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Spring/Summer 2022 Recipients

Analyzing Information Ecosystems in Western Pennsylvania

This effort intends to develop key data infrastructure and analysis protocols for significant disinformation flows in Western Pennsylvania, including related to vaccinations and election administration for the Pitt Disinformation Lab.

Michael Colaresi, William S. Dietrich II Professor, Political Science, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences; Pitt Cyber Research and Academic Director; Affiliate Scholar, Intelligent Systems Program Jessica Ghilani, Associate Professor of Communication, Pitt Greensburg
Lara Putnam, UCIS Research Professor of History, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences

Covid Disinformation in Western Pennsylvania and Rio de Janeiro Seminar Development 

Development of a seminar for researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Pittsburgh for the development of a collaboration to estimate the causal effect of disruptive vaccine disinformation on avoidable deaths.

Keila Grinberg, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies and Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh

Scaling Up Cyber Physical Systems Security Education - From Theory to Practice

To develop a testbed that integrates with Pitt’s Cyber Range and allows students to work together to explore how cyber-physical systems can be attacked and defended.

Ahmed Ibrahim, Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information
Daniel Cole, Associate Professor, Swanson School of Engineering; Director of Stephen R. Tritch Nuclear Engineering Program

Hour of Code and CEC/English Community Liaison and Digital Infrastructure

To continue building the infrastructure to bring Hour of Code events to 4-10th graders from under-resourced schools in Homewood.

Gayle Rogers, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Chair of English, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Jessica FitzPatrick, Lecturer, Director of Digital Narrative and Interactive Design Program, English Department, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

Modeling Threats to Sustainability of Social Networks as Critical Infrastructure

To develop a proof-of-concept for analyzing the coevolution of systematic threats under a unifying framework.

Amin Rahimian, Assistant Professor, Swanson School of Engineering
Jacob Otto, PhD student, Political Science, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

Extended Reality Tour of a Media Archaeology Lab to Widen Access to Material Resources Representing a History of Technology

To design and implement an extended reality (XR) tour of the Media Archeology Lab (MAL) at University of Colorado-Boulder to enable Pitt learners to virtually access MAL’s rich media holdings.

Jessica FitzPatrick, Lecturer, Director of Digital Narrative and Interactive Design Program, English Department, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
libi Striegl, Lab Manager, Media Archeology Lab, University of Colorado
Annette Vee, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Composition Program, Department of English
Dmitriy Babichenko, Clinical Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information

Studying Trust in Civic Data Portals and its Potential for Enhancement

To develop a better understanding of how intermediary organizations can enhance the trustworthiness of civic data. The proposed project will also help to identify research questions that can be explored in collaboration with Pitt faculty.

David Walker, Lead Software Developer, Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center University Center for Social & Urban Research
Jacob Biehl, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information
Robert Gradeck, Project Director, Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, University Center for Social & Urban Research 

Improving the Measurement and Moderation of Place-based Social Media in Western PA: Launching the Pittsburgh Disinformation Lab

Michael Colaresi, William S. Dietrich II Professor, Political Science, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences; Pitt Cyber Research and Academic Director; Affiliate Scholar, Intelligent Systems Program 
Lara Putnam, UCIS Research Professor of History, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 

The Forbes Corridor Colloquia:  The Social Influence of Advancing Technology in Pittsburgh and Beyond

Jennifer Keating, Senior Lecturer, Department of English
Nora Mattern, Teaching Assistant Professor, Director, Sara Fine Institute, School of Computing and Information

Influencing Detection through Multimodal Discourse and Vividness Analysis 

Adriana Kovashka, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information 
Diane Litman, Professor, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information 
Rebecca Hwa, Professor, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information 
Malihe Alikhani, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information  
Yu-Ru Lin, Associate Professor, Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information 
Tessa Provins, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 
Jeffrey Cohn, Professor, Psychology, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 

The Pittsburgh Data Jam: Increasing Data Science Education in High Schools

Judy Cameron, Professor, Psychiatry, School of Medicine 
Bryan Nelson, Assistant Instructor, Statistics, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 
Thomas Akiva, Associate Professor, Human Health & Development, School of Education  

Framework for Qualitative Research into Social Media and Misinformation

Lara Putnam, UCIS Research Professor of History, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 
Rosta Farzan, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, School of Computing and Information 
Mehr Latif, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sociology, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences 

Modeling the Effect of Disinformation on COVID-19 Vaccination Discourse in Online Social Networks 

Malihe Alikhani, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information 
Dmitriy Babichenko, Clinical Associate Professor, Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information 
Kar-Hai Chu, Associate Professor, Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health 
Michael Colaresi, William S. Dietrich II Professor, Political Science, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences; Pitt Cyber Research and Academic Director; Affiliate Scholar, Intelligent Systems Program 
Jason Colditz, Research Project Manager, PhD candidate and instructor, Institute for Clinical Research Education, School of Medicine 
Beth Hoffman, graduate student researcher, Institute for Clinical Research Education, School of Medicine 
Patrick Healy, PhD candidate, School of Computing and Information 
Jaime Sidani, Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine