Check out this article by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management featuring SONIC’s Director Noshir Contractor and how his research is helping teams, both in space and on Earth, collaborate more effectively.
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/blog/2022/04/08/noshir-contractor-nasa-research.aspx 

Noshir Contractor was invited to present at the Road to Leadership Symposium at Northwestern University on March 24th. The talk focused on how each of us has a network, whether it is a personal one made up of family, friends, and fellow alumni, or a professional one comprised of colleagues. The symposium explained those connections and the different roles people play as well as provide skills to support successful collaboration. Participants completed a Personal Network Survey and received a customized report mapping the health of their personal networks in accomplishing various tasks. 

Noshir Contractor recently completed teaching a Social Network Analysis class at the University of Science and Technology of China. The class was co-taught by SONIC alumnus Mengxiao Zhu, who is now a distinguished scholar at University of Science and Technology of China. The class was TA’ed by Jasmine Wu and Ruoxiao Su. The course explored the use of social network analysis to understand the growing connectivity and complexity in the world around us on different scales – ranging from small groups to the World Wide Web. Check out this Zoom image from a session!

We are sad to announce that our Lab Manager Arshya Srinivas will be leaving us, but are excited to announce that she is taking on a position as a Senior Supply Chain Analyst at Walgreens! Good luck in all your future endeavors Arshya—SONIC will miss you!

On March 4th, Noshir Contractor was involved in a Data Science & Engineering Panel Discussion for undergraduate students. The goal of this panel was to highlight some of the data-oriented projects that McCormick faculty engage in, and to bring light to opportunities available for students with an interest in data science. If you are interested in learning more about data science opportunities at SONIC, please visit the Join Us tab of our website!

We have an opportunity for students to join us as Data Science Interns, and receive class credit for research work in the lab. There is a possibility to extend the internship to subsequent quarters. Contact Dorothea Boyle (dorothea.boyle@northwestern.edu) or Noshir Contractor (ncontractor@gmail.com) with questions.

Detailed description of internship available for Winter 2022 can be found here.

On January 10th, Noshir Contractor gave a talk at the Laboratory for Computational Social Systems! His talk was titled “People Analytics: Using Digital Exhaust from the Web to Leverage Network Insights in the Algorithmically Infused Workplace”. Check out the link to the abstract and more information about other talks at LCS2 here!

On January 12th 2022, Neelam Modi and Noshir Contractor partnered with the National Institute of Industrial Engineering in Mumbai to launch the “Global Online Certification Course on Social Network Analysis and its Applications”. Check out this image from the first week of class and this LinkedIn post from NITIE with details on the participant response!

Congratulations to Kyosuke Tanaka and Noshir Contractor on their paper acceptance for the hybrid 72nd Annual ICA Conference, One World, One Network‽ Their paper, titled “Knowing is not Enough: How Network Awareness and Acuity are Associated,” will be presented at the conference in May.