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Bruce's Lab
My lab's research is focused on understanding policymaking and policy-related digital communication through the advancement of the social data science toolkit. Approximately half of the Lab's work involves the development of computational and statistical methods in the domains of machine learning, network analysis, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and causal inference. The other half involves applications in the study of policymaking and digital communication systems, specifically on policy diffusion and cross-platform digital communication with subnational officials. The Lab's funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the Russel Sage Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation.
Graduate Students
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Lingyu (Jack) Fuca
Jack is a Ph.D. student in political science. His research agenda focuses on estimating causal effects in complex social networks. Methodologically, he studies causal inference (Pearl's approach), social network analysis (under complex systems), machine learning, and formal theory. Specifically, he looks into (1) how the features of a specific social network can help predict nodes' behaviors, (2) how power, information, resources, and conflicts are spread and distributed via social ties that are of different features and properties, (3) how complex social networks can reveal heterogenous mechanisms based on the separation of social influence from homophilous effects, and (4) how to update measurement strategies for classic social science concepts with computational social science methods.
lingyu.fu [at] psu [dot] edu
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Kadir Cihan Duran
Kadir Cihan Duran is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Social Data Analytics. His research focuses on comparative politics, specifically exploring the intersection of competitive authoritarian regimes and social media. He is interested in the structures and dynamics in digital platforms, integrating network analysis, deep neural networks, and natural language processing to uncover complex patterns within these environments.
kadircihanduran@psu.edu
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Jody Park
Jody Park is a Ph.D. student in Political Science. Her research interests include racial and ethnic diversity, U.S. bureaucracies, policy diffusion, and socioeconomic inequality. Her recent work examines how racial and ethnic diversity within U.S. federal agencies shapes agency ideology and institutional outcomes, using administrative data.
Jody's Website
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Nicholas Hemauer
Nick Hemauer is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Social Data Analytics. His research broadly investigates policy diffusion, state public health policy, and political misinformation. He is particularly interested in applying computationally complex methods, including machine learning and text analysis. His recent work has focused on state legislative behavior and the impact firearm mortality has on the adoption of firearm regulations.
Nick's Website
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Connor Stitt
Connor Stitt is a PhD student in Political Science studying ideology and public opinion. His research examines how elite and mass ideology can be estimated using tools from computational neuroscience and social network analysis, with a focus on improving measurement strategies for topologically complex data.
Connor's Website
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Former Doctoral Students
- Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, Assistant professor at George Mason University
- Matt Denny, Staff Research Scientist at Meta, and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University
- Ishita Gopal, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
- Zachary Jones, Senior Data Scientist, Amazon
- Sangyeon Kim, Postdoctoral scholar at the Observatory on Social Media (OSoMe) at Indiana University
- Taegyoon Kim, Assistant professor in the School of Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences and a joint professor in the Graduate School of Data Science, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
- Fridolin Linder, Research Scientist and Software Engineer at Meta
- Omer Yalcin, Faculty Fellow at the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Nitheesha Nakka, Professional Specialist for Data and Statistics, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Princeton University
Former Postdocs
- Howard Liu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina
- Medha Uppala, Senior Statistician, Westat
- Yuehong Cassandra Tai, Assistant Research Professor and Assistant Director, Center for Social Data Analytics,Penn State University
- Isaac Pollert, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Political Science, Penn State University
Current Co-investigators
- Frederick Boehmke, Professor and Marvin and Rose Lee Pomerantz Chair — Department of Political Science, University of Iowa
- Jeffrey Harden, Andrew J. McKenna Family Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
- Yu-Ru Lin, Associate Professor at School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh
- Kevin Munger, Jeffrey L. Hyde and Sharon D. Hyde and Political Science Board of Visitors Early Career Professor of Political Science and Assistant Professor of Political Science and Social Data Analytics at Penn State University
- Johabed G. Olvera, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University
- Sarah Rajtmajer, assistant professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University
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