Page 8 - IIM(V)Issue_Sep-Dec 2023_Edited 7_26 Feb

CONFERENCES, WEBINARS AND INVITED TALKS

DEEP LEARNING METHODS FOR ANALYSING DISCOURSE ON REFUGEES AND
UNHCR ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

27 DECEMBER
The Interdisciplinary Decision Sciences & Analytics Lab (IDeAL) of Indian Institute of Management
Visakhapatnam (IIMV) conducted a seminar with tri-continental collaboration of Prof. Shivshanker Singh

Patel (Head, IDeAL-IIMV), Prof. Ravi Vatrapu (DEAL-TRMS-Toronto Metropolitan University), and Prof.
Raghava M (Business Data Analytics and an associate professor at the Department of Digitalization,
Copenhagen Business School) on 27th December 2023.
Prof. Raghava’s talk was aimed at faculty and PhD students of IIMV, highlighting the application of deep-
learning NLP and other computational methods in identifying and analyzing refugee discourse on social
media platforms. As part of a pro bono collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in Copenhagen, several computational methods were developed based on deep learning NLP techniques to

analyze the discourse on refugees
In the first research work, which was published in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems
(JAIS), the team focused on developing methods for identifying patterns in prosocial communication regarding

refugees. The study utilized few million tweets and examined the impact of engaging ambassadors and
prominent personalities by the UNHCR in spreading awareness about displaced populations and refugee
emergencies.
In the second research, combining the framing concept from the communication discipline and deep learning
NLP algorithms, the team have developed a novel approach, Computational Frame Analysis, to derive frames
from online discourse, such as humanitarian, political, and violence.

The researchers also studied how deep-learning NLP methods can detect hate speech against refugees
on social media platforms. Their work shows that new generative models (e.g., BERT, ChatGPT) and NLP
methods based on transformer architectures can successfully identify hate speech and bias about refugees
on social media.
The talk briefly presented some of the techniques from a high-level perspective and showed the results to

demonstrate the applicability of these techniques to the data related to various refugee emergencies.

VAKTAVYA: THE LEADERSHIP TALKS 4.0

‘Vaktavya: The Leadership Talks 4.0’ are an ongoing series of webinars wherein industry stalwarts and
domain experts come together to share their insights and opinions on current business developments.
3 episodes of these leadership talks were hosted this quarter.

11 October: Novus - The Product Management Club, IIM
Visakhapatnam organised episode 2 of Vaktavya and
hosted Ms. Vidya Srinivasan delivered a talk on ‘Unveiling
Excellence: Product Leadership at Tech Titans’ on 11 October
2023. Ms. Srinivasan is a Principal Product Manager with 11
years of product, technical, and leadership experience across
Consumer, experience across Consumer, Small Business, and
Enterprise segments. She currently works at Meta and started
her career as a PM at Microsofts

5 VOL.5/ ISSUE 1, SEPT - DEC 2023