Tallinn, Estonia, courtesy of Maximilian Schich
Overview
My main work is at the CUDAN Open Lab from September 2019 to June 2026 as a Junior Researcher. CUDAN (Cultural Data Analytics) is a €2.5 million Horizon 2020 project based at Tallinn University, created as a team of multidisciplinary specialists conducting research at the intersection of data science, cultural studies, computational methods, and physics.
I was hired to this team was to bring in the expertiese in human-computer interaction and social media to support a broader areas of research. My own research agenda was focused on understanding digital culture practices, such as self-representation through text and images online by using quantitative and qualitative analysis. You can find my published results in peer-reviewed journals in the publications section.
Research Areas
Data Extraction & Analysis
- Conducted large-scale Data MiningProcess of discovering patterns in large data sets using computational methods at the intersection of statistics, database systems, or machine learning. from social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Tinder)
- Developed data processing pipelines for cultural data analysis
- Applied statistical methods to identify patterns in digital behaviour
Machine Learning
- Applied Machine LearningBranch of statistics and computer science, which studies algorithms and architectures that learn from observed facts. methods to classify and analyse cultural content such as social media images and texts
- Built models for understanding social media engagement and self-representation patterns of individuals, groups and collectives
- Implemented Natural Language ProcessingField of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human language. methods for text analysis
Data Visualisation
- Created publication-quality data visualisations to communicate research findings
- Developed interactive web based visualisations for exploring cultural datasets, such as Lotman Archive
- Used Python visualisation libraries (Matplotlib, Seaborn) and UMAP for dimensionality reduction, data exploration
Content Analysis
- Distant and close reading of digital culture practices on TikTok, Instagram, and Tinder
- Analysed user behaviour patterns and content curation patterns
- Published research on migrant communities on TikTok (International Journal of Communication, 2022)
Methodologies
- Data MiningProcess of discovering patterns in large data sets using computational methods at the intersection of statistics, database systems, or machine learning. and Web ScrapingData scraping used for extracting data from websites.
- Machine LearningBranch of statistics and computer science, which studies algorithms and architectures that learn from observed facts. and Natural Language ProcessingField of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human language.
- Statistical analysis
- Network AnalysisMethod to study the relations of actors or other entities in a mediated network. The resulting network is made up of nodes (entities) and edges (relations).
- Data VisualisationCreation and study of the visual representation of data.
- Ethnographic digital methods