Noshir Contractor’s presentation at the Computational Social Science Luncheon at Northwestern University on May 21, 2018 was titled “Some Assembly Required: Teaming in the 21st Century”.… Read the rest
A new research article by Valentina Assenova demonstrates how innovations diffuse through networks. Her model incorporates opinion formation processes that occur through diffusion. She also tested her model with diffusion data from a field experiment previously collected in India (Banerjee et al., 2013).… Read the rest
Yuan successfully defended his dissertation titled “Inference in heterogeneous network”. His research leverages meta data, namely node attributes and dyadic attribute, and topology to infer the role that a node plays in the network. His committee consisted of Noshir Contractor, Wenxin Jiang, and Bruce Spencer. … Read the rest
Alexandros successfully defends his dissertation titled “Essays in Machine Learning, Social Networks and Marketing”. He designed novel distributed optimization algorithms and investigated problems that lie at the interface of social networks, and marketing, with an emphasis on customer retention and new product adoption.… Read the rest
Jackie successfully defended her dissertation titled “Teams and Organizing in the Digital Age: How Team Networks Form and Why They Perform”. Her research explores the relationship between how teams form and what they need to perform, highlighting a paradox between what teams do and what they ought to do. … Read the rest
Despite a resurgence of research on negative ties in social networks, a comprehensive understanding of negative and positive has yet to be provided. Incorporating evidence from prior 163 independent samples we examine whether the initiation of positive and negative relationships (i.e., out-degree) or the reception of positive and negative relationships (i.e., in-degree) is more impactful to the focal employee’s effectiveness.… Read the rest
Koustav Rudra joins SONIC as a post-doctoral researcher, following completion of his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He will contribute his text analytic skills to various projects at SONIC.… Read the rest
On April 25th 2018, Noshir Contractor participated in ceremonies to induct IIT Madras’ Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence as the first member of the Web Science Trust Network (WSTNet) of laboratories from India. https://rbc-dsai.iitm.ac.in/events/2018/04/25/Launch-Webscience-trust-network.html
Noshir Contractor received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering in 1983. He received the award during IITM’s 59th Institute Day ceremonies held on April 26th, 2018. http://alumni.iitm.ac.in/daa/list.php?yr=2018
Are we really going to Mars? The astronautical community certainly believes the answer is “yes.” Scientists all over the world are solving puzzles related to rocket reusability, human resistance to radiation exposure, and terraforming Mars to warm it up and give it a breathable atmosphere.… Read the rest
