Kuzmanovic Featured in Washington Free Beacon Article

Prof. Aleksandar Kuzmanovic has been spotlighted in a news article, titled, "Project Could Help Combat ‘Troll Armies’", published by The Washington Free Beacon.

A joint project by Northwestern and Northeastern universities (Prof. Kuzmanovic and Prof. Alan Misove) is examining how to create “trolling-free environments” on the Internet. The researchers define online trolls as those who try to influence public opinion by boosting “misleading” and “inauthentic comments.”

The researchers are specifically aiming for their work to help combat “troll armies” used by Russia and China. “Public opinion is of paramount importance in any society,” they said. “It is thus not a surprise that many governments, political parties, and various other groups deploy tactics to influence public opinion on the Internet, a practice commonly referred to as trolling.”

The study has received two grants in the amounts of $250,234 and $249,337, totaling $499,571. The research is set to begin Oct. 1 and is slated to continue through 2019.

Prof. Kuzmanovic is Director of the Northwestern Networks Group. Their reseach currently includes: auditing internet content and ISPs, synergistic internet services, semantic-enabled internet services, coping with the wireless revolution, doS-resilient internet protocols, and high performance despite heterogeneity.