Diesner partners on project to study impact of scientific research on society

Jana Diesner
Jana Diesner, Affiliate Associate Professor

A team including Associate Professor Jana Diesner has received a $1 million, three-year grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) for their project, "TextTransfer: Assessing Impact Patterns in Research Texts Applying Corpus Driven Methods." The collaborative project is a continuation of the previously funded "Text Transfer" pilot project, in which Diesner and colleagues used a mixed methods approach to build taxonomies and prediction models for secondary practical uses of research findings from final reports of grant-funded work. Their methods included interviews, information extraction, natural language processing, and machine learning.

"Outcomes of grant-funded work across all disciplines are typically released in the form of project reports," said Diesner. "After completion of funded projects, these reports are typically archived digitally by specialized archival organizations. However, a subsequent use of the findings in these reports often does not take place, so valuable knowledge is lost to potential users."

By identifying relevant patterns from text data, Diesner and colleagues aim to detect transferable knowledge—from basic research to applications—across several domains. In their pilot study, they demonstrated the feasibility of this idea by using inductive and deductive methods to identify relevant impact categories and patterns for the domain of electromobility. With the current grant, they extend this work to the domains of artificial intelligence, music, and linguistics, among others.

"The main goal of this project is to advance, validate, and apply methods to study the impact of research on society at large across different dimensions of possible impact of science on people. We are also developing and validating new taxonomies and methods for this purpose," said Diesner.

Diesner's research in human-centered data science and responsible AI combines the benefits of computing with the consideration of social contexts and ethical concerns. At the iSchool, she leads the Social Computing Lab and serves as director for strategic initiatives/data science. Diesner is a fellow in the ASPIRE (the National Alliance for Inclusive & Diverse STEM Faculty) Leadership Academy for Underrepresented Leaders in STEM Higher Education. She holds a PhD in computation, organizations and society from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

New book explores video standards in film and archives

A new book co-authored by iSchool Adjunct Lecturer Jimi Jones and Marek Jancovic, assistant professor of media studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, examines video file standards and the tensions that have emerged between the film industry and the archiving community that is tasked with preserving cultural cinematic productions. 

Jimi Jones

Chin receives NSF CAREER award

Assistant Professor Jessie Chin has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to support lifelong learning and foster information literacy. This prestigious award is given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Chin’s project, “Search as a Mechanism for Learning,” will be supported by a five-year, $629,451 grant from the NSF.

Jessie Chin

What are the effects of trade restrictions on digital technologies?

President Donald Trump has threatened to levy higher tariffs on more than two dozen countries and on various products in the past few months. China in particular has been a target of the administration’s trade wars, aimed at preventing its dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence, although the U.S. government announced recently that it would sell advanced semiconductors used in AI to China. Assistant Professor Meicen Sun spoke with News Bureau arts and humanities editor Jodi Heckel about the effects of trade restrictions.

Meicen Sun

Hassan selected for IAPP Westin Scholar Award

PhD student Muhammad Hassan has been selected as an IAPP Westin Scholar Award honoree. The annual awards were created by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) to support students who are identified as future leaders in the field of privacy and data protection. 

Muhammad Hassan

Bak defends dissertation

PhD candidate Michelle Bak successfully defended her dissertation, "Promoting a Healthy and Comprehensive Diet through Theory-Driven Large Language Models-based Agents," on July 14.

Chaewon Bak