PhD Student in Department of Modern Languages
What is your research background and current field of research?
I am currently conducting doctoral research focused on the complex dynamic systems relationship between cultural cognition and multimodal representation in translation. My interdisciplinary background blends linguistics, translation studies, and cognitive science. By applying word embedding models such as BERT and Word2Vec alongside clustering analysis, I aim to uncover the cognitive dynamics and culturally driven mechanisms underlying translators' decision-making processes.
Which BEAR Services have been most helpful to you in your research?
So far, the most helpful BEAR Services for me have been the Software Carpentries training workshops. Through these sessions, I gained hands-on experience with tools like R, Python, and Matlab, which significantly enhanced my data processing and analytical skills. Although my current datasets are still manageable on my personal device, I look forward to using the Research Data Store (RDS) for secure storage and backup in my future multimodal translation research.
How widespread do you think BEAR Services are known in your School and how do you plan to spread the word?
There are still quite a few researchers in my School who are unfamiliar with the wide range of services offered by the BEAR team and have yet to realise the potential of these tools for corpus processing, multimodal analysis, and data management. As a BEAR Champion, I’m keen to share the insights and experiences I’ve gained through BEAR with fellow researchers. I hope to encourage more humanities scholars to experience, explore, and benefit from what BEAR has to offer.
How can researchers in your school/college contact you?
The best way to reach me is via my University of Birmingham email address: mxz140@student.bham.ac.uk
What's an interesting fact about you?
I’m a passionate music enthusiast! I play six instruments, including traditional Chinese ones, and I love attending concerts. Music is an essential part of my life—I truly enjoy every moment spent with it.