th annual conference), 2023.
Service
- Reviewer: AAAI (2025), AAMAS (2024), IVA (2024, 2025), CMAS Workshop (2024, 2025).
- Organizer: SICon Workshop (Program Chair 2024, 2025; Publication Chair 2023); ISRE Submission Chair (2022).
Skills
- Languages: Python, C, C++, C#, R, Java, JavaScript, MPI/OpenMP, MatLab
- Platforms/Libraries: Unity, Virtual Human Toolkit, Lioness Labs, TensorFlow, SciPy
Resume (PDF)
OpenContact
Email: jahale@usc.edu
Los Angeles, CA • USC Institute for Creative Technologies