Her research focus is on the broader field of human-computer interaction (HCI), and she is especially interested in designing technology for wellbeing and social good purposes. Her research contributes to the larger understanding of how people with physical and psychological disabilities experience and interact with technology, such as games and virtual reality (VR) environments. She deeply embeds a design-thinking approach, working in partnership with clinicians, caregivers, and patients to solve their problems and reach their goals through a user-centered framework.
With a focus on active learning and critical thinking, Tong has taught courses in HCI, health care technology, multimedia programming, VR, and games. Her goal as a university educator is to create a student-centered learning environment where the students can turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills and, more importantly, make changes in the real world.
Tong has published in many top academic conferences and journals on HCI, VR, games, and embodied interface technologies. She has also been an editor, committee member and reviewer for conferences and journals. She has received best game awards and nominations at ACM SIGCHI and the Microsoft Unite Conference. She has also received many national and university fellowships and awards, such as the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Provost Prize of Distinction Award, C.D. Nelson Memorial Scholarship, MITACS Research Training Award, SFU Big Data Graduate Scholarship, McQuarrie Chronic Pain Scholarship, and NSERC Postdoc Fellowship.
Tong has a B.Eng. in electronic engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in interactive arts and technology from Simon Fraser University, Canada . Before joining Duke Kunshan, she was a postdoctoral scholar in the Pervasive Wellbeing Technology Lab at Stanford University's School of Medicine.