Faculty

Michael Zimmer
Research interests: Privacy, Data ethics, Internet research ethics, Social & ethical computing
Description: Michael Zimmer, PhD, is a privacy and data ethics scholar whose work focuses on digital privacy & surveillance, the ethics of big data, internet research ethics, and the broader social & ethical dimensions of emerging digital technologies. With a background in communication & Internet studies, science & technology studies, and information policy & ethics, Prof. Zimmer uses mixed methods to help reveal the social and ethical dimensions of our contemporary digital ecosystem.

Sabirat Rubya
Research interests: HCI, Social Computing , Health Informatics, Human-aided Machine Learning
Description: Sabirat recommends and designs mobile technologies for critical health contexts. Her research involves understanding the limitations of the existing technologies for mental and behavioral health, and exploring opportunities to improve them.
PhD Students

Devansh Saxena
Research interests: HCI; Algorithms in Public Sector; Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Sociotechnical Systems
Description: Research interests include studying algorithmic systems used in the public sector, especially the Child-Welfare System. His current research examines collaborative child-welfare practice where decisions are mediated by policies, practice, and algorithms and seeks to map out the power, politics, and economics of data infrastructures employed in child-welfare. This work is driven by Human-Centered Data Science because it is imperative to understand the context in which (and how) the data is collected about children and families, how this data is used to produce algorithmic outcomes, as well as the social impact of such algorithmic tools on caseworkers and communities.

Eddie Chapman
Research interests: HCI, Digital surveillance, Disinformation, Extremism, Social media, Data ethics, Data management
Description: Eddie’s research explores disinformation and political extremism on social media. He is currently studying crowdsourced archiving in response to the January 6th US Captiol insurrection.

Farhat Tasnim Progga
Research interests: Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Centered Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Data Ethics
Description: Farhat Tasnim Progga is a PhD student at Marquette University. She has completed her undergrad studies from North South University, Bangladesh. Currently, she is devoting herself towards the study of perinatal mental health technology.

Nidhi Nellore
Research Interests: Data Ethics, Implications of social media, HCI (Human Computer Interaction), AI Algorithms
Description: Nidhi is a Ph.D. student in computer science whose research focuses on the implications of data and data ethics. She is interested in exploring how data is collected, analyzed, and used in various domains such as social media, education, and healthcare and how ethical considerations can be integrated into data-driven decision-making processes. Nidhi is passionate about promoting responsible data practices and ensuring that data is used in ways that benefit society while protecting privacy and human rights. Her current research includes identifying how researchers using Twitter data engage with ethics and a systematic review of data science programs in United States universities.

Fayika Farhat Nova
Research Interests: Social Computing, Health Informatics, HCI, Social Media
Description: Nova’s research focuses on the confluence of social computing and health informatics, where she investigates online activities and associated risky behaviors, such as online harassment, that influence patient-centered health services and assessment methods in clinical settings. Using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches, Nova’s work focuses on connecting digital signals about harassment to clinical assessment for better patient service and outcomes. Her current work includes working with real patients’ data by accessing their Electronic Health Records to evaluate the efficacy of the existing screening tools for cyberbullying that are currently being used in clinical settings by providers.

MD Romael Haque
Research Interests: HCI, Human-centered AI, Social Computing
Research description: Romael’s research emphasizes the need for user-centric design and assessment of systems intended for vulnerable populations, with concrete research and design implications. His current research focuses on understanding the limitations of mobile mental health (MH) apps through a user-centered lens, examining the challenges and concerns about these apps from the consumers’ perspective and real-life experience. By putting the stakeholders’ needs in perspective, the purpose is to highlight the need for defining policies and guidelines for MH App developing organizations.
Collaborators
- Dr. Shion Guha
Undergraduate students
- Olivia Miller (Spring 2022)
- Sydney Shearer (Summer 2021)