Center for IDeaS welcomes new and continuing Knight Fellows for spring 2021
By Jennifer Britton
The Center for Informed Democracy and Social-cybersecurity (IDeaS) at Carnegie Mellon University welcomes new and continuing Knight Fellows for spring 2021. Knight Fellows contribute to a national community of scholars, practitioners and policymakers working together to strengthen democracy by combating hate speech and disinformation. Find more information here.
Daniele Bellutta
Graduate Research Assistant, Institute for Software Research
Daniele Bellutta is a doctoral student in the societal computing program in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University advised by Dr. Kathleen Carley. He holds bachelor's degrees in computer science and political science from The Ohio State University as well as a master's degree in computer science from Dartmouth College.
Project Title: A Methodical Exploration of Dark Web Disinformation
A social-cyber forensic study of the Dark Web, this project aims to conduct a methodical study of disinformation on the less visible platforms sheltered on the Dark Web. The goal of this project is to collect data from Dark Web forums similar to popular social media and apply techniques that have been used on data from the Surface Web.
Catherine King
Graduate Student Researcher, Institute for Software Research
Catherine King is a Ph.D. student in Societal Computing at Carnegie Mellon University advised by Dr. Kathleen Carley. Before coming to CMU, she earned a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Computational Operations Research at The College of William and Mary.
Project Title: Understanding How Individuals React After Realizing They Have Shared Misinformation on Social Media
This project studies individuals who share misinformation and how they may react when shown the content of a post they shared is false. Adding to existing research, this project will help us better understand who is spreading misinformation and why.
James Michelson
PhD candidate in Logic, Computation and Methodology, Philosophy
James Michelson is a PhD candidate in Logic, Computation and Methodology at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Philosophy, advised by Dr. David Danks. He holds a MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto and a BSc in Government from the London School of Economics.
Project Title: Designing Resilient Democratic Institutions
This project applies the tools of mechanism design in economic theory together with more classical approaches in political theory to investigate questions of institutional design, examining the possibility of building more resilient democratic institutions that can combat the threat of disinformation.
Isabel Murdock
Graduate Student Researcher, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Isabel Murdock is a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computing Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and is advised by Dr. Kathleen M. Carley and Dr. Osman Yağan. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from CMU, while completing Air Force ROTC at the University of Pittsburgh.
Project Title: Modeling Misinformation Diffusion over Diverse Multi-Platform Networks with Real-World Verification
This project aims to predict how dis/misinformation will spread across social media platforms and evaluate mitigation measures leading to advice on countering techniques within the context of a multi-platform strategy.
Christopher Rodriquez
Graduate Student Researcher, Behavioral Marketing & Decision Research
Chris Rodriguez is a PhD student in Behavioral Marketing & Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University in the Tepper School of Management and the Department of Social and Decision Sciences where he is advised by Danny Oppenheimer.
Project Title:
This project aims to try and stop the misinformation from being disseminated via social media via a CAPTCHA-like process. To the extent that bot-checks can be created that don't impose a significant burden on humans but nonetheless lock out bots, platforms can then adopt those methods to stop bots before any misinformation is created or spread. In other words, our goal isn't to retroactively identify bots, but rather to prospectively identify bots before they post.
Joshua Uyheng
Graduate Student Researcher, Institute for Software Research
Joshua Uyheng is a third-year PhD student in societal computing at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Dr. Kathleen Carley. He holds an MS in societal computing from Carnegie Mellon University, and undergraduate degrees in mathematics and psychology from the Ateneo de Manila University.
Project Title: Hate Speech in Online Social Networks: A Social Cybersecurity Perspective
This project poses the question: How can we detect, characterize and assess the impacts of hate speech in online social networks? Examining instances of online hate in terms of psycholinguistic dimensions, its social dimensions, and its tactical dimensions in the cyber-mediated environment of social media, this project will develop key insights into understanding online hate speech and help to curb its spread and impact in society.
Ramon Villa-Cox
Graduate Student Researcher, Institute for Software Research
Ramon Villa-Cox is a graduate student researcher at the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University. His advisor is Kathleen M. Carley.
Project Title: Leveraging stance of responses enrich stance classification and disinformation prediction algorithms on Twitter
This project examines the concept of “stance” in online conversations and uses machine-learning to identify and classify misleading and false information, particularly in the context of South American protests. By adding to existing datasets, this research will help to develop new indicators essential to determine the effectiveness of disinformation campaigns.