“An illustration of the relational event model to analyze group interaction processes” by lab members Noshir Contractor and Aaron Schecter and collaborators Andrew Pilny and Marshall Scott Poole was accepted for publication in the upcoming issue of Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. The article applies relational event modeling to interaction processes and argues that “both emergent properties and performance are consequences of complex group interaction processes that happen in real time. As such, group process should not be treated as aggregations of interactions or simple psychological constructs.”

You can read a copy of the accepted manuscript here.

Follow Dr. Contractor on Research Gate to be notified when the published version becomes available and for updates on his future publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Noshir_Contractor

Full Citation:
Pilny, A., Schecter, A., Poole, M. S., & Contractor, N. (in press). An illustration of the relational event model to analyze group interaction processes. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice.

Along with collaborators from Georgia Tech, Noshir Contractor, Eric Forbush, Ivan Hernandez, and Marlon Twyman presented posters for the INERTIA, CREWS, and SCALE projects at NASA’s 2016 Human Research Program Investigator’s Workshop in Galveston, TX on February 9th, 2016.

Along with collaborators Cheng Zhang, Chee Wei Phang, Ximeng Wang, and Yunjie Xu at Fudan University and Xiaohua Zeng at College of City University of Hong Kong, Noshir’s and Yun’s article “Circadian Rhythms in Socializing Propensity” was published in PLOS One on September 09, 2015.

Abstract: Using large-scale interaction data from a virtual world, we show that people’s propensity to socialize (forming new social connections) varies by hour of the day. We arrive at our results by longitudinally tracking people’s friend-adding activities in a virtual world. Specifically, we find that people are most likely to socialize during the evening, at approximately 8 p.m. and 12 a.m., and are least likely to do so in the morning, at approximately 8 a.m. Such patterns prevail on weekdays and weekends and are robust to variations in individual characteristics and geographical conditions.

Read more here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136325

Lab Director, Noshir Contractor, participated in the closing panel, “Reflections: Lessons learned,” for the 22nd Annual Organization Science Winter Conference: Innovations & Organizations on February 7th, 2016, alongside Natalya Vinokurova (Wharton), Todd Zenger (University of Utah), Martin Schulz (British Columbia at Vancouver).

Lab Director Noshir Contractor presented his lecture “Leveraging Network Science to Address Grand Societal Challenges” on Jan. 15th, 2016 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, sponsored jointly by the Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies (ICOS) and the Digital Future Lecture Series. Using examples of his research in the area of networks, Noshir illustrated how Network Science is fundamental to unleashing the intellectual insights locked in big data. Specifically, he discussed how these insights offer social scientists in general, and social network scholars in particular, an unprecedented opportunity to engage more actively in monitoring, anticipating and designing interventions to address grand societal challenges.

Glamour Magazine profiles CREWS Grant collaborator Suzanne Bell and a number of other female professionals contributing to NASA’s upcoming Mars Mission in the article “Would You Go to Mars? Meet the Four Women Astronauts Who Can’t Wait to Go”. Read the full article here: http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2016/01/nasa-women-astronauts-first-trip-to-mars

Lab Director Noshir Contractor presented a Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences & Humanities on September 24th, 2015 at Syracuse University. His talk, entitled “Leveraging Computational Social Science to Address Grand Societal Challenges” argues that computational social science is the foundation on which to unleash intellectual insights locked in big data, illustrating how these insights offer scientists and scholars an unprecedented opportunity to engage more actively in monitoring, anticipating, and designing interventions to address grand societal challenges.

Noshir Contractor was featured on School of Comm’s “Creative Buzz” after leading an all-day workshop with the entire cohort of MSLCE students on November 14th. Master’s student, Zach Hyman, remarked, “For us MSLCE students, who come from a variety of different educations and locations around the world, Professor Contractor’s lessons rang true.”

Full article available here: http://comm.soc.northwestern.edu/mslce-blog/2015/11/24/network-expert-teaches-mslce-students-about-social-connections/