SONIC Director Noshir Contractor will be one of four keynote speakers at the 4th COMNEWS 2023, the International Conference on Communication and New Media Studies. This year’s conference topic is “Rethinking post-digital society: Imagining the future of media, communication, and sustainability”. Noshir Contractor’s keynote will focus on leveraging computational social science to address societal challenges, illustrating how increased access to big data offers social scientists and social network scholars an unprecedented opportunity to engage more actively in monitoring, anticipating, and designing interventions to address grand societal challenges. The conference is supported by the ICA Indonesia Chapter and will take place October 25th and 26th in Sanur, Bali.

COMNEWS 2023 E-POSTER

SONIC Director Noshir Contractor has collaborated with Jacqueline Lane (Harvard Business School), Paul Leonardi (UC Santa Barbara), and Leslie DeChurch (Northwestern University) on a new article surrounding technology’s role for communication, collaboration, and performance. The research examines the use of digital collaboration technologies by organizational teams and their effect on team communication and collaboration. By analyzing the ways in which digital communication technologies revolutionize how teams work, the paper explores the potential relationships between technology affordances and essential team processes. Read the article here.

This past summer, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor was an organizer of the 10th International Workshop on Network Theory. The organization of the conference is a joint effort between Annenberg Networks Network, Northwestern University’s SONIC Lab, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). The theme for this past year’s workshop was “Human AI Social Networks @ Work” and focused on topical areas such as human agent/robot teaming, virtual organization, crowd sourcing, social media, networks, and more. To see the full weekend’s schedule and read more about featured speakers, check out the ANN-SONIC-NICO webpage. Also, be sure to watch the weekend’s workshops on our SONIC YouTube page.

Earlier this week, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor traveled to Baku to share insights from the SIRIUS-21 mission partnership research between SONIC and ATLAS Labs at the 74th International Astronautical Congress. Supported by insights from the mission, Professor Contractor discussed the future of crossing boundaries in space exploration multiteam systems. The ICA offers the opportunity to share SONIC research findings and innovative solutions with a broad audience of space industry members and state officials, scientists and researchers, space experts, and practitioners. The Congress aims to facilitate the forging of strong partnerships among a variety of stakeholders while promoting cooperation, innovation, peace, and prosperity within the global space industry.

Northwestern University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences has awarded SONIC graduate student research Neelam Modi with their Student Leadership Award. This award is earned by students who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and service in the IEMS program. Congratulations, Neelam!

Sam Huang worked as a research assistant on SONIC’s Enterprise Social Media project during the academic year of 2021-2022. Some of Sam’s tasks included descriptive network analysis, data visualizations, and the derivation of actionable insights. Sam presented his findings as part of an organizational-level report to the leadership team at a leading biotech company, demonstrating high quality and clarity in his explanations of complex network analyses. He was a great team player, highly organized, and self-driven. Sam claims that SONIC Director Noshir Contractor’s recommendation letter was the determining factor that helped him to be admitted to the Harvard Master of Biomedical Informatics. He has just started his program this past week, and reflects upon his research at SONIC as the most important experience in his undergrad program at Northwestern. Best of luck to you in all of your future endeavors, Sam!

SONIC Director Noshir Contractor will be giving a keynote address on September 16th at 9:30am China time on People Analytics: Using Digital Exhaust from the Web to Leverage Network Insights in the Algorithmically Infused Workplace. The keynote will be given as part of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Association of Intelligence and Computational Communication Research. Check out the International Communication Association for more info.

ATLAS Lab Director Leslie DeChurch, SONIC Affiliated Faculty Alina Lungeanu, and SONIC Director Noshir Contractor have collaborated on a new article recently published in journal Acta Astronautics. Their research analyzes how space crews embarking on deep space missions can effectively maintain positive working relationships, even while dealing with long-term isolation, highly stressful scenarios, and conflicting leadership dynamics. The results of this research can prove invaluable for the future of spaceflight and the cultivation of enduring, constructive teamwork. Access the article by October 22 here.