Erez Shmueli, Ph.D.

Erez Shmueli, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Industial Engineering

Tel Aviv University

Speech Title:

Sensing, Understanding and Shaping Social Behavior

Abstract:

An ability to understand social systems through the collection of objective (passively sensed) data and the aid of computational tools is central to the emerging field of Computational Social Science. Such understanding can answer epistemological questions on human behavior in a data-driven manner, and provide prescriptive guidelines for persuading humans to undertake certain actions in real world social scenarios. The growing number of works in this sub-field has the potential to impact multiple walks of human life including health, wellness, productivity, mobility, transportation, education, shopping, and sustenance.

Bio:

Dr. Erez Shmueli is a senior lecturer at the department of Industrial Engineering and the head of the Big Data Lab at Tel-Aviv University and a research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab. He received his BA degree (with highest honors) in Computer Science from the Open University of Israel, and MSc and PhD degrees in Information Systems Engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, under the supervision of Prof. Yuval Elovici. After completing his PhD, Erez spent two years as a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Media Lab, at the Human Dynamics group headed by Prof. Alex Sandy Pentland. His main research interests include Big Data, Complex Networks, Computational Social Science and Information Security and Privacy. His professional experience includes five years as a programmer and a team leader in the Israeli Air-Force and three years as a project manager in Deutsche Telekom Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.