Eslam Hussein

Hi, my name is Eslam Hussein. I am a PhD student at the department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. My advisor is professor Hoda Eldardiry. My research interests are in the broad areas of social computing, natural language processing and machine learning.

Research Highlight

Search engines are the primary gateways of information. Despite their critical role in selecting,ranking, and recommending what information is considered most relevant, they do not take into account whether such information is credible or not. There is a growing concern that online platforms whose recommendation systems and search engines are integral components of their eco systems - such as YouTube and social media platforms - have been promoting and recommending misinformative content for certain search topics. In my study, I audit those systems to verify those claims. My audit experiments investigate whether personalization (based on age, gender, geolocation, or user’ actions) contributes in amplifying misinformation.

Experience

Before I joined Virginia Tech, I worked as a research associate at Qatar Compuing Reseach Institute, where I worked on graph analytics and search problems, and I published a demo paper at SIGMOD'17 (honorable mention). Before I join QCRI, I worked as an assistant lecturer for eight years at Cairo University where I obtained my master's degree in Computer Science. Working as an assistant lecturer contributed substantially in developing my teaching skills and broadening my knowledge in Computer Science. While working on my master's degree, I successfully published two conference papers and one journal paper. In parallel with my work at Cairo university, I also worked as a software engineer in multiple companies in Cairo, which helped in sharpening my software engineering skills and knowledge.