Recent News

Our PhD candidate Zainab Agha is giving a talk as part of LIVE Sprak weekly talks at Vanderbilt University. The talk will take place this Wednesday, April 3rd, and will be about incorporating human-centered design practices in research. Zainab Agha will introduce concepts and best practices within human-centered design by...

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...

In a recent blog post for the Imagining the Digital Future Center, Dr. Pamela Wisniewski shared concerns about regulating AI without clear definitions, citing a 2023 White House initiative on AI Accountability and related lawsuits. She emphasized the critical role of human effort in learning, warning that AI could undermine...

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.

Congratulations to Dr. Pamela Wisniewski on being a part of a White House panel hosted by the Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety. The panel hosted several other distinguished panelists and was also attended by the Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy. Assistant Secretary Davidson's...

Congratulations to the STIR Lab researchers and their collaborators on getting five full papers conditionally accepted at CHI 2024. The papers' titles, abstracts, and authors are as follows: "I'm gonna KMS": From Imminent Risk to Youth Joking about Suicide and Self-Harm via Social Media Authors:Naima Samreen Ali, Sarvech Qadir, Ashwaq Alsoubai,...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski participated as a panelist at the Harvard Undergraduate UNICEF Club Conference: 'Empowering Humanity.' The conference aims to enlighten, foster reflective thinking, and spark discussions on the educational obstacles encountered by countless children globally. It also explores the connections and root causes of educational disparities, such as conflict,...

Congratulations to Dr. Pamela Wisniewski who has contributed to a newly published book, titled "Trolley Crash: Approaching Key Metrics for Ethical AI Practitioners, Researchers, and Policy Makers" as one of the chapter authors. She collaborated on the third chapter, "Boiling the Frog: Ethical Leniency due to Prior Exposure to Technology,"...

Congratulations to Naima Ali, Zainab Agha, Neeraj Chatlani, Jinkyung Park, and Pamela Wisniewski on their recent CHI case study acceptance. The case study involved working with seven teens (15-17 years old) in a Youth Advisory Board program for over a year, The authors involved teens in online safety research where...

Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Leena Alghamdi on passing her Candidacy Exam for Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida. The Candidacy Exam is the second milestone in the Ph.D. program in which the Graduate Committee evaluates the literature review, research progress, and proposed dissertation studies of...

"Kids making threats at school is nothing new, what's so concerning now is the speed and scale others on social media promote these behaviors,"  Dr. Wisniewski talks to FOX 35 about a recent incident in Florida involving an 11 years boy who fabricated bomb threat because of TikTok. The middle...

Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Xavier Caddle on passing his Candidacy Exam for Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. The Candidacy Exam is the second milestone in the Ph.D. program in which the Graduate Committee evaluates the literature review, research progress, and proposed dissertation studies of...