Newsletter
Prof. Nitin Agarwal Selected in the IEEE Distinguished Visitor Program (DVP)
Prof. Nitin Agarwal has been selected for the IEEE Distinguished Visitor Program, a prestigious honor recognizing global leaders who contribute to research, education, and the technical community. His interdisciplinary work at the intersection of AI, social computing, and cognitive threat analysis, along with his leadership within IEEE Computer Society, has had significant impact across academia, industry, and government, shaping policy and advancing digital innovation. Beyond his research achievements, he is recognized as an exceptional communicator and role model, whose global influence continues to inspire and strengthen the next generation of technology innovators.
Hot off the Press: Detecting Anomalous YouTube Channels Using Co-Commenter Networks
COSMOS advances global research in AI and social network analytics with a new study in Springer’s Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining, introducing SEPS, a novel framework for detecting anomalous YouTube channels using co-commenter networks and graph neural networks. Leveraging a massive Indo-Pacific dataset, SEPS effectively identifies suspicious behaviors, such as engagement manipulation and coordinated campaigns, while outperforming prior methods in accuracy and robustness, even with minimal labeled data. The study highlights that anomalous activity emerges from collective interaction patterns, offering powerful implications for platform governance, content integrity, and the resilience of online ecosystems.
Research Spotlight: AI Insights on Trust and Toxicity
COSMOS showcased two groundbreaking AI-driven studies at the 18th International SBP-BRiMS 2025 conference hosted by Carnegie Mellon University, addressing critical challenges in digital trust and online toxicity. The first, an award-winning study on TikTok and the 2024 Taiwan presidential election, reveals how symbolic communication, especially cultural and social symbols, enhances democratic trust, while the second demonstrates that incorporating generational conversational context significantly improves cross-platform toxicity prediction across Reddit and Telegram. Together, these studies highlight the transformative role of AI and social computing in decoding complex online behaviors, advancing scientific methods, and informing strategies to strengthen democratic discourse and mitigate harmful digital interactions.
New Hire: Richa Pokhrel, Graduate Assistant at COSMOS Research Center
COSMOS welcomes Richa Pokhrel as a Graduate Assistant, bringing a strong background in software engineering, backend development, and data systems from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. At the COSMOS Research Center, she contributes to building and analyzing social media intelligence systems while advancing her skills in large-scale data processing, interdisciplinary collaboration, and AI-driven research. Inspired by Prof. Nitin Agarwal’s vision, she aims to grow as a full-stack developer and researcher, emphasizing curiosity, collaboration, and innovation in tackling complex socio-computational challenges.