United States Senator John Boozman visited UA Little Rock on Friday, November 15, 2019. He met with COSMOS director Dr. Nitin Agarwal and several researchers to gain insights about the work COSMOS is conducting.  COSMOS has been awarded a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop ways to track emerging cyber-social threats and strengthen social cybersecurity research infrastructure. Dr. Agarwal presented his talk “Deviant Mobs of the Internet: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures” during which he discussed how social media analytics research is used to track malicious activities, including the dissemination of propaganda, hoaxes, and disinformation to influence beliefs and behaviors. “WeRead More →

On Monday, September 23, participants of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program made a stop at UA Little Rock. Individuals from seven different countries spent the morning speaking with members of the COSMOS team to learn about the broad range of research taking place, particularly regarding social cyber security and misinformation on social media. The countries represented include Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, and Tajikistan. Delegates learned about tools COSMOS Cosmographers have developed in order to study disinformation on social media platforms. Blogtrackers is a tool designed by Dr. Nitin Agarwal in 2009 to to track and analyze blogs and gainRead More →

Don’t miss Friday’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology Colloquium. Adewale Obadimu and Thomas Marcoux will be discussing ‘Social Media Analysis for Defeating Disinformation’. Wale is a doctoral candidate currently exploring machine learning and deep learning techniques that can be used to understand an influence campaign. He does not only play a crucial role in the development of various COSMOS social media analytics tools but is also sharing his knowledge with other students here at COSMOS and in the classroom. Thomas is the lead developer for the YouTubeTracker tool. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science at University of Arkansas at LittleRead More →