About me

I am a third-year PhD student in the Department of Computer and Information Science, at the University of Pennsylvania, working in the Penn Media Accountability Project group of the CSS Lab. I am very fortunate to be advised by Duncan Watts and Aaron Clauset.

My research focuses on developing computational models to better understand biases in content production and the behavioral patterns of individuals consuming that content. I study the production and consumption of news across both traditional media (e.g., TV) and social media platforms, examining how biases influence what content is created, shared, and engaged with. To address these questions, I utilize a range of methodologies, including machine learning, social network analysis, natural language processing, and causal inference. More broadly, I am interested in applying computational methods to answer questions related to user engagement on digital platforms, social cohesion, polarization, spread of misinformation, gender/race inequality, as well as their broader impact on society.

Prior to joining Penn, I earned a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, where I was advised by Aaron Clauset and Dan Larremore, and collaborated closely with Bailey K. Fosdick. As a part of my Master’s thesis, I developed a method for sampling graphs from the degree-preserving configuration model using a Markov chain sampler. Concurrently, I also deveoped interests in analyzing human behavior in real-world social systems, and worked on analyzing how Twitter users’ behavior changed after interactions with Russia’s Internet Research Agency during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

News

10/2024: Our paper on sampling random graphs with fixed degree sequences got accepted at the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics [Preprint].

08/2024: Presented my work on TV news partisanship at the PhD Consortium of KDD 2024.

08/2024: Presented my work on sampling graphs from the Configuration model at Bernoulli-IMS 2024.

07/2024: Presented my work on measuring partisanship in TV news at IC2S2 2024.

05/2024: Finished my second year of PhD at Penn!