Rishab Nithyanand
Director · F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Law (by courtesy)
The Team
Faculty
Mihailis Diamantis
co-Director · Ben V. Willie Professor in Excellence
College of Law
Department of Philosophy (by courtesy)
Current researchers
Sarmad Chandio
Ph.D. researcher since 2021
- AAAI ICWSM Best Paper Award
- University of Iowa Post-Comprehensive Fellowship
Publications
- Measuring the Semantic Structure and Evolution of Conspiracy Theories2026 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- Flattening Fantasies: Analyzing Stereotypes in Pornographic Discourse2026 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- Examining the Role of YouTube Production and Consumption Dynamics on the Formation of Extreme Ideologies2026 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- How Audit Methods Impact Our Understanding of YouTube’s Recommendation Systems2024 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
Chen Sun
Ph.D. researcher since 2023
Publications
- Faults and Pitfalls in Implementing the Right to be Forgotten2026 · Communications of the ACM (CACM)
- Turning Trust to Transactions: Tracking Affiliate Marketing and FTC Compliance in YouTube’s Influencer Economy2026 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- On the Suitability of LLM-Driven Agents for Dark Pattern Audits2026 · Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)
- Information About Data2026 · Yale Journal of Law & Technology
- GDPRxiv: Establishing the State of the Art in GDPR Enforcement2023 · Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)
Manisha Keim
Ph.D. researcher since 2023
Publications
- Measuring the Semantic Structure and Evolution of Conspiracy Theories2026 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
Ushna Malik
Ph.D. researcher since 2025
Publications
- Prompting, Oversight, and Adoption: Physicians’ Use of Large Language Models for Diagnostic Reasoning in an LMIC2026 · ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
Patryk Wojtkowski
Ph.D. researcher since 2026
Mike Zeng
Undergraduate researcher since 2025
Alumni
Ph.D.
Dr. Hammas Bin Tanveer
Ph.D. researcher, 2019–2025
- Open Technology Fund Information Controls Fellow
- Data Engineer, SpaceX
Publications
- What Obstructed Skies Teach Us about Satellite Internet2026 · New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS)
- Unveiling IPv6 Scanning Dynamics: A Longitudinal Study Using Large Scale Proactive and Passive IPv6 Telescopes2025 · ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies (CoNEXT)
- Making Sense of Constellations: Methodologies for Understanding Starlink's Scheduling Algorithms2023 · ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies (CoNEXT)
- Glowing in the Dark: Uncovering IPv6 Address Discovery and Scanning Strategies in the Wild2023 · USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security)
Dr. Hussam Habib
Ph.D. researcher, 2019–2025
- University of Iowa Post-Comprehensive Fellowship
- Featured in the University of Iowa’s Dare to Discover campaign
- Research Scientist, New York University
- Postdoc, University of Graz
Publications
- Searching for Affirmation: How Partisan Audiences on Google Search Induce an Abortion-Related Filter Bubble Effect2025 · ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
- Sheep’s clothing, wolfish impact: Automated detection and evaluation of problematic ‘allowed’ advertisements2025 · Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)
- The Morbid Realities of Social Media: An Investigation into the Misinformation Shared by the Deceased Victims of COVID-192023 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- Making a Radical Misogynist: How online social engagement with the Manosphere influences traits of radicalization2022 · ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
- Are Proactive Interventions for Reddit Communities Feasible?2022 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- Exploring the Magnitude and Effects of Media Influence on Reddit Moderation2022 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- Relationships Among Vaccination Attitudes, Social Media Use, and Activist vs. Radical Behavior2022 · International Communication Association Annual Conference (ICA)
Dr. Maaz Bin Musa
Ph.D. researcher, 2019–2025
- PETS Andreas Pfitzmann Award Runner-up
- Research scientist at Meta
Publications
- C3PA: An Open Dataset of Expert-Annotated and Regulation-Aware Privacy Policies to Enable Scalable Regulatory Compliance Audits2024 · Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)
- Forms of Disclosure: The Path to Automating Closed Book Privacy Audits2023 · Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
- Are Proactive Interventions for Reddit Communities Feasible?2022 · International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
- ATOM: Ad-network Tomography: A Generalizable Technique for Inferring Tracker-Advertiser Data Sharing in the Online Behavioral Advertising Ecosystem2022 · Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)
- CanaryTrap: Detecting Data Misuse by Third-Party Apps on Online Social Networks2020 · Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)
Dr. Adnan Ahmed
Ph.D. researcher, 2021–2023
- Senior Staff Software Engineer, Palo Alto Networks
- Research Scientist, Meta
MCS
Will Pixley
MCS researcher, 2025–2026
- Ph.D. student, IMDEA Networks Institute
Lucas Ausberger
MCS researcher, 2022–2023
- DevOps, Collins Aerospace
John Thiede
Undergraduate researcher, 2019–2020 · MCS researcher, 2020–2022
- Ph.D. student, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Daniyal Dar
MCS researcher, 2019–2021
- Ph.D. student, Stony Brook University
Mert Erdemir
MCS researcher, 2020–2021
- Ph.D. student, Georgia Institute of Technology
Yiqing Zhu
MCS researcher, 2019–2021
- Analyst, Accenture
Xiaoyu Xing
MCS researcher, 2018–2019
- University of Iowa Academic Excellence in the Masters Award
- Software Engineer, Amazon
Undergraduate
Lawrence Deng
Undergraduate researcher, 2023–2024
- MCS student, University of Iowa
Piotr Smietana
Undergraduate researcher, 2019–2021
- Software Engineer, Pegasystems
Yao Wang
Undergraduate researcher, 2018–2020
- M.S. student, Georgia Institute of Technology
Xiao Song
Undergraduate researcher, 2018–2019
- Ph.D. student, University of Southern California