My PhD project focuses on how we can trust agent-based models to inform public policy using validation, formal verification and computational acceleration. The application of this research is misinformation on social media. When choosing the direction for my research, I was living through a pandemic and the resulting “infodemic” of misinformation. Previously, I had naively thought that fake news was something I could identify. However, in a scenario where information is limited and the truth is constantly evolving, as with COVID-19, I realised that everyone is vulnerable. As a results, I became very interested in how AI could be leveraged to tackle this problem. This led me to my research on modelling the spread of misinformation on social media and building frameworks to ensure one can trust the recommendations.
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Undergraduate Qualification: BEng Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh
Masters Qualification: MSc Advanced Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London
Work Experience: Prior to my PhD, I worked for over two years as a data scientist for a joint venture between McLaren and Deloitte. This introduced me to programming, simulation and machine learning.
Publication: Anna Gausen, Wayne Luk, Ce Guo (2021) Can We Stop Fake News? Using Agent-Based Modelling to Evaluate Countermeasures for Misinformation on Social Media, Workshop Proceedings of the 15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
Website: Website: https://annagausen.cargo.site/
