UITS Monitor: Election Day is Nov. 3

IU professor creates BotSlayer app to help journalists, general public tell lies from truth in Tweets.

Election Day (Nov. 3) is just 13 days away—as you research the candidates, are you getting accurate information?

The BotSlayer app, developed by Filippo Menczer, director of the IU Observatory on Social Media, will help you track and detect potential manipulation of information spreading on Twitter.

BotSlayer uses an algorithm to flag hashtags, links, accounts, and media that are trending and amplified in a coordinated fashion, most likely by bots. A dashboard helps users explore the Tweets and accounts associated with suspicious campaigns via Twitter, visualize their spread, and search related images and content on Google.

In a recent article in the Indiana Daily Student, Menczer said, “… We are all vulnerable to manipulation through social media.” 

More about BotSlayer

The Democracy Themester event features McRobbie on Oct. 22 at noon.

Learn about election cybersecurity from IU President Michael McRobbie in this virtual event sponsored by the Ostrom Workshop’s Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance.

When: Thursday, Oct. 22, noon-1pm 
Where: Zoom details sent after registration

President McRobbie is a computer scientist and expert on cybersecurity.

Register for the “Securing the Vote” seminar >>

The program provides scientists with legal and policy guidance that impacts their missions.

As technology continues its rapid advance, privacy issues often get left behind. To examine these issues at the law and policy level, IU Maurer School of Law students have teamed up with the IU Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research (CACR) to study the intersection of privacy and technology.

Called the IU CACR/Maurer Student Affiliate program, the ultimate goal of the collaboration is to provide the science community with relevant, timely, and practical information about legal and policy concepts impacting their missions.

For more on the Maurer and cybersecurity partnership

The Center of Excellence for Women & Technology empowers women to be leaders in technology.

For every woman in junior Amy Ni’s game design class, there are eight men. When most people think of technology careers, she said, they think of “men in the front of the room with women in the back of the room.” But IU’s Center of Excellence for Women & Technology (CEW&T) is empowering women like Ni to be leaders in technology fields, with a seat in the front of the room.

“I think the most important thing is that it gives us a voice. We have to have a voice. It affects too many things for us not to have a seat at the table,” said Michelle Bartley-Taylor, senior associate director, CEW&T. She emphasized that CEW&T workshops foster technology skills for men and women in all fields and are not just for women in technology majors. 

Learn more about getting a seat at the table

The Oct. 28 matchmaking event exposes you to numerous tools and services.

“Speed Dating with Learning Technologies” is exactly what it sounds like—a matchmaking event that encourages participants to “date” a range of potential tools and services, gaining exposure to a lot of resources within a short period of time.

During the IU Online pre-conference session, you will have around nine minutes to “speed date” (i.e., learn about) a specific tool or service before meeting your next “date.” Each Zoom breakout room will introduce a resource of interest and matchmakers (presenters) include staff from across UITS Learning Technologies.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 10am-noon
Where: Zoom details sent after registration

Note: To fully participate in this event, please make sure you download the latest Zoom app for your desktop or mobile device and log in with your IU credentials.

Register for UITS Learning Technologies Speed Dating

Mary L. Gray has been named a 2020 MacArthur Fellow.

Mary L. Gray, an associate professor of informatics at the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, has been named a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Gray is the seventh recipient of the award from IU and the first since 2003.

The MacArthur grant is a $625,000 no-strings-attached award based on exceptional creativity, promise for future advances and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. An anthropologist and media scholar by training, Gray focuses on how everyday technologies transform people’s lives in two primary research areas she cares deeply about: the worlds of contract labor and LGBTQ youth.

For more on Mary L. Gray’s MacArthur grant

• For a chance to win $100, click here and search for Student Advising Records >>
• Register for Oct. 27 Effective Communication in the Workplace workshop >>
• Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research speaker Nov. 5 >>
• NSF grant continues funding for TransPAC5 high-speed network and services >>
• IU awarded $500,000 from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation >>
• IT Training webinars on Microsoft and Google collaboration and storage tools >>
• Visit the UITS Tech Tidbits YouTube playlist >>