Media/News

Hot on the Presses: Capturing an Audience During High Heat Emergencies

"It's hard to get heard on social media, even when the message is a warning from the National Weather Service about excessive heat. New research explores strategies for better dissemination of weather-emergency messaging." Read more about a recent study by Yajie Li, Amanda Lee Hughes, and Peter Howe: https://www.usu.edu/today/story/hot-on-the-presses-capturing-an-audience-during-high-heat-emergencies

Project teams humans and artificial intelligence to scan social media posts for risk data to aid disaster response

When a disaster strikes, social media can be helpful in alerting the public quickly. Virginia Tech professor Chris Zobel is part of a multidisciplinary project on human-artificial intelligence teaming to identify disaster-related risks in social media posts to provide situational awareness for emergency management and disaster response. Besides Zobel, project participants are also researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Brigham Young University, and George Mason University, as well as members of Maryland’s Montgomery County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Read more: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/04/pamplin-zobel-cert.html

Professor Hughes Receives an Award for Excellence in Scholarship

The BYU Faculty Women’s Association recognized Professor Amanda Hughes with an award for excellence in Scholarship in 2021.

BYU Information Technology receives $24.5K National Science Foundation RAPID grant to research human-AI teaming in emergency response

BYU IT & Cybersecurity assistant professor Amanda Hughes has been awarded a competitive $24,498 National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID grant. Her project, titled “Human-AI Teaming for Big Data Analytics to Enhance Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” is in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin and George Mason University.

Read more: https://engineering.byu.edu/news/byu-information-technology-receives-24-5k-national-science-foundation-rapid-grant-to-research-human-ai-teaming-in-emergency-response

Don’t be too quick to trust information on social media accounts named after a crisis like COVID-19

June 24, 2020 - Postdoctoral Researcher Apoorva Chauhan and Professor Hughes published a new study that evaluates the trustworthiness of social media accounts named after crisis events. The Cheriton School of Computer Science at Waterloo University released an article about the study: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/news/dont-be-too-quick-trust-information-social-media-named-after-crisis-like-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR2PFAgt2-Mv5CGS3XgrgRQQzFagFsdktCMXwoiK5gTHAHyzUk51bMOIBQg

Avoiding Misinformation

June 15, 2020 - Professor Hughes did an interview with BYU radio talk show "The Lisa Show" about how we can detect and avoid misinformation. you can listen to the interview here: https://www.byuradio.org/episode/850f06ff-2077-4a17-bfd2-99747eb68dfb/850f06ff-2077-4a17-bfd2-99747eb68dfb?playhead=3014&autoplay=true

NSF RAPID/Collaborative grant award to study COVID-19

May 2020 - We are proud to announce that our research team received an NSF RAPID/Collaborative grant titled “Human-AI Teaming for Big Data Analytics to Enhance Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This project is designed to 1) better understand the process of real-time decisions that digital volunteers make when they rapidly convert social media data into structured codes that machines (Artificial Intelligence algorithms) can understand, and 2) use this knowledge to improve human-machine teaming. We hope to advance understanding of how humans and machines each add unique value to the decision-making process as we try to recognize and respond to patterns that emerge from social media data during disasters like the current pandemic. Our team will also be working with Keri K. Stephens (Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin), Hemant Purohit (Information Science & Technology at George Mason University), and Steve Peterson (Volunteer Coordinator at Montgomery County Community Emergency Response Team). https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2029698

Critical Thinking in Times of Crisis

May 9, 2020 - Professor Hughes did an interview with the radio talk show Thinking Clearly. You can listen to the interview here: https://thinkingclearly.libsyn.com/website/46-critical-thinking-in-the-time-of-crisis

BYU crisis informatics expert offers three tips to avoid misinformation during COVID-19

School of Technology professor Amanda Hughes has spent her career studying social media during disasters and crises. Her work looks at how members of the public turn to social media during a crisis and how they find trustworthy information.
Read more: https://news.byu.edu/byu-crisis-informatics-expert-offers-three-tips-to-avoid-misinformation-during-covid-19
Read more: https://techxplore.com/news/2020-04-crisis-informatics-expert-misinformation-covid-.html

BYU crisis informatics expert provides three tips to avoid misinformation during COVID-19

During times of crisis, it has become normal for people to turn to social media for information, support and to find ways to help. BYU assistant professor Amanda Hughes has spent her career studying how people utilize social media during disasters and has seen it have both positive and negative aspects.
Read more: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/education/college/byu/byu-crisis-infomatics-expert-provides-three-tips-to-avoid-misinformation-during-covid-19/article_d82413e6-b0ba-5dd7-b421-fad9eb7faa28.html