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Expanding social media’s potential to benefit society

Expanding social media’s potential to benefit society

Computer science doctoral students (from left) Huiji Gao, Shamanth Kumar and Fred Morstatter are helping to lead research in the Data Mining and Machine Learning Lab aimed at making social media a useful informational tool for responding to crisis situations.


Posted March 25, 2013

New Scientist magazine took note of students in the Data Mining and Machine Learning Lab at Arizona State University who are exploring ways to expand the societal usefulness of social media.

Three teams of computer science students overseen by lab director Huan Liu are each working on separate but related projects – TweetTracker, TweetXplorer and the ASU Coordination Tracker.

Liu is a professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The projects are aimed at making social media an effective tool for communications that would support humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts, as well as national defense missions.

One project focusing on how to use Twitter as a source of credible information during a crisis such as a natural disaster or political turmoil drew interest from a writer for New Scientist who follows advances in technology. Read the report.

Read more details about all three projects and see the technical report on the endeavors.

Media Contact:
Joe Kullman, [email protected]
(480) 965-8122
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

 

 

About The Author

Joe Kullman

Joe Kullman is a science writer for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Before joining Arizona State University in 2006, Joe worked as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers and magazines dating back to the dawn of the age of the personal computer. He began his career while earning degrees in journalism and philosophy from Kent State University in Ohio. Media Contact: [email protected] | 480-965-8122 | Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Communications

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