Zhicong Chen
Block AS6
11 Computing Drive
National University of Singapore (Kent Ridge Campus)
Singapore 117416
My research advances online safety, digital resilience, and cultural analytics through three connected lines of inquiry:
- Information and Knowledge Dynamics in Hidden Networks
- Attention and Behavior Dynamics on Public Platforms
- Meaning and Cultural Dynamics in Long-Term Discourse
The three themes form one integrated program. In online safety, I study how anonymity infrastructures and low-accountability communities shape information and knowledge risk. In digital resilience, I investigate how attention flows, media exposure, and behavioral dynamics relate to vulnerability and collective response on public platforms. In cultural analytics, I build multilingual and diachronic text-mining methods to measure long-term semantic and cultural change.
I use natural language processing, network analysis, and data mining to quantify information risk, behavior, and discourse across digital environments, from anonymous and underground ecosystems to mainstream social media. To support this work, I build reproducible data pipelines and analytical frameworks for large-scale datasets, generating rigorous empirical evidence for cybersecurity, platform governance, and the societal impacts of digital systems.
My work has appeared in EPJ Data Science, New Media & Society, American Psychologist, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio), and other peer-reviewed venues. I received my Ph.D. from City University of Hong Kong in 2022, where I was advised by Prof. Xiaofan Liu and Prof. Jonathan J. H. Zhu at the Web Mining Laboratory. I hold a master’s degree from Nanjing University (2018) and a B.Eng. in Software Engineering from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (2016).
