This January, UA Little Rock hosted the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees meeting. During the meeting, UA Little Rock Chancellor Dr. Christina Drale played a video—featuring the brand new COSMOS Research Center—that offered an in-depth look at COSMOS’ groundbreaking research and the center’s innovative work. Click here to watch the video.

Prof. Nitin Agarwal underscored the mission of COSMOS, stating, “[COSMOS] is a pioneering research center that I’ve established to make our societies safe, resilient,…stronger, to combat cognitive threats.” He elaborated on the significance of their research, explaining, “We have seen the power of social media where a tweet or video can transform an individual to a group, to a mob, and to a violent mob…We are developing research-driven methods to examine and mitigate such cognitive threats to our society.”

PhD student Sayantan Bhattacharya shared insights on the research approach at COSMOS, noting, “Prof. Agarwal always encourages us to see a research problem from multiple angles, and also pushes us from time to time to understand the research problem not just from the technical perspective but also if the solution of that research problem is going to have a broader societal impact.”

Echoing this emphasis on innovation, the Arkansas Research Alliance CEO Bryan Barnhouse highlighted, “We know what we’re good at as a state, based on the competencies, the capacities, and the strengths of our individual research institutions.”