Assessing Trustworthiness in Social Media: A Social Computing Approach

Assessing Trustworthiness in Social Media: A Social Computing Approach Assessing Trustworthiness in Social Media: A Social Computing Approach HSAP Research: Information Provenance for Social Media We propose to recruit two high school students for the High School Apprenticeship Program (HSAP) in the annual Army Education Outreach Program. It is in line with the overall objectives of HSAP to foster student interest in STEM and facilitate follow-on student opportunities including university enrollment and DoD scholarships or internships. When a social media user obtains a piece of information via a micro-blog message, a social network, or even a blog site, it is not always clear where the information originated from, what motivated publication, and what latent purposes may be associated with a particular message. This research focus on two aspects of the published information in social media environment: propagation paths and provenance paths. Apprentices will be expected to showcase their problem solving skills. Apprentices will get opportunities to work in a research lab with full access to its resources and research meetings, engage in research discussions and mentor by PI, who is experienced in working with promising high school juniors, seniors and undergraduates. This research plan is designed to give apprentices first-hand experience of working with a large, motivated, and diverse research team. Each apprentice will be expected to work for at most 300 hours between May, 2012 and August, 2012. HSAP/URAP Research: Searching for Provenance Data in Social Media Project Summary HSAP/URAP Research: Searching for Provenance Data in Social Media We propose to recruit two high school or undergraduate students for the High School and Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (HSAP/URAP) in the annual Army STEM Education Outreach Program. It is in line with the overall objectives of HSAP/URAP to foster and strengthen high school or undergraduate students interest in STEM and facilitate follow-on student opportunities including university enrollment and DoD scholarships or internships. When a social media user obtains a piece of information via a micro-blog message, a social network, or even a blog site, it is not always clear how trustworthy it is. It is an extremely challenging research problem. We propose to study a related issue provenance of the information. In other words, we attempt to figure out where the information was originated from in order to know what motivated publication, and what latent purposes may be associated with a particular message. For this HSAP/URAP project, we aim to expand the sources of social media in search of provenance data. Apprentices will be recruited from high schools and undergraduate students. They will be US citizens who are eligible in the future to apply various scholarships DODs NDSEG and SMART fellowships. Apprentices will get opportunities to work in a world-leading research lab in social media mining with full access to its resources and research meetings, engage in research discussions and mentor by PI, who is experienced in working with promising high school juniors, seniors and undergraduates, and apply and sharpen their problem solving skills. This research plan is designed to give apprentices first-hand experience of working with a large, motivated, and diverse research team in STEM, and deepen their appreciation of powers of mathematics and programing as well as computer science. Each apprentice will be expected to work for at most 300 hours during the project period (1 year).