Past REU Students
2024 REU Students
Summer 2024 REU Cohort: As communication patterns are changing rapidly, citizens have more sources of information from which to choose. Recent research shows that amid this multiplicity of sources, citizens are increasingly using those that tend to confirm their prior or existing attitudes and beliefs, rather than engaging with a range of alternative views (Iyengar & Hahn, 2009; Stroud, 2010). This is one reason social media has become a natural place to obtain and share news. As people increasingly consume the news through social media this results in widespread diffusion of misinformation (Silverman & Singer-Vine, 2016; Budak et al., 2011). This summer’s cohort will focus on emerging misinformation detection using a combination of candidate conversation, survey responses, newspaper articles, social media posts, and search trends in the summer leading up to the 2024 Presidential elections. Students will develop and compare different learning models, starting with models used in previous elections. Finally, they will consider misinformation sources in the dark web and measure their influence on misinformation spread.
Jahir Bakari (He/Him)
University of Maryland Baltimore County ’25
Pleasant Ballenger (He/Him)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ’25
Claire Chou (She/Her)
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ’25
Diego DiMattina (He/Him)
University of Virginia Main Campus ’25
Kenedy Ducheine (She/Her)
University of South Florida Main Campus ’25
Aiden Ehrenreich (He/Him)
Georgetown College, Government & Computer Science, 2026
Caroline Field (She/Her)
High Point University ’25
Kylie Griffiths (She/Her)
University of Oregon ’25
Lucy Olander (She/Her)
Georgetown University ’26
Katie Wilson (She/Her)
Smith College ’26
2023 REU Students
Apollo Callero (He/Him)
Washington State University ’23
Colin Hwang (He/Him)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art ’24
Lina Laghzaoui (She/Her)
Simmons University ’24
Grace Magny-Fokam (She/Her)
University of Maryland ’23
Bernardo Medeiros (He/Him)
Georgetown College, Computer Science & Government ’24
Tobin Otto (He/Him)
Oberlin College ’25
Adeline Roza (She/Her)
Georgetown University ’24
Eliza Salamon (She/Her)
Cornell University ’24
Mattea Whitlow (She/Her)
Smith College ’25