A Luncheon Presentation by Dr. IRWIN KING, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Technological advances have drastically changed the nature of communication and socialization. Social networking has connected people at low cost, allowing individuals to interact through websites and mobile devices. It has also proved beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses to expand their contacts base.

However, unsavory consequences have also emerged, such as cyberbullying, online predation and privacy concerns. Social computing studies social behavioral data collected from social media platforms such as blogs, wikis, emails, instant messages and tags. For example, Google used search behavior data to predict influenza outbreaks. How does social computing impact our culture, commerce, and community? How can it be used to predict behavior? Can companies use this data to enhance their competitiveness?

Irwin King is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and his research interests include machine learning, web intelligence and social computing. Dr. King received his B.Sc. degree from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.