Goran Murić, PhD

Goran Murić, PhD

Research Computer Scientist at the University of Southern California‘s Information Sciences Institute, Artificial Intelligence Division

Hi. I’m Goran Murić

I am a Principal Scientist at the InferLink Corporation. Previously a Research Computer Scientist at the USC‘s Information Sciences Institute - Artificial Intelligence Division. I got a PhD in Engineering at TU Dresden at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

I am a Researcher and Principal Investigator specializing in AI, Natural Language Processing, Agent-based Simulations and Causal Modelling. I lead multidisciplinary projects funded by DARPA and the DoD, tackling some of the most complex challenges. My work includes knowledge extraction from unstructured texts, combating online influence campaigns, multilingual translation for low-resource languages, and simulating information environments. I also study misinformation and extremist dynamics, with numerous publications in leading journals and conferences.

Employment History

Teaching

Spring 2022 - DSCI550 - Data Science at Scale

Previous and Current Projects

[PI] DoD funded “Chemical Pathways”

Leading efforts to extract chemical synthesis pathways for target chemicals from extensive literature sources, including scientific articles and patents.

[PI] DARPA funded “MinMod: Extracting Models of Minerals from Knowledge” under CriticalMAAS

Coordinating a team of developers and scientists to develop state-of-the-art data retrieval methods from large unstructured texts, particularly from large mining reports. This initiative is aimed at creating structured databases to enhance the utilization of critical minerals and uncover potential new mining locations for these essential resources.

[PI] DoD funded “Adaptive Translation Engine for Minimal Resource Languages (ATE)”

The project aims to expand the capabilities of a Massively Multilingual Neural Machine Translation (NMT) system, focusing on providing translation services for low-resource languages in the Indo-Pacific region.

[Co-PI] DARPA funded - “UPSCALE: Universal Population Segmentation and Characterization Algorithms for OnLine Environments” under INCAS

Developing the next generation of tools and techniques for awareness and sensemaking of online influence campaigns, including their detection, characterization, quantification of confidence, and tracking.

DARPA funded - “DARMA: Dialogue Agent for Reducing Malicious Acts”

Developing a multilingual, adaptable system that mediates online dialogue so as to limit communication breakdown due to toxic behaviors. A mediator can facilitate discussions by removing offensive comments that violate community guidelines, inflame controversy or deceive, or by appealing to civility, acting as a role model, and, if necessary, limiting distracting voices when their contribution is detrimental to the community’s welfare.

DARPA funded - “COSINE: Cognitive Online Simulation of Information Network Environments” under SocialSim

Developing the first-of-its-kind cognitive agent simulation framework for studying multi-scale dynamics of social phenomena in online information environments. COSINE’s multi-resolution, scalable framework will enables time-resolved, massive simulations of dynamic, networked information environments.

Keston and ISI Exploratory Research Award - “Identifying Populations Susceptible to Anti-Science” [Co-PI]

We built a system for automated detection of anti-science and anti-vaccine narratives online. Our algorithm can detect the Twitter profiles to likely to spread anti-vaccine sentiment up to one year in the future.

Publications

  1. Zimmerman F, Bailey D, Muric G, Ferrara E, Schöne J, Willer R, Halperin E, Navajas J, Gross J, Goldenberg A Attraction to politically extreme users on social media. PNAS nexus 2024.0;3.0
  2. Hickey D, Schmitz M, Fessler D, Smaldino P, Lerman K, Murić G, Burghardt K Hostile Counterspeech Drives Users From Hate Subreddits. arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.18374 2024.0;
  3. Muric G, Delay B, Minton S Interpretable Cross-Examination Technique (ICE-T): Using highly informative features to boost LLM performance. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.13641 2024.0;
  4. Schmitz M, Muric G, Hickey D, Burghardt K Do users adopt extremist beliefs from exposure to hate subreddits?. Social Network Analysis and Mining 2024.0;14.0
  5. Hickey D, Schmitz M, Fessler D, Smaldino P, Muric G, Burghardt K Auditing Elon Musk’s impact on hate speech and bots. Proceedings of the international AAAI conference on web and social media 2023.0;17.0
  6. Schmitz M, Murić G, Burghardt K Quantifying How Hateful Communities Radicalize Online Users. IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM) 2023.0;
  7. Hickey D, Schmitz M, Fessler D, Smaldino P, Muric G, Burghardt K No Love Among Haters: Negative Interactions Reduce Hate Community Engagement. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.13641 2023.0;
  8. Schmitz M, Muric G, Burghardt K Detecting anti-vaccine users on Twitter. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 2023.0;17.0
  9. Twyman M, Murić G, Zheng W Positioning in a collaboration network and performance in competitions: a case study of Kaggle. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 2023.0;28.0
  10. Jiang J, Chen E, Luceri L, Murić G, Pierri F, Chang H, Ferrara E What are your pronouns? examining gender pronoun usage on twitter. arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.10894 2022.0;
  11. Murić G, Tregubov A, Blythe J, Abeliuk A, Choudhary D, Lerman K, Ferrara E Large-scale agent-based simulations of online social networks. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 2022.0;36.0
  12. Zhang W, Muric G, Ferrara E Individual and collective performance deteriorate in a new team: A case study of cs: Go tournaments. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.09693 2022.0;
  13. Chen E, Jiang J, Chang H, Muric G, Ferrara E Charting the information and misinformation landscape to characterize misinfodemics on social media: COVID-19 infodemiology study at a planetary scale. Jmir Infodemiology 2022.0;2.0
  14. Chang H, Chen E, Zhang M, Muric G, Ferrara E Handbook of computational social science. London: Routledge 2021.0;
  15. Muric G, Lerman K, Ferrara E Gender Disparity in the Authorship of Biomedical Research Publications During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Observational Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research 2021.0;23.0
  16. Ko K, Burghardt K, Muric G Enter at your own risk: The impacts of joining a hateful subreddit. 2021 IEEE 18th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS) 2021.0;
  17. Muric G, Wu Y, Ferrara E COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Social Media: Building a Public Twitter Data Set of Antivaccine Content, Vaccine Misinformation, and Conspiracies. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2021.0;7.0
  18. Ho-Chun Herbert Chang E Social Bots and Social Media Manipulation in 2020: The Year in Review. Handbook of Computational Social Science, Volume 1: Theory, Case Studies and Ethics 2021.0;
  19. Schmitz M, Murić G, Burghardt K A Python Package to Detect Anti-Vaccine Users on Twitter. 2021.0;
  20. Nghiem H, Muric G, Morstatter F, Ferrara E Detecting cryptocurrency pump-and-dump frauds using market and social signals. Expert Systems with Applications 2021.0;182.0
  21. Heimann M, Murić G, Ferrara E Structural Node Embedding in Signed Social Networks: Finding Online Misbehavior at Multiple Scales. Complex Networks & Their Applications IX 2021.0;
  22. Ferrara E, Chang H, Chen E, Muric G, Patel J Characterizing social media manipulation in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. First Monday 2020.0;25.0
  23. Ross C, Gupta A, Mehrabi N, Muric G, Lerman K The leaky pipeline in physics publishing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.08912 2020.0;
  24. Murić G, Tregubov A, Blythe J, Abeliuk A, Choudhary D, Lerman K, Ferrara E Massive Cross-Platform Simulations of Online Social Networks. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Autonomous Agents ant Multi-Agent systems 2020.0;
  25. Ozer M, Sapienza A, Abeliuk A, Muric G, Ferrara E Discovering patterns of online popularity from time series. Expert Systems with Applications 2020.0;151.0
  26. Blythe J, Ferrara E, Huang D, Lerman K, Muric G, Sapienza A, Tregubov A, Pacheco D, Bollenbacher J, Flammini A The DARPA SocialSim Challenge: Massive Multi-Agent Simulations of the Github Ecosystem.. AAMAS 2019.0;
  27. Blythe J, Bollenbacher J, Huang D, Hui P, Krohn R, Pacheco D, Muric G, Sapienza A, Tregubov A, Ahn Y Massive multi-agent data-driven simulations of the github ecosystem. Advances in Practical Applications of Survivable Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: The PAAMS Collection: 17th International Conference, PAAMS 2019, Ávila, Spain, June 26–28, 2019, Proceedings 17 2019.0;
  28. Murić G, Abeliuk A, Lerman K, Ferrara E Collaboration drives individual productivity. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 2019.0;3.0
  29. Murić G Resilience of the Critical Communication Networks Against Spreading Failures: Case of the European National and Research Networks. 2017.0;
  30. Murić G, Jorswieck E, Scheunert C Using LTI dynamics to identify the influential nodes in a network. Plos one 2016.0;11.0
  31. Murić G, Scheunert C, Jorswieck E On modeling epidemics in networks using linear time-invariant dynamics. 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob) 2015.0;
  32. RADA P ISTRAŽIVANJE O ULOZI ZNANJA IZ OBLASTI IKT I. 2014.0;
  33. Murić G, Bogojević D, Gospić N Interdependencies of communication and electrical infrastructures. ICIST 2014 - 4th International Conference on Information Society and Technology 2014.0;
  34. Murić G, Macura D, Gospić N, Bogojević D An approach to assess criticality of elements in the process of information infrastructure protection. Telecommunication in Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Services (TELSIKS), 2013 11th International Conference on 2013.0;1.0
  35. Gospić N, Murić G, Bogojević D The Method for Importance of Elements Assessment Within the Interdependent Infrastructures. The Symposium on Novel Technologies in Postal and Telecommunication Traffic, PosTel 2013.0;
  36. Murić G, Gospić N, Bogojević D Proposal for possible approach for Critical Information Infrastructure protection in Serbia. 3rd International Conference on Information Society Technology and Management 2013.0;
  37. Murić G, Macura D, Gospić N, Bogojević D An Approach to Critical Information Infrastructure Protection. Business Information Security Conference BISEC 2013 2013.0;
  38. Murić G, Gospić N, Šelmić M Protecting Critical Information Infrastructures by Increasing its Resilience. International conference on Applied Internet and Information Technologies 2013.0;
  39. Samcovic A, Muric G Application of Digital Watermarking Technique in Protection of Property on Images. Business Information Security Conference BISEC 2013 2013.0;
  40. Bogojevic D, Gospic N, Muric G Broadband universal service and access: trends and models. 2012 20th Telecommunications Forum (TELFOR) 2012.0;
  41. Gospić N, Murić G, Bogojević D Managing critical infrastructure for sustainable development in the telecommunications sector in the Republic of Serbia. E-society Journal 2012.0;51.0
  42. Murić G, Krsmanović M ORSA - Organizing Software Application. AIIT - International Conference on Applied Internet and Information Technologies 2012.0;
  43. Gospić N, Murić G, Bogojević D Defining of Critical Telecommunication Infrastructure in Serbia. The Symposium on Novel Technologies in Postal and Telecommunication Traffic, PosTel 2012 2012.0;
  44. Krsmanović M, Murić G, Gospić N Improvement of children safety by using RFID based service. 19thTelecommunications Forum (TELFOR) Proceedings of Papers 2011.0;