A team led by Professor Xu Xin and Associate Professor Yi Cheng from the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) was awarded the 2025 AIS Impact Award by the Association for Information Systems (AIS) on December 15, 2025, at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) held in Nashville, the United States.

Associate Professor Lin Zhijie, from the same department, received the AIS Mid-Career Award from the AIS, while Lin and Yi were also honored with the MIS Quarterly Outstanding Associate Editor Award by the editorial board of MIS Quarterly.

AIS Impact Award

The AIS Impact Award is the highest annual honor in the field of information systems, with social practice impact its core evaluation criterion. A maximum of three awards are granted globally each year, recognizing research achievements with outstanding social impact and practical value.

The winning project by the team led by Tsinghua SEM, "Empowering Hearing-Impaired Individuals with AR Smart Glasses," focuses on how information technology can tangibly improve the communication and learning experiences of the hearing-impaired community. It explores innovative applications of augmented reality technology in accessible communication and inclusive learning scenarios, demonstrating the immense potential of information systems research to promote technology for good and advance social equity and inclusive development.

The International Conference on Information Systems 2025

The project team also includes Professor Li Ting from Rotterdam School of Management (a visiting professor at Tsinghua SEM), Assistant Professor Yang Zherui from IE Business School in Spain, and Associate Professor Li Tao from the University of Science and Technology of China, an alumnus from the Tsinghua SEM doctoral class of 2014. The project was conducted in collaboration with the alumni-founded company LLVISION and received support from organizations including the Beijing Association of the Deaf.

It is the second AIS Impact Award Chinese mainland scholars have received since its establishment and the first for Tsinghua SEM. The award shows that the school's research achievements have gained high recognition from an international authoritative academic organization for their social impact and practical value, reflecting the school's research strength and international influence in the deep integration of information technology and social responsibility.

Other AIS Awards

The AIS Mid-Career Award recognizes individuals in the middle stages of their careers who have made outstanding contributions to research, teaching and/or service in the information systems field, with a maximum of six awards granted globally each year. Lin Zhijie is the first awardee from a Chinese mainland university since the award's inception.

An award certificate for the AIS Mid-Career Award presented to Lin Zhijie.

The MIS Quarterly editorial board also named Lin Zhijie and Yi Cheng as 2024-2025 MIS Quarterly Outstanding Associate Editors, recognizing their exceptional editorial service and academic contributions during the peer review process.

Lin Zhijie and Yi Cheng are named as 2024-2025 MIS Quarterly Outstanding Associate Editors.

Founded in 1977, MIS Quarterly is on the internationally recognized UTD24 Journal List, a database created by The University of Texas at Dallas to track publications in 24 leading business journals. The goal of MIS Quarterly is to enhance and communicate knowledge concerning the development of IT-based services, the management of IT resources, and the use, impact and economics of IT.

The AIS was founded in 1994 and is an authoritative academic organization dedicated to global information systems research, teaching and practice. It currently has over 5,400 members from more than 100 countries and regions, encompassing academic researchers, educators, and practicing institutions in the field of information systems. As the annual flagship conference organized by AIS, ICIS is the most influential and authoritative academic conference in the global information systems field.

Tsinghua SEM's achievement of securing three awards not only affirms the individual academic achievements and service contributions of the recipients, but also reflects the school's comprehensive strength and international competitiveness in the field of information systems research.

Source: Development and Planning & Research Affairs Office

Editor: Ren Zhongxi