This past weekend, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor participated in the 11th annual ANN-SONIC International Workshop on Network Theory. The event was hosted at the University of Southern California and was centered around the topic of Networks in Translation: Moving Network Research into Social Practice. The pillars of focus that were discussed over the course of the weekend include clinical, community, economic, and policy impacts of network research. The event was co-hosted by the SONIC lab as well as the Annenberg Networks Network (ANN) lab at USC. Learn more about the event here: https://lnkd.in/gcfW_T5G

This week, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor and SONIC lab members had their last weekly meeting of the quarter! Congratulations to everyone on a quarter full of insightful projects and lifelong learning.

SONIC Director Noshir Contractor gave a talk on Monday, February 26, as part of Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR) programming. The talk began at noon in Chambers Hall on the Evanston campus, and is part of the Fay Lomax Cook Winter 2024 Colloquium Series, where IPR researchers from around the University share their latest policy-relevant research. Prof. Contractor’s talk focuses on “People Analytics: Using Digital Exhaust to Leverage Network Insights in the Algorithmically Infused Workplace.”

Today, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor will be participating in an event organized by Northwestern’s School of Communication and Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. The conference is taking place today (2/1), in Los Angeles California and is sponsored by law firm Loeb & Loeb, LLP. The event features various speakers to explain how generative AI is changing the conversation in entertainment, technology, and law. Prof. Contractor will be presenting with Prof. Duri Long (assistant professor of Communication Studies) during Panel 2, which is focused on generative AI and creative output. This portion of the conference will aim to answer the following questions– how do creators interact with AI? Who owns creative products co-created with AI? To read more about the event, click here.

Director of McCormick Engineering Global Initiatives Matthew Grayson hosted the Four Corners Virtual Workshop on Sustainability– a series of small-group research brainstorming sessions between four international universities (Northwestern, Tel Aviv University (TAU), National Taiwan University (NTU), and the University of Hamburg (UH)). With so much academic talent in one place, Grayson relied on SONIC Director Noshir Contractor’s new match-making algorithm to formulate groups of between 3-6 attendees, generating 47 research collaborations on dozens of topics between combinations of researchers across all participating universities. SONIC Alum Diego Gomez-Zara worked together with Grayson and the Global Initiatives Staff to compile a survey that matched researchers and automated the team-building process. Congrats Diego! The workshop noted a highly successful example of SONIC research initiatives in action. For more information on the process and workshop, read more.

Today (December 4th, 2023), SONIC Director Noshir Contractor will lead a talk in Dubai as part of COP28’s THINK EXPONENTIAL Workshop. Prof Contractor’s “Think Networks” talk will be centered around the question: “are you using the power of social?” Discussions will focus on how to make social networks work for us. The leadership workshop, spread over two days, is sponsored by IBM.

SONIC director Noshir Contractor was invited to the Northwestern University Transportation Center’s Fall 2023 Business Advisory Council meeting on November 9th. Professor Contractor was invited to speak about his research surrounding Teams in the Digital Workplace: Technology’s Role for Communication, Collaboration, and Performance. Read more about the research’s insights here.

Earlier this week, SONIC Director Noshir Contractor and Graduate Student Researcher Neelam Modi attended and participated in the Council of Engineering Systems Universities 2023 Symposium. The Council provides a mechanism for member universities to work together on developing engineering systems as a new field of study. An overall objective of the Council is to broaden engineering education and practice. Neelam gave a talk on Social Influence & Customer Preferences: A Case Study in the U.S. New Car Buyer Market, and Noshir served on a panel discussing Network Methods for Multi-Agent Sociotechnical Systems. Congrats, Noshir and Neelam!