Donaghey Distinguished Professor of Information Science Dr. Nitin Agarwal

Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Director of the COSMOS research center, is making news with his research and bringing in millions of dollars in grants every year.

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"Modeling Narrative Dynamics in Cross-platform and Multimedia-rich Information Environment". The project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) Social and Cognitive Networks Program (Award number: W911NF-26-1-A163). Total award amount: $2,000,000. Project Period: June 10, 2026 – June 09, 2028. Role: PI.
"Developing Socio-computational Methods to Strengthen Community Resiliency to Mitigate Cognitive Attacks". The project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) Social and Cognitive Networks Program (Award number: W911NF-25-1-0147). Total award amount: $5,000,000. Project Period: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2027. Role: PI.
"Developing Socio-computational Approaches to Mitigate Collective Action-based Socio-cognitive Security Threats in a Multi-platform Multimedia-rich Information Environment". The project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) Social and Cognitive Networks Program (Award number: W911NF-24-1-0078). Total award amount: $5,000,000. Project Period: March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2027. Role: PI.
“Developing Socio-computational Capabilities to Evaluate Emerging Social Cyber Threats”. The project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) Social and Cognitive Networks Program (Award number: W911NF-23-1-0011). Total award amount: $5,000,000. Project Period: March 1, 2023 – September 30, 2026. Role: PI.
“Developing Novel Big Data Mining Algorithms for a Safer Social Media and Creating Training Opportunities for Workforce Development and Retention”. The project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) / Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s (AEDC) Division of Science and Technology (Award number: #22-22). Total award amount: $95,227. Project Period: 12/1/2022 – 01/31/2024. Role: PI.
“Fusing Narrative and Social Cyber Forensics to Understand Covert Influence – Malaysia”. This project is funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under the Minerva Program (Award number: N00014-22-1-2604). Total award amount: $374,025. Project Period: 08/01/2022 – 01/31/2024. Role: Sub-PI. Collaborators: Scott Ruston.
“Building a computational model of mobs leveraging social science theories”. The project is funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under the Defense EPSCoR Program (Award number: FA9550-22-1-0332). Total award amount: $660,407.00. Project Period: 07/05/2022 – 07/04/2026. Role: Sub-PI. Collaborators: Samer Al-Khateeb.
“Multimedia Data-Intensive High-Density Computational Support for Research on Monitoring Cyber Warfare Tactics through Social Media”. The project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) (Award number: N00014-22-1-2318). Total award amount: $165,540.00. Project Period: 04/01/2022 – 03/31/2023. Role: PI.
“Multi-Level Models of Covert Online Information Campaigns”. This project is funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under the Minerva Program (Award number: N00014-21-1-2765). Total award amount: $4,965,214. Project Period: 08/12/2021 – 08/11/2026. Role: Sub-PI. Collaborators: Kathleen Carley, Rick Carley, Douglas Sicker, Colin Clarke (Carnegie Mellon University), Gordon Pennycook (University of Regina, Canada), Graham Brookie, Emerson T. Brooking, (The Atlantic Council’s DFRLab).
“Fusing Narrative and Social Cyber Forensics to Understand Covert Influence”. This project is funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under the Minerva Program (Award number: N00014-21-1-2121). Total award amount: $2,349,348. Project Period: 02/02/2021 – 02/01/2025. Role: Sub-PI. Collaborators: Scott Ruston, Steve Corman, Elena Steiner, Mark Woodward (Ariz. St Univ.), Norman Vasu (NUS, Singapore), Charmaine Willoughby (De La Salle University, Philippines), Hani Mohamed (CEO/Founder, Alertist, Indonesia).
“Developing a framework for multiplatform misinformation campaign analysis”. This project is funded by Arkansas Research Alliance under Impact Grants 2.0. Total award amount: $75,000. Project Period: 03/01/2021 – 02/28/2023. Role: PI.
“SBP 2021-2023 Conference Sponsorship Grant Proposal”. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office’s (ARO) Modeling of Complex Systems program (Award number: W911NF-21-1-0102). Total award amount: $60,000. Project Period: 03/01/2021 – 12/31/2024. Role: PI.
“RII Track-1: Data Analytics that are Robust and Trusted (DART): From Smart Curation to Socially Aware Decision Making”. This project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award number: OIA-1946391). Program Officer: Dr. Jeanne Small. Total award amount: $24 million. Project Period: 07/01/2020 – 06/30/2026. Role: Institutional PI. Collaborators: Steve Stanley and Jackson Cothren.
“Twitter Follower / Friend Assessment Tool (TWIFFA)”. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)(Award number: N68335-20-C-0540). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby. Total award amount: $150,000. Project Period: 08/01/2020 – 07/31/2021.
“Evaluating and Advancing Deviant Cyber Flash Mob (DCFM) Model to Combat COVID-19 Misinfodemic”. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) under Social and Cognitive Networks program within the Network Sciences division (Award number: W911NF-20-1-0262). Program Officer: Dr. Edward Palazzolo. Total award amount: $150,000. Project Period: 08/01/2020 – 12/31/2021.
“RII Track 2 FEC: Multi-Scale Integrative Approach to Digital Health: Collaborative Research and Education in Smart Health in West Virginia and Arkansas”. This project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award number: OIA-1920920). Program Officer: Dr. Ann Stapleton. Total award amount: $3,999,999. Project Period: 08/01/2019 – 07/31/2025. Collaborators: Donald Adjeroh, Yuri Zarate, Umesh Reddy, Xintao Wu. Project website: WVAR-CRESH.
“Developing Predictive Model for Deviant Cyber Flash Mobs”. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) under Social and Cognitive Networks program within the Network Sciences division (Award number: W911NF-16-1-0189). Program Officer: Dr. Edward Palazzolo. Total award amount: $149,199. Project Period: 06/01/2019 – 05/31/2020. Role: PI.
“Detection of Crowd Manipulation in Social Media”. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)/Office of Naval Research (ONR) under STTR Phase 1, Topic N19A-T024 (Award number: N68335-19-C-0359). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby. Total award amount: $150,000. Project Period: 06/01/2019 – 05/31/2020. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: I-A-I.
“Social Cybersecurity Research Infrastructure Development: Novel Socio-computational Methodologies to Model Emerging Cyber-social Threats”. This project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) (Award number: N00014-19-1-2336). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby. Total award amount: $2,399,867. Project Period: 02/01/2019 – 10/09/2023. Role: PI.
Arkansas Research Alliance fellowship. Total award amount: $75,000. Project period: 01/01/2019 – 12/31/2022. Role: PI. Arkansas Democrat Gazette | KARK | NWA – Fox 24
“Near Real Time Assessment of Emergent Complex Systems of Confederates”. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)/Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), Topic #15: Novel Approaches to Modeling Factions and Conflict (Award number: N00014-17-1-2675). Program Officer: Dr. Martin Kruger. Total award amount: $7,500,000. Project Period: 09/01/2017 – 08/31/2022. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Kathleen M. Carley (CMU), Kiron Skinner (CMU), Zico Kolter (CMU), Matthew E. Brashears (University of South Carolina Columbia), Tymofiy Mylovanov (University of Pittsburgh), Dmytro Ostapchuk (VoxUkraine, Ukraine). DoD announcement.
“Developing Novel Socio-computational Methodologies to Analyze Multimedia-based Cyber Propaganda Campaigns”. This project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Thrust Code 341 (Award number: N00014-17-1-2605). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby.Total award amount: $1,530,778. Project Period: 06/01/2017 – 04/30/2021. Role: PI.
“Conference Sponsorship: Tenth International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction (SBP)”. This project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Thrust Code 341 (Award number: N00014-17-1-2461). Total award amount: $25,000. Project Period: 05/01/2017 – 04/30/2018. Role: PI.
“SBP 2017-2019 Conference Sponsorship Grant Proposal”. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office’s (ARO) Modeling of Complex Systems program (Award number: W911NF-17-1-0138). Total award amount: $63,000. Project Period: 03/23/2017 – 01/19/2020. Role: PI.
“Large-scale Medical Informatics for Patient Care Coordination and Engagement”. The research project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Spokes) program (Award number: IIS-1636933). Total award amount: $1,000,000. Project Period: 09/01/2016 – 08/31/2019. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Gari Clifford (Emory University), Herman Taylor (Moore School of Medicine), Indranil Bardhan (UT-Dallas), Donald Adjeroh (West Virginia University), Ahmed Abbasi (Virginia University), and Christopher Rozell (Georgia Tech). [UALR News]
“Socio-computational Predictive Methods to Detect and Mitigate Bot Activity in Novel Information Environments”. The research project is funded by the DARPA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase-2 grant (Award number: W31P4Q-17-C-0059). Total award amount: $1,000,000. Project Period: 09/01/2016 – 08/31/2019. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Intelligent Automation, Inc.
“Analyzing Integrated Social Media-Facilitated Propaganda Campaigns using Social Network Analysis and Cyber Forensics”. This project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Thrust Code 341 (Award number: N00014-16-1-2412). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby. Total award amount: $190,000. Project Period: 05/01/2016 – 09/30/2018. Role: PI.
“Towards Predictive Modeling Deviant Cyber Flash Mobs: A Socio-Informatics Driven Hypergraph Framework”. The project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) under Social and Cognitive Networks program within the Network Sciences division (Award number: W911NF-16-1-0189). Program Officer: Dr. Edward Palazzolo. Total award amount: $289,325. Project Period: 06/01/2016 – 05/31/2019. Role: PI.
“Data-Intensive High-Density Computational Equipment for Research on Monitoring Cyber Warfare Tactics through Social Media”. The project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) (Award number: N00014-16-1-2016). Total award amount: $85,964. Project Period: 11/15/2015 – 12/14/2016. Role: PI.
“A Socio-computational Model for ‘Social Bot’ Detection: Understanding tactical and strategic information maneuvers through social media to advance cyber operations”. The research project is funded by the U.S. Department of Navy’s (DoN) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase-1 grant (Award number: N00014-15-P-1187). Total award amount: $150,000. Project Period: 08/01/2015 – 08/31/2016. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Intelligent Automation, Inc.
“SBP 2015 Outreach Efforts to Increase Diversity and Participation of Minorities”. The research project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award number: IIS-1523458). Total award amount: $19,836. Project Period: 02/01/2015 – 01/31/2018. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Donald Adjeroh.
“MRI: Acquisition of Peta-Scale Data Storage System for Big Data Exploration in STEM Fields”. The research project is funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI) program (Award number: ACI-1429160). Total award amount: $291,908. Project period: 09/01/2014 – 08/31/2018. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Kenji Yoshigoe, Marcus Seigar, John Talburt, and Jerry Darsey.
“Predictive Modeling of Cyber Flash Mobs: Understanding Emerging Socio-Technical Behaviors for Conflict Monitoring”. This project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Thrust Code 341 (Award number: N00014-14-1-0489). Program Officer: Dr. Rebecca Goolsby.Total award amount: $160,000. Project Period: 05/01/2014 – 09/30/2015. Role: PI.
“Social Media Categorization Study”. This project is funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). Program Officer: Dr. Laurie Fenstermacher. Total award amount: $150,000. Project Period: 05/01/2014 – 12/31/2015. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Huan Liu
“SBP 2014-2016 Conference Sponsorship Grant”. This project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office’s (ARO) Modeling of Complex Systems program (Award number: W911NF-14-1-0023). Total award amount: $15,000. Project Period: 01/10/2014 – 11/09/2016. Role: PI.
“SBP 2012 Outreach Efforts to Increase Diversity and Participation of Minorities”. The research project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Human Centered Computing (HCC) Program (Award number: IIS-1225981). Total award amount: $16,640. Project Period: 03/01/2012 – 02/28/2014. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Donald Adjeroh. Project webpage.
“BlogTrackers: Analyzing Social Media for Cultural Modeling”. The research project is funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) (Award number: N00014-10-1-0091). Total award amount: $334,791. Project period: 05/01/2010 – 12/30/2013. Role: Co-PI. Collaborators: Huan Liuand Merlyna Lim. Project webpage. BlogTrackers Tool.
“Cyber-collective Movements: Novel Socio-computational Approaches in Studying the Blogosphere”. The research project is funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Social-Computational Systems (SoCS) Program and Human Centered Computing (HCC) Program(Award number: IIS-1110868 and IIS-1110649). Total award amount: $742,044. Project Period: 09/01/2011 – 05/31/2016. Role: PI. Collaborators: Rolf T. Wigand and Merlyna Lim. Project webpage. Research mentioned in news by: UALR News, Newswise. SoCS PI Meeting – Year 1 Poster (June 17-19, 2012) | Year 2 Poster (June 28-29, 2013).

Donaghey Distinguished Professor of Information Science Dr. Nitin Agarwal

View Over $49 Million in Awarded Grants