Is social media good or bad for social unity?

In a new paper in Social Issues and Policy Review, Sandra González-Bailón and Yphtach Lelkestake stock of the existing studies across multiple fields that interrogate social media’s effect on social cohesion, establishing what we know to date.

Communication

Consensus and Contagion in Society

How species partnerships evolve

Symbiotic relationships are everywhere in nature. In the journal Evolution, Erol Akçay and co-authors consider the evolutionary dynamics that govern how two forms of specialization—cooperative or antagonistic—as well as generalist symbioses arise, persist, or wane in a model framework using game theory.

Biology

Ubiquity of Data

Wharton Researchers Build Algorithm to Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Hamsa Bastani and Pia Ramchandani are using machine learning to shine a light on sex trafficking: they spent countless hours running trials, examining the results, and redesigning the algorithms to get everything right. The ultimate goal, they said, was to “train” the algorithms to hit the right target through the right keywords.

Operations Information and Decisions

Social Norms for Algorithms

Through the lens: A digital depiction of dyslexia

Artist-in-residence and visiting scholar Rebecca Kamen has blended AI and art to produce animated illustrations representing how a dyslexic brain interprets information, inspired by network visualizations from Dani Bassett and Ph.D. candidate Dale Zhou.

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering

Ubiquity of Data

ASSET Center Inaugural Seed Grants Will Fund Trustworthy AI Research in Healthcare

Penn Engineering’s newly established ASSET Center aims to make AI-enabled systems more “safe, explainable and trustworthy” by studying the fundamentals of the artificial neural networks that organize and interpret data to solve problems. The center will be funding projects from Dani Bassett, Lyle Ungar, and Edgar Dobriban.

Bioengineering
Computer and Information Science
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Statistics

Ubiquity of Data

Turning Ugly Duckling Customers Into Beautiful Swans

Peter Fader shares insights about using retail data, boosting customer lifetime value, and his latest book on “The Customer-Base Audit: The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity” in this interview with Women's Wear Daily.

Marketing

Ubiquity of Data

The Physics of Us

“We’re using physics principles to understand life and living matter,” says Eleni Katifori, who studies vasculature in plants and animals. “But we are also using living matter as an inspiration to discover new physics, for asking the right questions or new questions.”

Physics and Astronomy

Ubiquity of Data

Using Data to Protect and Serve: How Analytics Can Drive Social Good

How can data impact our understanding of social problems and lead us to effective solutions? Hamsa Bastani and Duncan Watts spoke on a panel about using data to protect and serve at a recent Wharton School Beyond Business virtual lecture.

Communication
Computer and Information Science
Operations Information and Decisions

Ubiquity of Data

At Engaging Minds, three Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors take the stage

Alumni heard Dolores Albarracín talk about how conspiracy theories take hold at Penn's 24th Engaging Minds event, the first in person since 2019. "We have to trust our thinking abilities,” she said

Communication
Health Management
Nursing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Service Cards and ML Governance

Michael Kearns joined the TWIML AI Podcast to discuss responsible AI, ML governance, the announcement of service cards, and their take on “model cards” at a holistic, system level as opposed to an individual model level.

Computer and Information Science

Social Norms for Algorithms

News

Is social media good or bad for social unity?

How species partnerships evolve

Wharton Researchers Build Algorithm to Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Through the lens: A digital depiction of dyslexia

ASSET Center Inaugural Seed Grants Will Fund Trustworthy AI Research in Healthcare

Turning Ugly Duckling Customers Into Beautiful Swans

The Physics of Us

Using Data to Protect and Serve: How Analytics Can Drive Social Good

At Engaging Minds, three Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors take the stage

Service Cards and ML Governance