Kokil's research interests lie in examining the role of social media platforms in enabling self-presentation and social behavior. Her particular interest is in developing computational models of language for the measurement and understanding of computer-mediated communication. At CNM, she's excited about coordinating the new Data Communication specialization of the Master's in Social Science program. She's also a Principal Investigator at the NUS Centre for Trusted Internet and Community.

Before joining NUS in 2020, Kokil spent a year as a Presidential Postdoctoral fellow at Nanyang Technological University, and two years (2016-2018) as a CS postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also spent three years (2013-2016) in the industry, as a Senior Data Scientist at Adobe developing research and analytical capabilities for digital marketing tools. Her research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, the Journal of Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, and Telematics and Informatics.

At NUS, Kokil works on the SMOL (Social Media, Online behavior, and Language) project. 

Updated CV here

2019/2020 Semester 1:

• NM4881A Topics in Media Studies: Social Media 
• NM2207 Computational Media Literacy (Tutor)

2020/2021 Semester 1:

• NM4881A Topics in Media Studies: Social Media 
• NM2207 Computational Media Literacy

2020/2021 Semester 2:

• One UROP projects with two students
• One Hons thesis student
• One Master's student (EMCL program, University of Groningen)
• Nine Temasek JC World of Work attachments

Completed projects:

• Alexis Soh (CNM, NUS): The efficacy of influencer endorsements: A comparison of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on customer purchase decisions in Singapore
• Xuan Liu (Nanjing University, China): Deep learning methods for emotion detection
• Georgie Lee (SoC, NUS): Facebook misinformation dashboard
• Suzanna Sia (Johns Hopkins University, USA): Modeling change in argumentative belief states 

Ongoing student supervision (undergraduate dissertations):

• Meghana Vinaitheerthan (CNM, NUS): The role of authenticity in mediating the effects of online writing on well-being.
• Swastika Bhattacharya (University of Groningen, NL): Internet language and intimacy in dyadic online communication

Ongoing student projects:

• UROP projects: Jeremiah Yee (NUS; with Dr. Subhayan Mukerjee) and Charmayne Su (NUS): Experiments with a social media app
• WOW attachment (Temasek Junior college): Use of emojis in dyadic online conversations
• Lynnette Ng (CMU) and Kai Yuan (DSTA): Emsemble methods for language modeling
• Iknoor Singh (Panjab University, India): Identifying the claimworthiness in social media conversations

Please get in touch if you're interested in working on a research project with Kokil. Here are the main directions of her work:

1. The role of affordances in computer-mediated communication: Affordances, as features of technological design, play an important role in terms of (a) their impact on cross-cutting exposure to news and news dissemination, and (b) in facilitating cross-talk and civil deliberation in political discourse. Data is  collected from online experiments.
2. Psycholinguistic insights from social media use – Insights about the traits and well-being of regions and individuals, based on their online social media/searching behavior. Data is collected using surveys and social media APIs.
3. Computational models of human interaction: To explore the relationship of language features with different phenomena related to human communication, interaction, and discussion. Data is analyzed using machine learning and deep learning approaches.

​P.S.: I'm always happy to mentor students on their own research projects or have them join one of mine. We work on research problems with an end goal in sight, such as a conference or a grad school application deadline.

1. Feel free to email me; but if you are unsure about how to email a professor, there are some reasonable tips here.

   - Kokil

Computational linguistic and deep learning approaches to analyzing online behavior, with applications for

• The design of social media platforms
• Self-presentation and well-being
• Online deliberation and cooperation