Communication Networks Scholar Sandra González-Bailón Promoted to Full Professor

Congratulations to Sandra González-Bailón, who was recently promoted to Full Professor! She is also the director of a new center, the Center for Information Networks and Democracy (CIND), that explores the benefits and risks that information networks have for democracy.

Communication

Consensus and Contagion in Society

The Snowball Effect

Why do some companies become household names, while others flame out? How do certain memes go viral? And why do some social movements take off and spread, while others fizzle? Hidden Brain spoke with Damon Centola about social contagion, and how it can be harnessed to build a better world.

Communication
Sociology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Robert Ghrist Appointed Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

Robert Ghrist has been appointed the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in Penn Engineering, effective July 1, 2023. Ghrist is a pioneer in teaching calculus through electronic media, and his accolades as an educator include the Lindback Award and Penn Engineering’s S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award.

Electrical and Systems Engineering
Mathematics

Ubiquity of Data

How DAOs Could Bring Organizational Trust and Transparency

Decentralized autonomous organizations -- DAOs -- hold much promise, but practitioners and governments must be aware of risks, says Kevin Werbach, co-author of a DAO Toolkit that was released at this year’s World Economic Forum.

Legal Studies & Business Ethics

The hidden costs of AI: Impending energy and resource strain

In recent years, AI models like ChatGPT have seen notable improvements, with some people concerned about the societal impacts these new technologies may bring. Benjamin C. Lee discusses the energy and resource problems the could potentially come from AI computing.

Computer and Information Science
Electrical and Systems Engineering

Ubiquity of Data

Does more money correlate with greater happiness?

Reconciling previously contradictory results, researchers from Penn and Princeton including Warren Center affiliate Matthew Killingsworth find a steady association between larger incomes and greater happiness for most people but a rise and plateau for an unhappy minority.

People Analytics

Ubiquity of Data

Real or Fake Text? We Can Learn to Spot the Difference

As chatbots such as ChatGPT continue to spread into more facets of our lives, a team of researchers led by Chris Callison-Burch demonstrate that people can learn to spot the difference between machine-generated and human-written text.

Computer and Information Science

Ubiquity of Data

What Statistics are Most Likely to Promote Positive Actions During a Pandemic?

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials updated the public on the outbreak through statistics — case counts, vaccination rates, test distribution. A new study from Dolores Albarracín finds that some COVID statistics are more effective than others at encouraging people to change their behavior.

Communication
Health Management
Nursing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Ask Like an Expert: What Can Network Theory Offer Public Health?

Moved to action by the Covid-19 pandemic, Shirin Saeedi Bidokhti and Saswati Sarkar use their expertise in wireless networking to create improved testing and vaccination strategies for disease containment.

Electrical and Systems Engineering

Resilience in Networked Systems

U.S. Census Data Vulnerable to Attack Without Enhanced Privacy Measures

With computing power no stronger than a commercial laptop, Aaron Roth and Michael Kearns recently demonstrated that statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau can be reverse engineered to reveal protected info about individual respondents.

Computer and Information Science

Social Norms for Algorithms

News

Communication Networks Scholar Sandra González-Bailón Promoted to Full Professor

The Snowball Effect

Robert Ghrist Appointed Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

How DAOs Could Bring Organizational Trust and Transparency

The hidden costs of AI: Impending energy and resource strain

Does more money correlate with greater happiness?

Real or Fake Text? We Can Learn to Spot the Difference

What Statistics are Most Likely to Promote Positive Actions During a Pandemic?

Ask Like an Expert: What Can Network Theory Offer Public Health?

U.S. Census Data Vulnerable to Attack Without Enhanced Privacy Measures