Cosmos at UALR

06/03/2026

💡 “Ultimately, this transformation could move social media beyond the attention economy toward a more accountable, human-centered digital infrastructure—one that is also more resilient against malicious actors seeking to exploit platform vulnerabilities for cognitive warfare.”

🔥 We think you’ll find his comments about this transformation both compelling and sobering...
https://apprenticely.org/about-your-social-media-addiction/

05/27/2026

💡 A federal judge recently found Meta and YouTube liable for negligence, ruling that their social media platforms were designed to be addictive and harmed a young user’s health.

For more on what this means—both for tech companies and their social media customers—we put a few questions to frequent contributor Dr. Nitin Agarwal, whose COSMOS Research Center at UA Little Rock researches social media for the likes of NATO, U.S. National Science Foundation, and for specific units of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force.

In fact, Dr. Agarwal fielded these questions via email as he traveled to presentations and meetings from the Netherlands to India to Austria.

🔥 We think you’ll find his comments both compelling and sobering...
https://apprenticely.org/about-your-social-media-addiction/

05/21/2026

Delighted to share the latest edition of COSMOS's newsletter. COSMOS continues to grow its impact at the intersection of AI, social computing, and cognitive security:

🎖️ Prof. Nitin Agarwal received the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Faculty Excellence Award for his research contributions and leadership in AI and cognitive security work.

📊 New collaborative research from COSMOS, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, introduces PS3N, an AI-based model for detecting dangerous drug interactions. This approach delves deeper into the biological mechanisms by which drugs interact with the body's proteins.

📚 Three of our studies at the 14th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications in New York investigate how YouTube algorithms and creator patterns shape human behavior.

☀️ We welcome Femi Alayesanmi, a software engineer by training, as our newest Graduate Research Assistant.

COSMOS continues to advance socially impactful research, bridging technology, human behavior, and real-world digital challenges. ➡️ Read the full newsletter at: https://cosmos.ualr.edu/newsletter/.

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of War, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arkansas Research Alliance, the Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for their support.

05/02/2026

Delighted to share the latest edition of COSMOS's newsletter. COSMOS continues to grow its impact at the intersection of AI, public policy, and socio-technical systems:

🗞️ Prof. Nitin Agarwal featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for contributions to Arkansas’s responsible AI adoption report, advancing ethical governance.

📊 New research from COSMOS, published in the Cambridge University Press’ Journal of Data & Policy, shows that culturally resonant content drives stronger engagement and faster information diffusion online

🧠 Three studies from COSMOS, published in the 37th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2025), advance interpretable AI, improving transparency, bias detection, and content understanding.

🌟 We welcome Bishwa Subedi as our new Graduate Research Assistant, contributing to narrative analysis research.

COSMOS continues to advance socially impactful research, bridging technology, human behavior, and real-world digital challenges. ➡️ Read the full newsletter at https://cosmos.ualr.edu/newsletter/.

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arkansas Research Alliance, the Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for supporting.

Newsletter Prof. Nitin Agarwal Featured in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on State’s Safe AI Use Policy Report Prof. Nitin Agarwal was featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for his role in the Arkansas statewide report outlining how the state can responsibly adopt AI to improve government efficienc...

04/05/2026

Congratulations, Prof. Nitin Agarwal!

UA Little Rock has announced the recipients of its 2026 Faculty Excellence Awards, recognizing outstanding faculty members for their contributions in teaching, research and creative works, public service, social justice, and rising faculty achievement.

Selected from college-level honorees, this year’s winners represent the highest level of achievement across the university. Winners are recognized for excellence in the classroom, advancing knowledge in their fields, and making meaningful contributions to communities across Arkansas and beyond.

“Our faculty continue to demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to teaching, research, and service that strengthens both our university and the communities we serve,” said Provost Ann Bain. “These awards reflect the depth of talent and dedication across our institution.”

04/05/2026

We are thrilled to share another edition of the COSMOS Newsletter, which celebrates global impact in AI, social computing, and cognitive security.

🎤 Prof. Nitin Agarwal selected for the prestigious IEEE Distinguished Visitor Program, recognizing his leadership and research excellence.

📊New publication in Springer’s Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining introduces SEPS, an AI-driven framework to detect anomalous YouTube behavior.

🧠Award-winning studies presented at the 18th International SBP-BRiMS 2025 conference reveal insights on democratic trust in TikTok and generational dynamics in online toxicity.

🌟Welcome Richa Pokhrel, Graduate Assistant, contributing to social media intelligence and interdisciplinary research.

COSMOS continues to advance socially impactful research, bridging technology, human behavior, and real-world digital challenges. ➡️ Read the full newsletter at https://cosmos.ualr.edu/newsletter/.

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arkansas Research Alliance, the Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for their support.

Newsletter Prof. Nitin Agarwal delivered Invited talk on LLMs’ influence on Social Networks Prof. Nitin Agarwal, Director of COSMOS at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, delivered an invited talk at the 17th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mini...

02/19/2026

🚀 Presenting COSMOS’s February 2026 Newsletter Highlights: A month of strong growth and impactful research in social computing, cognitive security, and interdisciplinary innovation.

🎤 Prof. Nitin Agarwal represented UA Little Rock at the 17th IEEE/ACM ASONAM in Niagara Falls, discussing LLMs’ transformative potential—and risks—in social networks, emphasizing transparency and human–AI collaboration.

📊 New study in the Journal of Applied Network Science reveals how symbolic content shapes algorithmic bias in YouTube’s recommender ecosystem, reinforcing echo chambers and adversarial narratives.

🧠 At SBP-BRiMS (Carnegie Mellon), COSMOS showcased cutting-edge research on digital deception, recommender “traps,” and AI-driven narrative detection.

🌟 Featuring COSMOS alumnus Dr. Ahmed Al-Taweel and welcoming new Ph.D. student Hakan Erdem.

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arkansas Research Alliance, Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for their support.

➡️ Read the full February 2026 Newsletter at https://cosmos.ualr.edu/newsletter/.

01/30/2026

COSMOS begins the year with major research milestones, global conference presence, award-winning publications, and new team members. Our research addressed critical challenges in the digital information ecosystem through premier international conferences and high-impact publications.

🔹Prof. Nitin Agarwal presented COSMOS’s research at the 46th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2025), reinforcing UALR’s visibility among world-leading information systems scholars.

🔹COSMOS published “Modeling Polarized Information Diffusion with Stance based Epidemiological Model” in Springer’s Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining, introducing a novel stance-based framework to analyze polarization, skepticism, and manipulation.

🔹At the 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, COSMOS research advanced socially informed deep learning, neural-symbolic toxicity detection, behavioral narrative diffusion, and media ecosystem analysis—driving interpretable and ethical AI. Two COSMOS studies at HICSS 2026 were nominated for the Best Paper Award, highlighting the quality and relevance of the research.

🔹We spotlight three of our studies that demonstrate how mathematical modeling and data-driven approaches can mitigate harmful behaviors in high-stakes socio-digital environments. One of these papers, “Modeling Quarantine Intervention for Varied Toxic Intensities” received the Best Paper Award at the 15th International Conference on Social Media Technologies, Communication, and Informatics (SOTICS 2025) in Lisbon. The other two papers are published at the 18th International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction (SBP-BRiMS 2025) at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

🔹We welcome Atharvaa Rane, Data Engineer, bringing expertise in data pipelines and analytics to support COSMOS projects.

COSMOS remains committed to interdisciplinary, ethical, and socially grounded research—bridging theory and practice to address real-world socio-technical challenges in 2026 and beyond.

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), Arkansas Research Alliance, Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for their support of our efforts.

➡️ Read the full January 2026 Newsletter:

01/29/2026

At this point, we might need a standing “COSMOS in the news” segment! 😄👏

Huge congrats to Dr. Nitin Agarwal on earning the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on AI-Based Media Innovation in Venice, Italy! His award-winning research uses AI to analyze how emotion and tone shift across layers of YouTube content, helping uncover the difference between attention-grabbing headlines and a video’s deeper message.

This latest recognition adds to COSMOS’ growing list of honors and highlights the impactful research happening right here at UA Little Rock! Follow them on Facebook to stay updated: Cosmos at UALR

Read more about this research here: https://ualr.edu/news/2026/01/27/ua-little-rock-professor-earns-best-paper-award-for-ai-research/

12/17/2025

🎄 Warm Christmas and New Year greetings, and welcome to the COSMOS December Newsletter!

This December, we celebrate a year of impactful research, innovation, and growth in AI and cognitive security at the COSMOS Research Center.

🔹Prof. Nitin Agarwal delivered an invited talk at the UA Little Rock Provost Leadership Council on mitigating AI-enhanced cognitive threats and data-driven defense strategies.

🔹Prof. Agarwal was featured in The Baltimore Sun for his expert insights on ethical and responsible AI governance.

🔹COSMOS research has been published at 39th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025), the world’s most prestigious AI conference, showcasing our leadership in next-generation multimodal AI.

🔹16 COSMOS studies were accepted in the 14th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications (Complex Networks 2025), highlighting global leadership in network and computational social science.

🔹COSMOS research, published in Springer’s Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM) journal, introduces a scalable framework to detect anomalous and coordinated engagement in YouTube discussions.

🔹COSMOS researchers showcased cutting-edge studies at 17th International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2025), exploring how visual persuasion, recommendation algorithms, and bias shape influence and fairness in today’s digital ecosystems.

🔹We proudly welcome Bhushan Shelke as our new Data Engineer, strengthening our large-scale data and analytics capabilities.

➡️ Read the full December Newsletter: https://cosmos.ualr.edu/newsletter/

We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arkansas Research Alliance, the Maulden- Entergy Endowment, and the Donaghey Foundation at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for their support of our efforts.

Wishing everyone a joyful Christmas and a successful New Year! 🎆