Filippo Menczer, Luddy Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, rates among the world’s best computer scientists for the second straight year.
He’s also a finalist for the Prosocial Ranking Challenge, which awards $60,000 in prizes for better social media algorithms.
Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers, listed Menczer at No. 788 in the world and No. 471 in the United States.
Rankings are based on the Discipline H-index metric, which considers only papers and citation values for an examined discipline. The ranking includes leading scientists with a D-index of at least 30 academic publications in Computer Science.
The H-index is designed to measure the productivity of a scholar or researcher based on the number of papers and publications. A D-index measures the inequality of opportunity across difference groups, such as male and female, or urban and rural dwellers.
Menczer said his ranking is based on his overall publication record through the years and not on specific research.
Much of Menczer’s recent published work centers on misinformation and social media manipulation. This includes “The Science of Fake News” in Science magazine and “The Rise of social bots” in Communication of the ACM.
Menczer was also featured in Stanford University’s recently updated list of the world’s top 2-percent most influential scientists. He was previously named a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, an international academic organization.
“This ranking is a recognition of the work of many collaborators, my amazing students and wonderful colleagues who have contributed to the publications from our lab over the years,” Menczer said.
The ranking is well deserved, said XiaoFeng Wang, associate dean for research and James H. Rudy Professor of Computer Science, Engineering and Informatics.
“Fil is a great researcher in information retrieval, misinformation and web science, who continues to produce high-impact research outcomes,” Wang said. “We are so proud to have him as our colleague.”
The Prosocial Ranking Challenge deals with the concern that what social media algorithms choose to show affects what people know, how they feel and how they relate. The challenge, established through the Center for Human Compatible Artificial Intelligence, will test ways to mitigate problems or harms, and demonstrate new ways to design these systems for socially desirable results.
Menczer said his participation in this challenge comes in collaboration with students and others. Two Ph.D. students, Bao Tran Truong and Ozgur Can Seckin, have led the Luddy work.
They said in a joint statement that they are developing a “bridging algorithm to re-rank social media feeds to help foster civil discussions and appeal to a diverse audience.” The goal is to create a more “positive and inclusive online experience.”
They seek to promote content that produces positive and diverse responses while reducing harmful content and responses. They evaluated social media posts based on the emotional response they evoke and the diversity of engagement they attract.
Emotional responses are influenced by the emotions experienced and the potential harm caused. Diversity was assessed based on the range of ideological perspectives among the engaged users.
“We believe our comprehensive evaluation of posts will help mitigate the negative effects of recommender algorithms, particularly in terms of affective polarization,” they said in the statement.