Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Jerry L. Maulden-Energy Chair of Information Science, Distinguished Professor of Information Science, and Director of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS)
Dr. Nitin Agarwal is the Maulden-Entergy Distinguished Professor of Information Science at UA Little Rock. He is an internationally renowned researcher whose pioneering work in the social computing discipline has significantly advanced this fledgling area and helped open many doors for innovation for the scientific community. His primary research interests are in social computing, (deviant) behavior modeling, studying group dynamics, influence, trust, collective action, social-cyber forensics, health informatics, data mining, and privacy aims to be at the vanguard of the ever-evolving online behaviors.
At UA Little Rock, he created the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), which was designated as a research center by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education in 2020. COSMOS has produced more than two dozen projects, published 10 books and more than 200 publications, and three important tools: Blogtrackers, YouTubeTracker and Focal Structure Analysis. In the past year, COSMOS has assisted the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office track scams and disinformation related to COVID-19 that led to the development of COVID-19 Misinformation Tracker.
Since joining UA Little Rock in 2009, Agarwal has brought in more than $1o million in funding for UA Little Rock from sponsors like the U.S. Army Research Office, U.S. Office of Naval Research, U.S. Air Force Research Lab, U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.