New Grant for Research Focused on Influence Detection in Social Networks

A study by Professor Morad Benyoucef and doctoral student Amir Afrasiabi Rad, titled “Pattern Extraction in Social Networks Using Formal Concept Analysis,” received a $30,000 grant from the Mitacs - Accelerate Program. Benyoucef, an associate professor in management information systems, and Afrasiabi Rad, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, will build on their earlier work researching social influence and how it is propagated in social networks. Part of the grant covers Afrasiabi Rad’s internship at IBM’s location in Ottawa.

The project, to be conducted over two years, responds to the growing interest in using social network data to extract user interests, and subsequently market trends. It focuses on improved detection of communities in multimode heterogeneous social networks based on multiple factors, including user behavior. A key objective is to increase the accuracy of existing community detection algorithms, with potential for creating communities of influence. The work has interesting applications in recommendations systems, advertising, organizational planning, knowledge management, collaboration, team-building and human resources management.