My research is motivated by the need to solve large-scale collective-action problems: how do we live in cities with little or no pollution?; avoid infectious disease outbreaks?; decrease traffic congestion? These questions require us to confront a fundamental tension: How do we reconcile an individual’s desire for agency and choice in what they do, with what everyone wants for society as a whole?

Computer Science has a crucial role to play in addressing these questions. The goal of my research is to understand human behavior at scale and to empower individual decision-making. To do so, my group, Crowd Dynamics Lab develops innovative algorithms, builds systems, and performs experiments. Our research contributes to Applied Machine Learning, Network Science, and to Human-Computer Interaction. Our research has won awards from the ACM and IEEE societies as well as the American Academy of Advertising.