NetSci 2017

June 8, 2017Fil, Newsconferences, networksfil

NetSci, the flagship annual conference of the Network Science Society, was hosted this year by the Indiana University Network Science Institute (IUNI) with Filippo Menczer and Olaf Sporns serving as general co-chairs. NetSci 2017 was the largest meeting to date, since the conference started at IU Bloomington in 2006. NetSci fosters interdisciplinary communication and collaboration in network science research across computer and information sciences, physics, mathematics, statistics, the life sciences, neuroscience, environmental sciences, social sciences, finance and business, arts and design. NetSci 2017 was held June 19 – 23, 2017 at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis. More…

Clayton Davis awarded AI prize

May 18, 2017Fil, NaN, Newsawardfil

Clayton A Davis Every year the Informatics Department awards a prize to an Associate Instructor (AI) who has excelled at teaching and service. For the 2016-2017 academic year, CNetS PhD candidate Clayton A. Davis was singled out among a crowd of outstanding nominees as being particularly deserving of this award. The nomination noted Clayton’s commitment to teaching and learning, the above-and-beyond work that he put into preparing creative assignments, and his overall excellence as an instructor. Clayton was “born to disseminate knowledge,” and we predict for him a brilliant career as a teacher and communicator, as well as researcher. Congratulations!

New Ph.D. Graduate

May 8, 2017CASCI, News, RochaBoolean networks, CASCI, complex networks, complex systems, control, discrete dynamical systems, dynamicsrocha_luis

Congratulations to Santosh Manicka for successfully defending his dissertation entitled “The Role of Canalization in the Spreading of Perturbations in Boolean Networks” on April 24th 2017, Supervised by Luis Rocha. Santosh completed a PhD degree in the Complex Systems track of the Informatics PhD Program.

New Ph.D. Graduate

April 11, 2017CASCI, News, RochaBoolean networks, CASCI, complex networks, complex systems, control, discrete dynamical systems, dynamicsrocha_luis

Congratulations to Alexander Gates for successfully defending his dissertation entitled “The anatomical and effective structure of complex systems” on April 3rd 2017, co-supervised by Randy beer and Luis Rocha. Alex completed a dual-PhD degree in the Complex Systems track of the Informatics PhD Program as well as the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University. Alex has accepted a postdoctoral position at Northeastern University at the Center for Complex Network Research.

ICWSM 2017 Workshop on Digital Misinformation

December 29, 2016Fil, NaN, Newsbots, computational social science, fact-checking, ICWSM, misinformationgciampag

Update: workshop report available (AI Magazine Spring 2018 | DOI:10.1609/aimag.v39i1.2783 | Preprint)

The deluge of online and offline misinformation is overloading the exchange of ideas upon which democracies depend. Many have argued that echo chambers are increasingly constricting the ability of alternative perspectives to provide a check on one’s viewpoints. Suffering fragmentation and declining public trust, the Fourth Estate struggles to carry out its traditional editorial role distinguishing facts from fiction. Without those safeguards, fake news, conspiracy theories, and deceptive social bots proliferate, facilitating the manipulation of public opinion. Countering misinformation while protecting freedom of speech will require collaboration between stakeholders across industry, journalism, and academia. To foster such collaboration, the Workshop on Digital Misinformation will be held in conjunction with the 2017 International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) in Montreal, on May 15, 2017. Continue reading ICWSM 2017 Workshop on Digital Misinformation →

Hoaxy: A Platform for Tracking Online Misinformation

December 21, 2016Fil, NaN, Newsinformation networks, large-scale infrastructures, misinformation, papers, social media, Truthyfil

diffusion networks of hoaxes in Twitter — Misinformation (yellow/brown) spreads within the healthy (blue) Twittersphere network. Left: chemtrails conspiracies mix with conversations about the sky. Right: antivax campaigns penetrate discussions about the flu.

UPDATE (21 Dec 2016): we just launched Hoaxy, our open platform to visualize the online spread of claims and fact checking.

Continue reading Hoaxy: A Platform for Tracking Online Misinformation →

The Social Network of Healthcare – How Instagram and Twitter are Providing New Insights

October 4, 2016CASCI, News, Rocha, RochaCASCI, computational social science, health, Instagram, Network Analysis, Twitterrocha_luis

Sponsored by Persistent Systems. Luis Rocha, Director of the Complex Systems PhD track in the School of Information and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington, explains the new software-driven approach to medical research. Big data generated through social media such as Twitter and Instragram provides a far deeper and fuller examination of the impact of medicines and diseases, leading to greater actionable insights to improve the efficacy of prevention and treatment.