In the Collective Action and Social Media Lab at Illinois Tech, we study how people use social media to create social change. We currently have three major research projects:

• Understanding and Designing Social Media for Civic Engagement
• Cyberbullying Early Warning and Response
• Celebrities, Fans, and Social Media

We are interested both in where and how social media fit into civic engagement and fandom and how technologies can be designed to enable people to do new things. We use participatory design methods to work with civic organizers and fans to build new social media tools. We also use machine learning, natural language processing, and other approaches to data mining in analyzing big social data.

Join Us

We are always looking for new students to join our team - both graduate and undergraduate students are welcome. Typically, graduate students are enrolled in programs within the Department of Humanities or the Department of Computer Science. When applying to any of the programs listed, be sure to explain your interests in our projects and your existing expertise that would enable you to contribute to our work. Alumni and current students in the lab have enrolled in one (or more) of the following programs:

• Master of Science in Information Architecture (IARC)
• Master of Science in Technical Communication and Information Design (TCID)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Technology and Humanities (TECH)
• Master of Computer Science (MCS)
• Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)

If you are a current or prospective Illinois Tech student and want to get involved in our research, please get in touch.