SCUBA: THE SOCIAL COMPUTING LABORATORY

The Social Computing Laboratory (SCUBA) aims to make the internet a safer and more welcoming place by developing new scientific methods and computational tools. Our work broadly intersects with social computing, data science, human-centered AI, and natural language processing. 

​SCUBA's current research is related to combatting online antisocial behavior, human-AI collaborations to promote internet safety, and facilitating healthy online interactions.

SCUBA is officially a part of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 
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ONGOING PROJECTS

1. Real-time deployment of a new human-AI collaboration tool for community moderators
2. Design friction as a moderation intervention: Causal effects of "quarantining" on Reddit
3. Measuring and promoting healthy online behavior (e.g., prosocial outcomes in online interactions)
4. Community resilience to influxes of bad actors and behaviors
5. Gray areas in online governance: Mismatches in stakeholder expectations around moderation.

For a full list of our research papers, check out our publications.
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PEOPLE

​Professors: Eshwar Chandrasekharan

PhD: 
Charlotte Lambert, Jackie Chan, Fred Choi, Tanvi Bajpai

Undergraduates:
Anwesa Goswami, Clark Lu, Jacqueline Chen
[University of Michigan]: Aditya Shylesh, Robert Kang, Victor Li

External collaborators:
​Shagun Jhaver (postdoc@UW),
Stevie Chancellor (postdoc@Northwestern -> Assistant Professor@University of Minnesota)