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Brampton Student Wins Award For Work On Social Media Tool

Brampton: A Brampton student’s drive to reduce the spread of misinformation on the Internet has landed him a prestigious award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Arvin Jagayat, a psychology student at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), is one of five winners of the national 2022 Storytellers Challenge.

The annual competition – organized by SSHRC – drew hundreds of Canadian postsecondary students from coast to coast to coast. They were challenged to tell the story of how social sciences and humanities research is impacting our lives, our world and our future for the better.

Jagayat and his colleagues developed an open-source Mock Social Media Website Tool which can generate simulated social media websites and collect detailed behavioural data on how participants interact with them. In a series of experiments, his tool was used to examine what motivates people to maintain positive social identities.

“We considered a lot when developing the tool, not the least of which was the input we solicited and received from over 50 social media researchers from all over the world, from varying disciplines,” explained Jagayat, whose award came with $4,000.

To participate in SSHRC’s Storyteller’s Challenge, postsecondary students were tasked with featuring their own research or a professor’s research project in a video or audio clip, or a text or infographic no longer than 300 words. Their stories demonstrated the value of social sciences and humanities in improving lives.

The five winners were announced during the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Congress 2022), Canada’s largest academic gathering and one of the most comprehensive in the world, taking place virtually this year from May 12-20.

Organized by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Congress 2022 is sponsored by SSHRC, Mitacs, SAGE Publishing, Universities Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and University Affairs.

Registration – which includes 100+ keynote and open Congress 2022 sessions (with recordings available until June 3, 2022) – is $55. Visit www.congress2022.ca to register for a community pass and access the program of events open to the public. Enter code TRANSITIONS2022 for 10% off registration.

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2022-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

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