Selected Publications

M Waniek, G. Raman, B AlShebli, JCH Peng, T Rahwan (2021). "Traffic Networks are Vulnerable to Disinformation Attacks". Scientific Reports.

G. Raman, B AlShebli, M Waniek, T Rahwan, JCH Peng (2020). "How Weaponizing Disinformation Can Bring Down a City's Power Grid". PLOS ONE. Media coverage: Science Alert, Fast Company.

F. Ishowo-Oloko, J. Bonnefon, Z. Soroye, J. Crandall, I. Rahwan, T. Rahwan (2019). "Behavioural Evidence for a Transparency-Efficiency Tradeoff in Human-Machine Cooperation". Nature Machine Intelligence. The paper made the cover of the November issue. Media coverage: Boston Globe, Nature Middle East, Khaleej Times, WIRED, Psychology Today, New Statesman, Scientific American.

M. Waniek, K. Zhou, Y. Vorobeychik, E. Moro, T. Michalak, T. Rahwan (2019). "How to Hide One’s Relationships from Link Prediction Algorithms". Scientific Reports. Media coverage: El País Technología.

B. AlShebli, T. Rahwan, W. Woon (2018). “The Preeminence of Ethnic Diversity in Scientific Collaborations”. Nature Communications. Media coverage: Nature News, Physics World.

M. Waniek, T. Michalak, M. Wooldridge, T. Rahwan (2018). "Hiding Individuals and Communities in a Social Network". Nature Human Behaviour. Media coverage: Vice's Motherboard.

For a full list of papers, see my Google Scholar page.

Selected Media Coverage

Weaponizing Disinformation

Our paper, titled "How weaponizing disinformation can bring down a city's power grid" showed that disinformation can be weaponized to bring down a city's power grid. The study was covered by Science Alert and Fast Company.
In a follow-up study titled Traffic Networks are Vulnerable to Disinformation Attacks, published in Scientific Reports, showed that one can create traffic jams using fake news.

Transparency in Human-Bot Interaction

Our paper, titled "Behavioural Evidence for a Transparency-Efficiency Tradeoff in Human-Machine Cooperation" showed that people cooperate more with machines that pretend to be human.
The paper made the cover of the November issue of Nature Machine Intelligence
Selected media coverage: Boston Globe, Nature Middle East, New Statesman, Psychology Today, WIRED, Scientific American.

Ethnic diversity & scientific collaborations

In our paper, "The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration", which was published in Nature Communications, we studied various forms of diversity in academic collaborations, and found that ethnic diversity predicts scientific impact.
The paper received coverage from Physics World. A preliminary version of the paper was covered in a News feature by Nature.

Hiding in social networks

Our paper, titled "Hiding Individuals and Communities in a Social Network", which was published in Nature Human Behaviour, was covered by Vice's Motherboard and by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education. The paper showed how groups can strategically rewire their social network to avoid being detected by Community Detection algorithms.
Our followup study, titled "How to Hide One’s Relationships from Link Prediction Algorithms", published in Scientific Reports, was covered by El País (the 2nd most circulated daily newspaper in Spain). Our study showed how people can hide their private relationships from Link Prediction algorithms.

AI's 10 to Watch

I was selected by IEEE Computer Society as one of AI's 10 to Watch. The list is published every 2 years by IEEE Intelligent Systems in recognition of the 10 most promising, young Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers in the world.

Meet the Team

Here are the talented researchers whom I am proud to call my team:

Marcin Waniek

Postdoctoral Associate.

Works on identifying ways in which private information can be hidden from attribute inference algorithms. His work got published in Nature Human Behaviour and Scientific Reports; see Marcin's webpage.

Balaraju Battu

Postdoctoral Associate.

Interested in understanding human machine interaction in the context of social and ethical dilemmas. His work got published in Scientific Reports and in Royal Society Open Access.

Sid Benabderrahmane

Postdoctoral Associate.

Examines social phenomena through the lens of Machine Learning and Data Mining. See Sid's Google Scholar profile.

Fengyuan (Michael) Liu

PhD student:

Studies scientific collaborations while focusing on the conflicts of interest that arise when scientists act as journal editors.

Lab Alumni

Here are the talented researchers and students whom I was fortunate enough to work with as part of my lab.

Bedoor AlShebli

Previously a postdoc in my lab, now an Assistant Prof. at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her work got published in Nature Communications, PNAS, and Science Advances; see Bedoor's webpage.

Mayada Oudah

Following her PhD under my supervision, Mayada joined New York University Abu Dhabi as a Postdoctoral Associate. Her work on Human-Bot interaction got published in Nature Communications.

Maria Sahakyan

Formerly a postdoc at my lab, now a Postdoctoral Associate at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research falls at the intersection of Explainable AI and Computational Social Science.

Russell Coke

After working as a research engineer in my lab, Russell joined the Computer Networks Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi. His work focused on improving web-access for users in developing regions.