The CHATR Lab is proud to announce that PhD candidate Emily McKinley and coauthors have been awarded a Best Research Award at the Computational Social Science Escape 2025 conference for their innovative work on using large language models (LLMs) to synthesize human responses in persuasive contexts.

On Friday, February 28, 2025, The UC Davis Designated Emphasis in Computational Social Science, along with the newly founded UC Davis Center for AI and Experimental Futures (CAIEF) and the UC Davis AI Center in Engineering, hosted a successful daylong conference attended by over 65 scholars. The event featured 18 presentations from 14 different UC Davis programs, highlighting the university’s leadership in cutting-edge AI and computational social science research.

The theme was "Engineering our Experimental AI Futures" and presentations included work from PhD students from Communication, Sociology, and Computer Science, Professors of Law and Cinema and Digital Media, and undergraduate researchers from Data Science and Cognitive Science. UC Davis Communication's DE CSS Chair Martin Hilbert said that "this event shows the extraordinary diversity and high quality of computational work across the UC Davis campus, and highlights the leadership UC Davis scholars are providing in cutting-edge AI research".

Emily leads several AI-driven projects within the CHATR Lab, where she explores the role of technology and AI in health communication, misinformation, and persuasion. She would like to thank her amazing research assistants who have been integral to the project, including Abdulaziz Alhumaidy, Darren Lam, and Amira Boubezari.