Social Computing

The integration of theories and models from informatics and the social sciences makes it possible to detect, analyze, and interpret human and social behavior.

The integration of theories and models from informatics and the social sciences makes it possible to detect, analyze, and interpret human and social behavior. The work in the Social Computing Group integrates theories and models from ubiquitous computing, social media, machine learning, and social sciences, to sense, analyze, and interpret human and social behavior in everyday life, and to create devices and systems that support interaction and communication. Current research includes methods for urban computing from phone and mobile social network data, behavioral analysis of social video, ubiquitous sensing of face-to-face interaction, and crowdsourcing.

Group News

AI and an app to understand drinking habits among young people

research — Apr 29, 2021

Idiap researchers published the results of a study showing that analyzing pictures and audio from voluntarily recorded videos thanks to an app helps to determine with more objectivity the context of alcohol drinking among young people.

Impact Paper Award to Social Computing Group

research — last modified Dec 09, 2020

The International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2020 presented its 10-Year Impact Award to a paper on mobile data analysis by the Social Computing Group.

How the Swiss fared under partial lockdown

research — Sep 07, 2020

A joint study by Idiap Research Institute, EPFL, and the University of Lausanne’s Institute of Psychology has provided us with a unique snapshot of how Swiss residents experienced the partial lockdown measures resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The findings include gender disparities, doubts about the future and hopes for change.

AI for medias: less fake news, more ethics

research — Jul 01, 2020

The European project AI4MEDIA will start in September and gather 30 partners. Idiap and HES-SO Valais-Wallis are part of it. Researchers and media actors want to contribute to a more ethical artificial intelligence in the field of medias.

Citizen science explores the aftermaths of the COVID-19 lockdown

research — Apr 21, 2020

A nationwide study aims to understand the emotional effects of the lockdown on Swiss residents and what steps they are taking to cope with it. Thanks to an app developed at Idiap, this study will be able to gather the opinions of people over time.

More News

Group Job Openings

Idiap has a new opening for a Postdoc position in deep learning for social behavior analysis — by admin — last modified Jul 10, 2020: The Social Computing Group at Idiap is seeking a creative and motivated postdoctoral researcher to work on deep learning methods for behavioral analysis from video and audio data.
Several Openings for Cross-Disciplinary Senior Researcher positions — by admin — last modified Mar 01, 2021: With the growth of the institute, in addition to increased Federal funding to further support its activities, Idiap is opening several additional permanent senior research scientist positions.