USC Annenberg Assistant Professor of Communication Marlon Twyman is a quantitative social scientist specializing in advanced computational and statistical methods, with a particular focus on social network analysis. By merging perspectives from social networks, organizational behavior and computational social science, his research program focuses on how teams, online communities and organizations form and interact in the digital age. More specifically, he studies questions related to team formation processes in collaborative technology platforms. Recently, his research has appeared in the following venues: the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; CSCW Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing; International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction; Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research Conference (INGRoup); International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2); and Sunbelt Conference of the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA).
He received his PhD from Northwestern University in the Technology and Social Behavior program, a dual-degree in communication studies and computer science. He earned his BS and MS in biomedical engineering from Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio) and has acquired professional experiences as a consultant for topics related to IT implementation, healthcare quality and policy, as well as experience as a materials science researcher. At different stages of his career, his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the National GEM Consortium, and the MITRE Corporation. He has also been awarded a Provost’s Assistant Professor Fellowship from the University of Southern California.
Han Kyul (Hank) Kim is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. He earned his M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Seoul National University and holds B.S. degrees in Industrial & Systems Engineering and Business and Technology Management from KAIST. Previously, he worked as a data scientist and software engineer at Deloitte Consulting, Samsung Electronics, and Seoul National University Hospital. His research interests include machine learning, natural language processing, and learning analytics.
Aleyeh Roknaldin is a current Ph.D. student in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at the University of Southern California. She holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Southern California, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests include learning analytics and decision analysis.
Shriniwas Nayak is a Masters Student in Computer Science at University of Southern California, he completed his Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from the Pune Institute of Computer Technology in 2020. He worked as a Software Engineer in Asset Management IT UBS from 2020 to 2022 and did an internship at Barclays (New Jersey). He holds a patent in the field of NLP; research interests include Natural Language Processing, Data Analytics, and Machine Learning.
Working as a Research Assistant at iPodia, Shriniwas has developed a Django-based system to integrate Chat GPT with MS Teams Chat rooms imitating a student to enhance peer learning. Further, he is involved in multiple NLP research projects aimed at assessing impact of AI in Computer Supported Learning Context.
Xiaoci Zhang is a graduate student specializing in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California, he got the degree in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University during the undergraduate studies. His academic journey reflects a deep commitment to his field, balancing rigorous study with practical applications.
Recently, Xiaoci has been recognized by his peers in the engineering community with an invitation to serve as a paper reviewer for the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition’s Computers in Education Division. His research interest is operations research, stochastic model, optimizations, collaborative engineering, and ergonomics.