Sonic Lab

Congrats to NU undergrads Shraeya Iyer, Jeffrey Tu, & Isabel Su presenting at NetSciX (Feb 17–20), supported by @buffett.northwestern.edu scholarship!

Talk: A Multiplex Lens on Influencer Performance, Group Synergy, and Network Centralization
Co-Authors: Megan Chan & @noshir.bsky.social

Secondhand social capital and idea quality in open innovation communities Open innovation communities provide valuable opportunities for creators from diverse backgrounds to collaboratively generate and refine new ideas that…

New in Research Policy with Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social), Pamela Hinds, Aaron Schecter, and Elisa Mattarelli: Want better ideas in open innovation? It matters who gives you feedback — and who they're connected to.

Check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Build Better, More Representative Teams? | SIAM New research explores how AI-driven optimization, network analysis, and algorithmic fairness techniques can help create higher-performing teams.

SIAM News: Diego Gómez-Zará & Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social)on AI for better, more representative teams.

In MyDreamTeam (380+ participants), creativity was highest when people chose teammates—with representation-aware AI nudges.

www.siam.org/publications...

In an in-press study, Leslie DeChurch, Alina Lungeanu, Megan Chan, and @noshir.bsky.social analyze data from NASA space analog teams and Ancient Rome, finding that dyadic shared leadership is uniquely unstable, while solo or 3+ leader structures persist.

Read more: journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5...

New KelloggSchool Insight: Researchers Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social) & Leslie DeChurch reveal science-based best practices to help NASA crews survive a 3-year Mars mission.

Read more: insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/hous...

We’re excited to share that Dr. Noshir Contractor, former President of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be speaking at the MU–ICA Conference 2025.

📅 MU–ICA Conference on Human & Digital Mutualism
🗓 21–22 November 2025
📍 Mahindra University, Hyderabad

@noshir.bsky.social

We’re proud to share that Professor Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social) delivered a keynote at the 2025 ICA Regional Conference on “Generative AI in Research: Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovations”

Thank you to Mengxiao Zhu and the International Communication Association.

What Remotely Matters? Understanding Individual, Team, and Organizational Factors in Remote Work at Scale | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Although knowledge workers are increasingly able to adopt remote and hybrid working arrangements and work productively, many organizations continue to question the effectiveness of remote work and foc...

We’re excited to share a new hashtag#CSCW2025 publication co-authored by SONIC’s Director Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social), alongside Diego Gomez-Zara, Dr. Liz Gerber, Darren Gergle, Kapil Garg, Ph.D. , and Michael Massimi.

Read Here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

SONIC Lab was delighted to welcome back Anup Sawant (2010–2017), a proud SONIC alum and Founder of Pyrack!

We’re grateful to Anup for reconnecting with our community and inspiring the next generation of SONIC researchers!

@noshir.bsky.social

We’re proud to share that Megan Chan received the IEMS Teaching Assistant Award for her outstanding contributions during the 2024–2025 academic year.

Congratulations, Megan, we’re so lucky to have you in SONIC, and we can’t wait to see all that you accomplish this year!

@noshir.bsky.social

At the NU-Q RAWABET Conference, Professor @noshir.bsky.social discussed the emergence of collaborative intelligence, in which AI, domain experts, and technical specialists converge to create integrated systems of human and machine intelligence that are poised to fundamentally reshape scholarly work.

Excited to share the publication of “Leading the crew to Mars: Evidence from NASA HERA analog crews” in Acta Astronautica!
Co-authored by Alina Lungeanu, Leslie DeChurch, Megan Chan, and Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social)

Read Here:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congrats to the Network Canvas Team—winners of the 2025 William D. Richards Software Award! - Kate Banner, Michelle Birkett, Caden Buckhalt, Noshir Contractor, Bernie Hogan, Patrick Janulis, Joshua Melville & Gregory Phillips II

@noshir.bsky.social

We are proud to celebrate that paper, “When Two is Too Many and Not Enough: Shared Leadership in Ancient Rome (32 to 491 CE)”, authored by Leslie DeChurch, Alina Lungeanu, Megan Chan, @noshir.bsky.social, received the Sage Publishers Award for Best Management History Division Paper in Leadership.

We are proud to share that Megan Chan presented research at the Academy of Management (AoM) 2025 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Closing the Loop: Multicommunicating in Multiteam Systems
Authors: Chan, M., Carter, D., DeChurch, L., & Contractor, N.
Date: July 25–29, 2025
@noshir.bsky.social

Congrats to Dr. Neelam Modi on her Ph.D. from Northwestern! Next up: a postdoc at Columbia Business School in the Management Division & Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change.

📸 Pictured with @noshir.bsky.social at commencement!

Join us in congratulating Professor Noshir Contractor (Northwestern University) on receiving the ICA B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award. This award honors scholars who’ve made a lasting impact in the academic field of communication.

@noshir.bsky.social

On June 9, SONIC Lab and @noshir.bsky.social welcomed back Prof. @julianeidhardt.bsky.social (TU Wien) for a talk on “Human-Centered Recommender Systems.” A former visiting scholar at SONIC, she now leads work at the intersection of AI and digital humanism.

New research by Brian Uzzi, @noshir.bsky.social, Satyam Mukherjee, and Yun Huang shows teams are 1.6x more likely to win when they recruit from rival teams—not just for talent, but for insider knowledge.

Read: The Upside of Recruiting Your Rivals

insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the-...

🎉 Big congrats to SONIC undergrad Faith Do for winning 2nd place in Social & Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern’s Research Expo!

Her project “A Network Analysis of AI Intervention in Human Teams,” guided by PhD student Simon Liu, impressed judges with its clarity and impact.
@noshir.bsky.social

Congrats to Dr. Neelam Modi on defending her dissertation, “Essays on Network Approaches to Understanding Social Influence”!

Committee: Noshir Contractor (chair), Dashun Wang, Leslie DeChurch (Northwestern), Johan Koskinen (Stockholm Univ.), Alina Lungeanu (Northeastern Univ.)

@noshir.bsky.social

We’re excited to share that Glenna Wang, a member of the SONIC lab, has been awarded the Burton and Karol Lefkowitz Prize (Division II) at the 2025 Honors Convocation by Northwestern’s School of Communication!

Her leadership spans marketing, research, and student theatre. Congrats, Glenna!

Northwestern’s MS in Communication presents the Renaissance Leadership Retreat/ Certificate, a immersive experience in the heart of Tuscany. Designed to inspire, this retreat honors 4 decades of advancing communication leadership worldwide.

🗓️ April 27 – May 2
📍 Florence, Italy
@noshir.bsky.social

🚨 New in Social Networks: “Modeling the ‘who’ & ‘how’ of social influence in health practice adoption” Using data from Kenya, we find that persuasive conversations among close ties, not just exposure, drive behavior change.

By Neelam Modi, Johan Koskinen, Leslie DeChurch & @noshir.bsky.social

Noshir Contractor will be delivering an inaugural address at the ICA India Chapter’s 1st Anniversary Celebration Symposium on April 22, 2025. The event will also feature inaugural remarks from Prof. Ujwala Chakradeo and Dr. B.P. Sanjay, Chair.

🕤 9:30 AM IST
🔗 meet.google.com/wua-kzxh-fxk

We’re thrilled to share that JACR Volume 53, Issue 1 (2025) is live! This edition explores resilience in the context of media and scholarly collaboration across the globe.

A special shoutout to Noshir Contractor and Leslie DeChurch for their Forum article: “We Are a go for launch!" lnkd.in/gBvkhV6j

We’re thrilled to share that SONIC Lab’s director, Professor Noshir Contractor, has been named a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Congratulations, @noshir.bsky.social

Explore the full list here: bit.ly/4lmkiS2
@casbsstanford.bsky.social

Noshir Contractor participated in the "Balancing AI across Regulation, Innovation & Safety" panel at the UK - India AI Conference 2025. He joined leading experts in two panel discussions, exploring the vital intersections of AI development concerning innovation, and safety. @noshir.bsky.social

🌟 SONIC IN THE NEWS 🌟

SONIC Lab had a productive week at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop in Galveston, TX.

Additionally, we presented "Collective Attention in Spaceflight Multiteam Systems: Mitigating the Negative Impact of Communication Delays" at the workshop.

Join us for a session at the International Conference on Higher Education!

Featured Speaker: Noshir Contractor
📅 Date: February 6th 2025
⏰ Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Don’t miss out as @noshir.bsky.social, discusses strategies in digital education that are shaping the future of learning