COMPUTATION AND DATA
ILLUSTRATION: SCOTT BENBROOK
Unveiling Anonymous Extremists
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ince 9/11, the United States has been focused on terrorist threats abroad, but that effort has not grown to include the growing internet activity of domestic extremists. Research conducted by two Illinois Institute of Technology graduate students aims to change that by examining
whether extremists can be identified through their anonymous online posts. Andreas Vassilakos (ITM/M.A.S. CYF ’21) and Jose Luis Castanon Remy (M.A.S. ITM 2nd Year) published “Illicit Activities Beneath the Surface Web: Investigating Domestic Extremism on Anonymous Social Media
Platforms” in HOLISTICA Journal of Business and Public Administration. Maurice Dawson, Illinois Tech assistant professor of information technology and management, and Tenace Kwaku Setor, assistant professor of information science and technology at the University of Nebraska Omaha, co-authored the paper. The researchers examined online platforms where anonymous extremist rants and thoughts are found. “Through these platforms, we were able to analyze data that was posted in plain text,” Vassilakos says. “We did not interpret the content, but collected it verbatim.” Using Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) software input values, data from the social media posts were collected and then moved into a spreadsheet for analysis. By combining OSINT with artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, the researchers hope to be able to identify anonymous posters. “With this intelligence-gathering strategy, we can collect publicly available data to conduct our analysis,” Vassilakos says. Using tools such as Maltego, the researchers can examine IP addresses, MAC addresses, and mobile devices to unveil the identity of the poster. The researchers believe this work can translate to applications for military and police investigations.— Casey Moffitt
URBAN FUTURES
Developing a New Way to Measure Sustainability Outcomes
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ife cycle sustainability assessments (LCSA) evaluate the environmental, economic, and social costs and benefits of products and processes, which can help businesses, governmental agencies, and other entities compare options from the viewpoint of sustainability. Illinois Institute of Technology Associate Professor Weslynne Ashton is part of a research team that is developing a new methodology aimed at broadening the scope of the resources that are considered in the assessments and quantifying the results to generate more robust and meaningful comparisons. In “Capital-based Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: Evaluation of Potential Industrial Symbiosis Synergies,” published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Ashton and co-authors Shauhrat S. Chopra and Karpagam Subramanian, both from the City University of Hong Kong, focus their sustainability assessment on capitals—that is, resources that create value. Their LCSA encompasses eight capitals: natural, social,
financial, cultural, manufactured, political, human, and digital. “Trying to quantify the contribution of these different of types of capital is a completely new perspective,” says Ashton, a sustainable systems scientist with joint appointments at Illinois Tech’s Stuart School of Business and Institute of Design. The methodology builds on groundbreaking theoretical work on the eight capitals by Ashton and ID colleagues Charles L. Owen Professor in Design Carlos Teixeira and Andre Nogueira (Ph.D. DSGN ’19) that was published in 2019. “Reusing and recycling material capital— such as metals or industrial byproducts— puts it back into use, that is, regenerates the capital stock,” Ashton explains, and a similar process applies to non-material resources that societies rely on, such as cultures and political systems. “We are trying to elevate [society’s] perception of the value of non-material resources to sustainability,” she says. —Scott Lewis Weslynne Ashton
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