Linguistic red flags from Facebook posts can predict future depression diagnoses

Analyzing social media data shared by consenting users across the months leading up to a depression diagnosis, the researchers of a new PNAS study, including Lyle Ungar, found their algorithm could accurately predict future depression.

Computer and Information Science

Ubiquity of Data

Sampath Kannan Wins India Research and Engagement Fund Grant for ‘Safe Internet of Things’

Sampath Kannan’s project, titled “The Safe Internet of Things,” will foster partnerships between Engineering and leading institutions in India to study how increasingly interconnected “smart” devices can be designed with built-in protections against malicious attacks and privacy breaches.

Computer and Information Science

Social Norms for Algorithms

Thinking Beyond Yourself Can Make You More Open to Healthy Lifestyle Choices

A new study from Emily Falk found that a simple priming exercise in which sedentary people think beyond themselves before viewing health messages can make those messages more effective. Not only did participants’ brain activity show that they were more receptive to the messages, but they actually became more physically active after.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

New center will study the complex genomics within individual cells

Junhyong Kim has been awarded an NIH Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science program grant to fund the creation of the Center for Sub-Cellular Genomics. He and Jim Eberwine will lead a multi-disciplinary team developing state-of-the-art technology to measure genomics elements at the scale of sub-cellular structures in single cells.

Biology

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

The Wharton Prof Teaching a Hands-On Crypto Class

Two weeks ago, Kevin Werbach welcomed students to a brand-new course entitled Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Distributed Ledger Technology. In what may well be a first for a college course, students are getting a small amount of money to purchase cryptocurrencies, which they’ll use in a series of class exercises.

Legal Studies & Business Ethics

Resilience in Networked Systems

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Cyrille Doux

Cyrille Doux is working in the field of cosmology with Professor Bhuvnesh Jain. He's interested in tackling various problems related to gravitational lensing in galaxy surveys with bayesian deep-learning techniques, such as deblending or galaxy interactions in clusters.

Physics and Astronomy

Ubiquity of Data

Can Social Media Networks Reduce Political Polarization on Climate Change?

Social media networks, which often foster partisan antagonism, may also offer a solution to reducing political polarization, according to new findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from a team led by Damon Centola.

Communication

Consensus and Contagion in Society

People Who Don’t Read the News Are Better at Predicting Which Articles Will Go Viral, Study Finds

In an upcoming article in the journal Cerebral Cortex, Emily Falk and co-authors analyzed the brain responses of 40 people as they read real New York Times health article headlines and abstracts. Which individuals were best able to predict the popularity of those articles? Those who don’t regularly read the news.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Penn names inaugural faculty co-directors of the Office of Penn First Plus Students

Robert Ghrist has been named an inaugural co-director of the Office of Penn First Plus Students. The Office is designed to to support first-generation and low-income students and offer a central, supportive home at Penn where students can form a vibrant community, learn more about resources, and connect with faculty and alumni.

Mathematics

Irrational Exuberance and the ‘FATE’ of Technology

Questions of verification, safety, and trust must be central when we embody intelligence in physical systems. Indeed, similar questions of fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics (FATE) should be addressed for data and information in society, writes Vijay Kumar.

Computer and Information Science
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Social Norms for Algorithms