The SBP-BRiMS conference, which stands for Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation, is an interdisciplinary gathering that serves as a platform for researchers, experts, and scholars from various disciplines to come together and share their insights on topics related to computational social science, social computing, and behavior modeling. This annual event plays a crucial role in advancing the field by promoting collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas among researchers from different backgrounds.

The SBP-BRiMS conference was founded by Professor Nitin Agarwal, and this was spurred from the realization of the need for an inclusive platform that allowed researchers to interact and collaborate across the boundaries that traditional conferences have often maintained.

Prior to its inception, researchers were expected to attend either computer science conferences or conferences specific to their own fields. However, this scenario posed a challenge for those who were pursuing interdisciplinary research. SBP-BRiMS emerged as a response to this challenge, aiming to provide a space where researchers from various disciplines could exchange ideas and collaborate on research that transcended traditional boundaries. The US Army Research Office has also supported this effort for a number of years. 

Several cosmographers were invited to present at the SBP-BRiMS 17th International Conference, and one of the key themes explored was the role of computational approaches in understanding and combating misinformation in the digital age. The following cosmographers’ papers were accepted and presented:

  • Niloofar Yousefi, Nahiyan Nabil, Billy Spann, and Nitin Agarwal, presenting their paper Predicting Toxicity in Reddit Discussion Threads
  • Obianuju Okeke, Mert Can Cakmak, Ugochukwu Onyepunuka, Billy Spann, and Nitin Agarwal, presenting their paper The Effects of Emotion and Morality Bias in YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm on the China-Uyghur Crisis
  • Mayor Inna Gurung, Hayder Al Rubaye, Nitin Agarwal, and Ahmed Al-Taweel, presenting their paper Analyzing Narrative Evolution about South China Sea Dispute on YouTube: An Exploratory Study Using GPT-3
  • Shadi Shajari, Mustafa Alassad, and Nitin Agarwal, presenting their paper Detecting Suspicious Commenter Mob Behaviors on YouTube Using Graph2Vec 

This conference, like most, gives our cosmographers the opportunity to publish their research internationally. This particular conference offers a selective single paper track and poster session, featuring high-quality tutorials and nationally recognized keynote speakers.

The essence of SBP-BRiMS lies in its interdisciplinary nature. Researchers from diverse disciplines, ranging from engineering and computational sciences to the social and health sciences, come together to explore the complexities of human behavior and societal dynamics. This cross-disciplinary approach fosters collaborative efforts to address challenges at multiple levels of analysis, from the micro-scale of cells to the macro-scale of societies.