Stefano Balietti

Currently, I am a postdoc researcher at Microsoft Research Computational Social Science. Previously, I was a postdoc at the Northeastern Network Science Institute and a fellow at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science. My methodology of investigation brings together computer simulations and online behavioral experiments. I create virtual environments to study human behavior in large groups; I use bots to triggger specific conditions, and artificial intelligence to determine optimal experimental designs (Bayesian methods and advanced machine learning).

My research interests encompass:

• incentives schemes for collective intelligence, in particular peer reveiw systems;
• optimal experimental designs, Bayesian optimization with Gaussian processes;
• inequality, perception thereof and its consequences;
• noise, efficiency and equality in coordination and public-good games;
• consensus formation and social influence;
• philosophy of science, in particular Paul Feyerabend's body of work.

I am also an active open source developer. I created a JavaScript platform for conducting real-time online group behavior experiments called nodeGame (http://nodegame.org).

Award: "Best Lightning Talk" award at SocInfo 2016 (see link below)

http://usa2016.socinfo.eu/