2019_08_05_ICS_investigacion_BigData
Human or bot? A researcher of the ICS performs a research stay in Canada on the treatment of Big Data in classification problems.
Jesús López Fidalgo is working with Douglas Wiens, an expert in the use of robust models at the University of Alberta, for three months.
Jesús López Fidalgo, director of the Science Unit of data of Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, is spending a stay at the University of Alberta thanks to the 'Salvador de Madariaga' Program coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain.
López Fidalgo has joined the team of researcher Douglas Wiens, an international expert in the use of robust models, to work on the application of design optimal experiment techniques -also known as Active Leraning-in the treatment of Big Data in classification problems. Among other topics, the researcher is applying a model "to a set of tweets to discover whether they have been written by humans or by bots," he explains.
For the expert, this stay "involves a great effort staff and family, but it is worth it". He considers the visit at the University of Alberta very enriching since he has been able to learn new techniques that enhance his research, such as Big Data processing techniques "which is nowadays at the forefront". At the moment, López Fidalgo is finishing the programming of an algorithm, a consequence of the mathematical theory tested so far.
He also assures that this stay is allowing him to focus entirely on research. She is grateful for the facilities offered by the Canadian university, such as the appointment of Visiting Professor which allows her "access to many university services that make research and life itself much more bearable".
Preparation, collaborations and publications"There is no point in doing research if it is not for dissemination, it would not even be ethical", says the expert. Thus, his intention is to publish his work at the University of Alberta in one of the best statistical journals in the world. Both Douglas Wiens and his team have published in high impact journals in the statistics area .
As he explains, Prof. Wiens "is very organized and efficient and we have been preparing this visitfor a few months now". So, before going to Canada, both researchers worked on Active Learning and presented part of the study at a couple of conferences. "At the last one there were many people specialized in design optimal experiments and it aroused a lot of interest," he says.
This is not the first time Lopez Fidalgo has worked with Wiens, they had previously co-authored a article and co-edited the special issue on 'design of Experiments' of the journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Subsequently, in November 2017, the Canadian researcher made a visit of research to the ICS, which resulted in the current partnership .