Recent News

"Do we need cellphones in the classroom disrupting a teacher giving a lecture, no, do we need to have cell phones for health management or to be able to communicate with family members during an emergency, possibly," Dr.Wisniewski talks to WJLA News on the brimming topic of cell phone bans...

We are thrilled to announce the outstanding achievements of our recent graduates and our postdoctoral fellow as they embark on exciting new chapters in their academic careers. Each of these scholars has secured prestigious tenure-track Assistant Professor positions at renowned institutions, reflecting their dedication, hard work, and exceptional contributions to...

Congratulations to Dr. Xavier Caddle on the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation. Dr. Caddle will be joining the Computer Science department at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) as a visiting professor. We are immensely proud of his achievements and wish him great success in his career.

Congratulations to Dr. Zainab Agha on successfully defending her doctoral dissertation entitled, "Co-designing & Evaluating Adolescent Online Safety Nudges with Teens." We are extremely proud of her accomplishments and wish her continued success in her career!

Congratulations to Dr. Mamtaj Akter on successfully defending her doctoral dissertation entitled, “Leveraging Community Oversight to Promote Mobile Privacy and Security Within Trusted Communities.” Dr. Akter will begin a tenure-track Assistant Professor position next fall in the Computer Science Department at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). We are incredibly...

Congratulations to our director, Dr. Pamela Wisniewski, who has been named to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Science and Technology (ISAT) study group. This prestigious appointment involves assessing future research directions in computer science. Dr. Wisniewski's inclusion in the ISAT group highlights her significant contributions and expertise...

Congratulations to our recent PhD graduate Dr. Alsoubai and her advisor Dr. Pamela Wisniewski for showcasing their work on the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) blog. The blog discusses the challenges youth face in the digital world, focusing on privacy breaches, cyber threats, and the impact of social media...

Congratulations to Dr. Wisniewski for being awarded a Secure and Trustworthy Computing (SaTC) National Science Foundation (NSF) grant entitled, “Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Using Intelligent Conversational Agents to Empower Adolescents to be Resilient Against Cybergrooming,” under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program (CFDA 47.070). Dr. Wisniewski...

Congratulations to STIR Lab undergraduate students Yiwei Wang, Enya Bullard, and Abbie Chen on presenting their research titled “Designing a Social Media Simulation to Evaluate Online Safety Nudges” at the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair, mentored by PhD candidate Zainab Agha. The Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair provides an opportunity for our undergraduates to share their work in a...

Congratulations to Xavier Caddle, Jinkyung Park, and Pamela Wisniewski on their recent paper publication at the Future of Information and Communication Conference (FICC). The Paper explores strategies for online youth protection, drawing on interviews with 38 stakeholders in the field. It identifies leveraging AI for risk detection, developing safety tools,...

Warm congratulations to Campbell Headrick, our Master's student, on the successful defense of his thesis, "Youth Discussions of Security and Privacy." With this achievement, Campbell becomes the first lab Master's student to defend his thesis at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski participated as a key expert in the "Copycat: Social Contagion, Online Viral Behavior, and Youth" webinar hosted by Children and Screens. The webinar aimed to enlighten parents and caregivers on the susceptibility of youth to social contagion, a phenomenon that is intensified by the proliferation of digital...