Research

My research concentrates on computational models of social and information trust, especially in networked scenarios.
Best papers awards at CogSima2018, GlobeCom2017, SocialCom2013, Brims2013.
Currently serving as senior PC-member at IJCAI 2019 and PhD Symposium Chair at WebSci 2019 and Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Internet Technology ACM TOIT.

Modeling Trust in Context

My 2013 book on "Modeling Trust Context in Networks" discusses how application scenarios change the significant factors for modeling trust. In particular, social trust is not a single concept but incorporates many different constructs relating to both competence and integrity of individuals. These constructs may be evaluated differently cognitively and models that incorporate this distinction are able to provide a nuanced solution to important problems.

Review of my book in ACM Computing Reviews

Information Trust and Misinformation

My group has been involved in modeling information trust. Contextual elements of information trust incorporate both the expertise and integrity of sources, reliability of transmission channels, information features regarding its correctness as well as its impartiality and the expertise of the reader. One of our contributions to this field is the introduction of Nela Toolkit, demoed at WWW 2018 and data sets we have made available to the research community for analyzing news and media landscape in U.S.

Teaching

I think teaching is a collaborative process. I feel most accomplished when my students take an active role in their learning and demand more from me as their instructor. The courses I teach frequently are Database Systems and Computer Science I. I was deeply honored to be the recipient of the 2019 David M. Darrin Counseling Award (given by my lovely students) and 2015 Trustees' Outstanding Teacher Award at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Current Course

Past Courses