Projects, Methodology, Results, and Blogs. Privacy and Security in Online Social Media @ IIITH

Continuing the tradition of capturing project ideas, methodologies, results, and artefacts from the course in a blog, here are the projects from the Fall 2018 edition of PSOSM @ IIITH. For Fall 2017 edition @ IIITD, please visit here.

I taught TM18004: Privacy and Security in Online Social Media in Fall 2018 semester. This is my 1st full time teaching experience at IIIT Hyderabad. It was super exciting to teach as a faculty in the same institute where I had taken courses (in 2003 / 2004). It now makes most sense to me why faculty who teach at their alum institutes take so much pride, I have so many friends and well-wishers who belong to this category of faculty. We had 24 students taking the course for credits, and one Teaching Assistant. There were in total 10 projects developed as part of the course. It was wonderful to see the projects spanning all popular networks, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Strava, Gab, Flick, Twitter, Reddit, and 4Chan. I personally got to know Gab and Strava more through the projects and students.

The intention for this blog is to capture all the projects related details and share it widely for larger audience. Thanks to all the wonderful work by students in the class. The footfall for the poster presentation was 100+ from IIITH community, and some coming from outside too. We also had some evaluators from outside campus, including from IIT Hyderabad.  Below is the customary picture of all Students, Teaching Assistant, and Evaluators from the poster presentation and for more pictures, please see here. Below is the list of all 10 projects (arranged in the alphabetical order of project name) with the following details: Project name | Students involved | Network (s) | Blog. All blogs were developed by the students, we (instructor, TA) do not take any responsibility for the content produced (both quality and the details).

1. Authenticity of Linkedin Profile | Aman, Harshit, Aashay | Facebook, Linkedin | Blog | Pic
2. Comparative study on effect of anonymity and ephemerality in social media | Eashwar Subramanian, Himakar Yanamandra | Reddit, 4Chan & Twitter | Blog
3. Finding your city using your Strava activities | Devansh Manu, Shravya K, Arhant Jain | Strava | Blog
4. Predicting Elections from Social Media | Vighnesh, Abhijith | Twitter | Blog
5. LinkIt – Using social media profiles to create a wholesome profile | Aaron, Aniruddha | FB, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn | Blog
6. Analyzing NSFW on Reddit | Pranav Bhasin, Daksh, Deepanshu | Reddit | Blog
7. Nyan Gab | Hate speech analysis | Dheeraj, Ritvik | Gab | Blog
8. Social Phishing. Soumya, Soujanya | Linkedin, Instagram] | Blog
9. TNT – Troll or Not Troll | Aakash KT, Manan Sharma, Vaibhav Gupta | Twitter | Blog
10. Un-Locate It | Pranav Goel, Noveen Sachdeva, Aditya Bharti | Flickr | Blog

Special thanks to Shreya for TAing the course.

Below are some quotes by students from the course

“In my time taking the course, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most defining aspects of the PSOSM course is it’s ability to remain as close to reality as possible. As academics, it’s easy for a lot of us (especially professors) to get stuck in the nitty gritties of theoretical solutions, only to forget what the real life application (and implication) of such solutions could entail. PSOSM didn’t have that issue at all, and it was clear throughout the course that this stemmed from PK’s ability to foster such an environment. PSOSM is perhaps one of the few courses that not only encourages but demands its students to find a real life problem, and to try to solve it head on.”

“We had a lot of fun throughout the course, with PK at the centre of some timely humour during classes. In summary, I would say it’s definitely one of the best courses I’ve taken and a fantastic experience.”

“About the course PSOSM, it had a great vibe, easily being one of the most engaging and interactive courses I have ever had. The course seemed to bring out a different side in all of us. Most professors complain about the lack of enthusiasm among students of this generation, but PSOSM had us reading up on articles and papers, which we would then discuss and debate over in class. From learning to collect Twitter data to having guest lecturers from CMU, the course seemed to have it all. Overall, I enjoyed the course tremendously and had an amazing time interacting with Professor PK.”

Stay tuned for updates on the super exciting course that I am planning to offer next semester!