2021 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation
July 06-09, 2021, Virtual

Important Information:

  1. Tutorials will be Tuesday July 6th, please add them to your registration.
  2. All presentations, unless otherwise notified, are for 15 minutes with 5 minutes of questions. You will be contacted by your session moderator with further presentation instructions.
  3. There must be a unique person registered for each paper (e.g., if you are on three papers - each paper needs to have a different person registered.)
  4. Please register immediately so that your talk is not pulled.
  5. When you register it will give you a confirmation that counts as your receipt.





MAIN CONFERENCE AGENDA (All times are in US Eastern Time)

Tuesday, July 6, 2021 - Tutorials Tentative - Conference Day 0

Time Tutorial Sessions
09:00 - 11:30 Dynamic and Spatial Networks
  • L. Richard Carley
 Socio-computational Analysis of Mobs: A Social Network and Cyber Forensic Approach
  • Samer Al-khateeb
  • Nitin Agarwal
 Designing a Training Game to Fight Misinformation on Social Media
  • Christine Lepird
  • Catherine King
11:30 - 12:00 Break
12:00 - 14:30 Influence Campaigns and the BEND Maneuvers
  • Janice Blane
  • Kathleen M. Carley
 Mesa - ABMs in Python: From Simple Models to a Modular Ecosystem
  • Tom Pike
  • Jackie Kazil
14:30 - 15:00 Break
15:00 - 17:30 High Dimensional Network Analysis
  • Jeff Reminga
 Analyzing Network Data in Python using NetworkX and DyNetworkX
  • Tanner Hilsabeck
  • Hung Do
  • Kevin S. Xu
 Socially Responsible AI Algorithms: Issues, Purposes, and Challenges
  • Lu Cheng
  • Fred Morstatter
  • Huan Liu

Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - Tentative Conference Day 1

Time Sessions
10:30 - 11:00 Welcome
11:00 - 12:30 COVID Methods and Validation 1
  • Malicious and Low Credibility URLs on Twitter during the AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Development. Sameera Horawalavithana, Ravindu De Silva, Mohamed Nabeel, Primal Wijesekera, Charitha Elvitigala and Adriana Iamnitchi
  • Identifying Shifts in Collective Attention to Topics on Social Media. Yuzi He, Ashwin Rao, Keith Burghardt and Kristina Lerman
  • Applying an Epidemiological Model to Evaluate the Propagation of Misinformation and Legitimate COVID-19-related Information on Twitter. Maryam Maleki, Mohammad Arani, Erik Buchholz, Esther Mead and Nitin Agarwal
  • Understanding the Hoarding Behaviors duringthe COVID-19 Pandemic using Large ScaleSocial Media Data. Xupin Zhang, Hanjia Lyu and Jieobo Luo
 Disinformation and Data Manipulation
  • Comparing the Behavioral Effects of Different Interactions with Sources of Misinformation. Daniele Bellutta and Kathleen Carley
  • Data Generation for Neural Disinformation Detection. Tharindu Kumarage, Amrita Bhattacharjee, Kai Shu and Huan Liu
  • Reinforcement Learning For Data Poisoning on Graph Neural Networks. Jacob Dineen, A S M Ahsan-Ul Haque and Matthew Bielskas
  • Simulating Social-Cyber Maneuvers to Deter Disinformation Campaigns. Janice Blane, J.D. Moffitt and Kathleen Carley
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30 COVID Methods and Validation 2
  • Mining Risk Behaviors from Social Media for Pandemic Crisis Preparedness and Response. Yasas Senarath, Steve Peterson, Hemant Purohit, Amanda Hughes and Keri Stephens
  • Mining Online Social Media to Drive Psychologically Valid Agent Models of Regional Covid-19 Mask Wearing. Peter Pirolli, Kathleen Carley, Adam Dalton, Bonnie Dorr, Christian Lebiere, Michael Martin, Brodie Mather, Konstantinos Mitsopoulos, Mark Orr and Tomek Strzalkowski
  • How Political is the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States? An Analysis using Transportation and Weather Data. Karan Vombatkere, Hanjia Lyu and Jiebo Luo
  • Fine-Grained Analysis of the Use of Neutral and Controversial Terms for COVID-19 on Social Media. Long Chen, Hanjia Lyu, Tongyu Yang, Yu Wang and Jiebo Luo
 Data Mining
  • Are Top School Students More Critical of Their Professors? Mining Comments on RateMyProfessors.com. Ziqi Tang, Yutong Wang and Jiebo Luo
  • Climate Action During COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond: A Twitter Text Mining Study. Mohammad Parsa, Lukasz Golab and Srinivasan Keshav
  • A Bibliometric Analysis of SBP-BRiMS. Amit Upadhyay and Wen Dong
  • An Analysis of Global News Coverage of Refugees using a Big Data Approach. Veysel Yesilbas, Jose Padilla and Erika Frydenlund
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:30 Social Issues
  • Assessing Bias in YouTube’s Video Recommendation Algorithm in a Cross-lingual and Cross-topical Context. Baris Kirdemir, Joseph Kready, Esther Mead, Muhammad Nihal Hussain, Nitin Agarwal and Donald Adjeroh
  • Examine Educational Opportunity and Inequality Using Machine Learning Methods with U.S. National Data. Yan Liu, Lok Heng Chau and Qiang Hao
  • An Identity-Based Framework for Generalizable Hate Speech Detection. Joshua Uyheng and Kathleen M. Carley
  • Comparing Network Structure of Humanitarian Response for Refugees and Migrants. Mackenzie Clark, Erika Frydenlund and Jose Padilla
 Social Cybersecurity
  • A Social Cybersecurity Analysis of the Images in Kashmir Black Day. Lynnette Ng and Kathleen M. Carley
  • The Integrated Game Transformation Framework and Cyberwar: What 2x2 Games tell us about Cyberattacks. Alexander Fretz, Jose Padilla and Erika Frydenlund
  • Social-Cyber Maneuvers Analysis During the COVID-19 Vaccine Initial Rollout. Janice Blane, Daniele Bellutta and Kathleen Carley
17:45 - 19:00 Keynote - Dr. Mia Bloom
19:00 - 20:00 Virtual Reception

Thursday, July 8, 2021 - Tentative Conference Day 2

Time Sessions
10:45 - 11:00 Welcome
11:00 - 12:30 Government Panel
  • Rebecca Goolsby - Office of Naval Research
  • John Greer - NGA Research
  • Dan R. Cosley - NSF
  • Laurie Fenstermacher - USAF
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30 Social Media
  • Predicting Popularity of Polish Facebook Posts Using Author and Content Features. Nataliya Stepanova, C. Anton Rytting, Ewa Golonka and Susannah B. F. Paletz
  • Climate Change Conspiracy Theories on Social Media. Aman Tyagi and Kathleen Carley
  • Mechanisms and Attributes of Echo Chambers in Social Media. Bohan Jiang, Mansooreh Karami, Lu Cheng, Tyler Black and Huan Liu
  • Friends’ Influence Driven Users’ Value Change Prediction from Social Media Usage. Md. Saddam Hossain Mukta, Ahmed Shahriar Sakib, Md. Adnanul Islam, Mohammed Eunus Ali, Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mumshad Ahamed Rifat
 Health
  • Tweeting While Pregnant: Is Online Health Communication about Physical Symptoms and Emotions about the Tweeter? Julia M. Hormes, Laurie Beth Feldman, Eliza Barach, Vidhushini Srinivisan and Samira Shaikh
  • Optimization of Mitigation Strategies during Epidemics using Offline Reinforcement Learning. Alina Vereshchaka and Nitin Kulkarni
  • Having a Bad Day? Detecting the Impact of Atypical Events Using Wearable Sensors. Keith Burghardt, Nazgol Tavabi, Emilio Ferrara, Shrikanth Narayanan and Kristina Lerman
  • wapr.tugon.ph: A Secure Helpline for Detecting Psychosocial Aid from Reports of Unlawful Killings in the Philippines. Maria Regina Justina E. Estuar, John Noel Victorino, Christian Pulmano, Zachary Pangan, Meredith Jaslyn Alano, Jerome Victor Celeres, John Loyd de Troz, Marlene Mana, Yvonne McDermott Rees, Riza Batista and Lucita Lazo
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:30 Social Networks
  • Tweets and Social Network Data for Twitter Bot Analysis. Jennifer Golbeck, Niloofarsadat Alavi, Hannah K. Bako, Calvin Bao, Matthew Barzola, Corie Brown, Kristen M. Byers, Melissa Carraway, Keaunna Cleveland, Brandon Y. Feng, Shayna Foote, Petra Galuščáková, Auguste H. Gezalyan, Rajesh Kumar Gnanasekaran, Saeed Hadadan, Seyyedpooya Hekmatiathar, Jeffrey Henrikson, Karan D Kaur, Nikita Khatri, Nitzan Koren, Anna Lenhart, Ruiqi Li, Yannan Liu, Jennifer MacDonald, Gloria Nzeka, Neviya Prakash, Joanna Purich, Robin Reiss, Aayushi Roy, David Rudd, Anup Sathya, Nicole R Schneider, Hilary Szu Yin Shiue, Astha Singhal, John Sutton, Gabrielle Trilling, Amulya Velamakanni, Jacob Walter, Tory White, Gareth Thomas Williams, Zachary Wilton, Peratham Wiriyathammabhum, Mischa Wolfinger, Arthur Wu, Rachel Zehrung, Saptarashmi Bandyopadhyay and Sean McWillie
  • Using Social Network Analysis to Analyze Development priorities of Moroccan Institutions. Imane Khaouja, Ibtissam Makdoun and Ghita Mezzour
  • Evolution of Focal Information Spreaders in Dynamic Social Networks. Mustafa Alassad, Muhammad Nihal Hussain and Nitin Agarwal
  • Optimizing Response Time to Minimize Spreading of Conspiracy Theories in Dynamic Social Networks. Mustafa Alassad, Muhammad Nihal Hussain and Nitin Agarwal
 Methods
  • Formal Methods for an Iterated Volunteer's Dilemma. Jacob Dineen, A S M Ahsan-Ul Haque and Matthew Bielskas
  • Using Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Study Connective Action Campaigns. Billy Spann, Nitin Agarwal, Esther Mead and Therese Williams
  • GPU Accelerated PMCMC Algorithm with System Dynamics Modelling. Lujie Duan and Nathaniel Osgood
  • Privacy Preserving Text Representation Learning Using BERT. Walaa Alnasser, Ghazaleh Beigi and Huan Liu
17:45 - 19:00 Keynote - Dr. Patricia Mabry
19:00 - 20:00 Virtual Reception

Friday, July 9, 2021 - Tentative Conference Day 3 and Closing

Time Sessions
10:45 - 11:00 Welcome
11:00 - 12:30 Human-Agent Teaming
  • Examining the Effects of Race on Human-AI Cooperation. Akil Atkins, Matthew Brown and Christopher Dancy
  • On the effect of social norms on performance in teams with distributed decision makers. Ravshanbek Khodzhimatov, Stephan Leitner and Friederike Wall
  • Multi-Agent Naïve Utility Calculus: Intent Recognition in the Stag-Hunt Game. Lux Miranda and Ozlem Ozmen
  • Studying the Role of Social Bots During Cyber Flash Mobs. Samer Al-Khateeb, Madelyn Anderson and Nitin Agarwal
 Technical Demos
  • Blog Data Analytics Using BlogTracker. Abiola Akinnubi, Sodiq Oyedotun and Nitin Agarwal
  • Using VTracker to Explore Online Video Data. Thomas Marcoux and Nitin Agarwal
  • FBAdTracker: An Interactive Data Collection and Analysis Tool for Facebook Advertisements. Ujun Jeong
  • ORA. Jeff Reminga
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Break Business Meeting Doctoral Consortium
14:00 - 15:30 Human and Agent Modeling
  • Social-judgment-based Modeling of Opinion Polarization in Chinese Live Streaming Platforms. Yutao Chen
  • Towards Large-Scale Agent-Based Geospatial Simulation. Umar Manzoor, Hamdi Kavak, Joon-Seok Kim, Andrew Crooks, Dieter Pfoser, Andreas Zufle and Carola Wenk
  • What Makes A Turing Award Winner? Zhongkai Shangguan, Zihe Zheng and Jiebo Luo
  • Trusty Ally or Faithless Snake: Modeling the Role of Human Memory and Expectations in Social Exchange. Jonathan Morgan, Christian Lebiere, Mark Orr and James Moody
 Political Influence
  • Using Network Analysis on Twitter Data to Identify Threats on Indonesian Digital Activism. Adya Danaditya
  • Kinetic Action and Radicalization: A Case Study of Pakistan. Brandon Shapiro and Andrew Crooks
  • Analyzing Incidents in Militarized Interstate Disputes using Motifs in Temporal Networks. Hung Do and Kevin Xu
 Doctoral Consortium
  • Karen Watts DiCicco
  • Maryam Maleki
  • Hunter Priniski
  • Pravav Sankhe
  • Billy Spann
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:30 Challenge Problem
  • Coordinating Narratives and the Capitol Riots on Parler. Lynnette Ng, Iain Cruickshank and Kathleen M. Carley
  • Towards Epidemiological Modeling to Study the Propagation of COVID-19-related Disinformation on Social Media. Maryam Maleki, Esther Mead, and Nitin Agarwal
  • A Systematic Agent-based Model to Minimize Spreading of Malicious Information in Dynamic Social Networks. Mustafa Alassad, Muhammad Nihal Hussain, and Nitin Agarwal
  • Multi-Method Socio-computational Approach for Analyzing Toxicity Propagation Among User-generated Discourse about COVID-19 Vaccines on Parler and Bitchute. Karen Watts DiCicco, Esther Mead, and Nitin Agarwal
 Narratives
  • An NLP approach to quantify dynamic salience of predefined topics in a text corpus. Alexander Bock, Anthony Palladino, Skaidra Smith-Heisters, Ian Boardman, Ethan Pellegrini, Elisa Bienenstock and Andrew Valenti
  • Weak Ties to the Narrative Rescue: Starbucks Arrest Controversy Case Study. Rick Galeano, Billy Spann, Katrin Galeano and Nitin Agarwal
  • Influence Dynamics Among Narratives: A Case Study of the Venezuelan Presidential Crisis. Akshay Aravamudan, Xi Zhang, Jihye Song, Stephen M. Fiore and Georgios C. Anagnostopoulos
 Doctoral Consortium
  • Karen Watts DiCicco
  • Maryam Maleki
  • Hunter Priniski
  • Pravav Sankhe
  • Billy Spann
17:30 - 18:00 Awards and Farewell