RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: MULTIMEDIA DATASETS
In this month’s newsletter, we delve into the themes of papers presented by cosmographers, both of which were presented and published recently at the SBP-BRiMS 2023 conference. Both delve into multimedia datasets, specifically YouTube and Instagram, although for different purposes. “The Role of Instagram’s Multimedia on Social Unrest in Brazil and Peru: A Connective Action Analysis Based on Diffusion of Innovation and Cognitive Mobilization Theories,” by Mainuddin Shaik, Niloofar Yousefi, Nitin Agarwal, and Billy Spann, attempts to see how multimedia objects such as images, videos, and reels on Instagram can more effectively mobilize social unrest and mobs.
SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL SECURITY: COSMOS LEADING GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH ON MITIGATING SOCIO-COGNITIVE SECURITY THREATS
In the ever-digital age, international conflicts rely more and more on cognitive warfare, such as mis- or disinformation campaigns, or, more generally, influence campaigns that are propagated online. These are threats which take significant research into computer and information science to mitigate—research that the COSMOS Research Center has and continues to pioneer. Most recently, COSMOS Director Dr. Nitin Agarwal presented such research in a talk titled “Developing Socio-computational Approaches to Mitigate Socio-cognitive Security Threats in a Multi-platform Multimedia-rich Information Environment” at the 7th NYU Computational Disinformation Symposium, held on December 5th of 2023.
HICSS 2024: Research into Multimedia Social Mobilization
The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) has been known worldwide as one of the longest standing scientific communities in the information systems and technology fields. Since 1968, it has become a respected destination attracting high-caliber scholars and professionals in academia, industry, and government agencies around the world to discuss their cutting-edge research.
NEW COSMOGRAPHER HIRE: FADIME LEDFORD HIRED AS GRANT MANAGER
COSMOS just hired a new grant manager Fadime Ledford! We spoke to Fadime to know her aspirations and goals from her role, what she brings to it, and what attracted her to COSMOS…
DATA REVOLUTION PROPHESIZED: OLANREWAJU OYINBOOKE’S INSIGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF JOBS IN DATA ANALYTICS
New cosmographer Olanrewaju Oyinbooke is already making waves! Olanrewaju, who joined COSMOS in Fall of 2023, recently was recognized by Date Science Connect in their ebook titled “99 Data Influencers to Follow in 2023”. This is a book covering all the influencers out there making a difference in the area of generative AI. Data Science Connect is a grassroots meetup community, formed in 2012, that now spans more than 100 thousands members, 80+ countries, with 250+ events since its conception. It also contains a significant number of Fortune 500 data executives.
EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION: RIDWAN AMURE’S IMPACT AS A PYTHON AND EXCEL INSTRUCTOR
Cosmographers also help the advancement and the teaching of society, like guiding the next generation of researchers, whether they are new graduate students, budding undergraduates, or even non collegiate students applying their computational skills out in the industry workforce. Thus part of being a cosmographer is taking the classroom experience and applying it practically, from teaching new students, to practicing computer language use, to working within the computer and information sciences industries in general. Ridwan Amure, who has been at COSMOS since Fall of 2023, has done such: this last September, Ridwan served as a Python and Excel teacher for Green Network Initiative (GNI).
COSMOGRAPHER CORNER: NEW STUDENTS JOIN COSMOS
COSMOS welcomes several new students, who recently joined the research center. Here we have their insights into their personalities, the desires that they bring to COSMOS, and what they study at UA Little Rock and in general. Below are several brief interviews of our new students Tenzing Briggs (joined Summer 2023), Remi Oni (joined Fall 2023), Samin Morshed (joined Fall 2023), and Selimhan Dagtas (joined Spring 2024).