SERC Projects
| Post Doc | Project Description | Meeting Times |
| Dr. Kevin Mills | Misinformation: This group will explore the causes of, and potential solutions to, the spread of misinformation online (e.g. vaccine and election misinformation; QANON). We will determine our exact research agenda together (depending on people’s interests), but potential topics include: How and why does misinformation spread online? Should tech companies remove misinformation from their platforms? Does doing so violate people’s freedom of speech? To what extent is misinformation a new problem? To what extent is the internet to blame for it? We will meet weekly to select and discuss readings on our chosen questions, and will produce a deliverable of a format to be determined together. | Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 pm |
| Dr. Karim Nader | Trolling 101: The internet is full of trolls. They make memes about tragedy and death too soon after it happens; they spam corporations that have wronged employees or customers; they dox people that they believe deserve it; they organize political rallies and interventions; they spread lies on Wikipedia pages for the fun of it. We are going to think about internet discourse by studying how trolls change political and social narratives with memes and trash-posting. Projects could be conceptual or could study a specific instance of trolling. | Mondays, 2:00-3:00 pm |
| Dr. Anastasia Ostrowski | Design Justice in Technology Design: How can we design technology equitably? We’ve seen many outcomes of technology that have impacted our world negatively: how social media can impact mental health, how robots could be used in aggressive policing, and how algorithms can be biased creating unfair outcomes, to name a few. This group will focus on how technology design processes can be structured to help prevent perpetuating and/or creating inequities in society. The project will focus on this broad area of design and explore how we can better embed equity and justice in technology design processes, guided by student interest. | Wednesdays, 1:00-2:00 pm |
| Dr. Christopher Rabe | Exploring the Intersections of Computing Education and Climate Justice: What are the ways in which different areas of computing (and computing education) can contribute to, or address issues of climate justice across the globe? This group will review the above question by broadly exploring topics such as the impact of hardware production and disposal on communities of the Global South, cloud computing and data center environmental impact, data science, equity, and justice, AI ethics, and other topics based on student interest. Potential deliverables include the creation of educational modules that focus on the intersection of climate justice and computing, or a research paper that examines why and how aspects of computing education could more widely address issues of climate justice in the curriculum. | Tuesdays, 2:00-3:00 pm |
| Dr. Michelle Spektor | Surveillance: Surveillance technologies are increasingly becoming part of everyday life. What are their social, political, and ethical implications, and how can we investigate and intervene in them? How should these technologies be designed and regulated? Should they even be implemented at all? This group will examine interdisciplinary research on surveillance technologies ranging from ID cards to biometrics, spyware, and CCTV, and will explore theories and methods for studying them in contemporary and historical contexts around the world. Topics include privacy, technological failure, discrimination, power, and control in surveillance as it is deployed in a variety of arenas, such as policing, education, borders, healthcare, bureaucracy, and self-tracking. Participants will develop projects on surveillance technologies of their choice, and attend guest lectures, film screenings, and local field trips. | Wednesdays, 2:00-3:00 pm |