鈥淚 had this colleague who left our office and came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 called on his birthday, and he told me about the school.鈥�

With a keen eye for data-driven insights and a passion for problem-solving, Mezue, who is graduating with a master鈥檚 degree in business information systems and analytics from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, now has her sights set on a promising career as a data analyst, poised to leverage her skills and knowledge to drive organizational success and innovation.

If Mezue could choose just one word to describe her time at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, she would call it 鈥渇ulfilling.鈥� She has spent her time serving as a senator on the Student Government Association, a student ambassador for the College of Business, Health, and Human Services, and a senator for the National Society of Black Engineers.

鈥淚 feel like my time as a student has touched on every aspect that I wanted it to touch on,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 started in the finance space, and I wanted to learn more about technology because I started working in the tech industry back in Nigeria.鈥�

She also got to spend the summer of 2023 experiencing what it was like to live in Austin as she worked as a product manager intern for Expedia Group.

鈥淚 got to leave Arkansas to see another part of the U.S., and it was a great experience,鈥� Mezue said. 鈥淚 got to experience a new city, work within a product team, and learn the ropes of how Expedia operates. The internship really helped me improve what I do as a graduate assistant at COSMOS.鈥�

As a member of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies , she worked as a graduate assistant for Blogtrackers, a social computational research tool that tracks and analyzes blogs and bloggers in real-time world events, as well as in outreach, which involved publicizing the achievements of COSMOS and fellow self-described cosmographers.

鈥淚 feel excited about graduating,鈥� Mezue said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been an exciting two years, and I鈥檓 looking forward to the future.鈥�

Her future involves a new career working for as a digital technical data consultant following her graduation from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. Mezue has had a positive relationship with the company, having been selected as one of the 2023 recipients of the Acxiom Diversity Scholarship program, which she describes as one of her favorite memories from her time at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.

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is to increase the understanding of cognitive warfare and its effects, which will lead to more effective prevention and mitigation strategies and countermeasures to increase security among nations and within the NATO alliance. The outcome of the work will support addressing the Warfare Development Initiatives stated in the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept. Cognitive warfare is classified as the sixth warfighting domain beside land, sea, air, space, and cyber.

Cognitive threats through misinformation, disinformation, bots, and artificial intelligence (AI) have already become a key element in conflicts between the U.S., China, Russia, and Ukraine. For example, in the recent conflicts in Ukraine, a current issue is how countries like the U.S. or organizations like NATO fund and support troops on the ground from afar.

Agarwal, who is also the founding director of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies () Research Center at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, traveled to Madrid, Spain, to present at the symposium on Nov. 13-14, 2023. His paper is entitled, 鈥淒eveloping Socio-computational Approaches to Mitigate Socio-cognitive Security Threats in a Multi-platform Multimedia-rich Information Environment.鈥�

In his presentation, Agarwal noted that socio-cognitive threats are increasingly becoming a collective phenomenon and central in online information environments utilizing multimedia. His study enhances situation awareness by using real-life datasets from COVID-19, the Indo-Pacific region, and participation in NATO exercises dating back to 2013 to develop algorithms that detect, examine, evaluate, measure, and predict cognitive threats like adversarial information campaigns.

Agarwal鈥檚 research informs policymakers on how NATO and other affiliated countries can effectively combat the effects of these adversarial tactics and new technologies

鈥淧ropaganda disseminated through social media could potentially be used to persuade susceptible targets to disrupt or delay military operations through protests or other 鈥榥on-lethal resistance,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淣arratives can be easily manipulated and influenced by bots, trolls, and other influence operation tactics, techniques, and procedures.鈥�

Moreover, Agarwal also highlighted the inherent dangers of these adversarial information campaigns, pointing out that 鈥渕ost users of social media cannot or will not differentiate between legitimate and non-legitimate accounts.鈥�

鈥淪ince such influence operation tactics, techniques, and procedures can be employed clandestinely in a low-cost, low-risk context, military leaders can expect to encounter an increased amount of adversary-generated, AI-amplified social media-driven propaganda,鈥� he said.

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At 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, the sisters had the unique experience of not only graduating from the same university this semester, but also earning the same degree all while working in the same research center.

鈥淚t鈥檚 funny because it didn鈥檛 feel that odd to us,鈥� Ivory said. 鈥淲e actually went to the same undergrad school, but we studied different courses. This is the first time we鈥檝e studied together. It was a blessing because not many people get the same opportunity. We serve as a kind of support to each other and push each other to be better.鈥�

鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine coming here alone,鈥� Vanessa agreed. 鈥淓specially being international students, I have my family here and I have my sister with me. It鈥檚 a lot of support. I thank God that we came here together.鈥�

Natives of Nigeria, the Okekes came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to earn master鈥檚 degrees in business information systems and analytics. Ivory, the oldest of three sisters, studied biochemistry for her undergraduate degree, while Vanessa, the middle sister, studied architecture.

鈥淚 was looking for a way to transition into the tech industry,鈥� Vanessa said. 鈥淚 was unofficially learning from YouTube, but I needed an actual degree to prove that I had the education. My degree from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock gives me everything I need. With it, I can be a data analyst or a software engineer.鈥�

Both sisters named Professors Nitin Agarwal, Alan Boss, and Sung-Kwan Kim among their favorite professors. Ivory also named Dr. Wenjun Wang, while Vanessa mentioned Dr. Sarah Clements.

At first, the Okekes said their professors worried that the sisters would do their homework together, but they quickly developed a system to disavow anyone of that idea.

鈥淥ur assignments are widely different,鈥� Vanessa said. 鈥淲e do assignments separately and uniquely as possible so there isn鈥檛 a worry of copying each other.鈥�

Both sisters also worked as research assistants at the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies, which is led by Dr. Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science.

This spring, Ivory had the chance to present her COSMOS research papers, 鈥淓xamining Content and Emotion Bias in YouTube鈥檚 Recommendation Algorithm,鈥� at the Ninth International Conference on Human and Social Analytics (HUSO 2023) in Barcelona, Spain. She fondly remembers this as her favorite memory while attending 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.

鈥淚 got the opportunity to travel to Europe, which was amazing,鈥� Ivory said. 鈥淭he trip was full of learning, excitement, and adventure.鈥�

During summer 2022, the siblings received valuable experience through internships. Ivory worked as a software engineer intern at Credit Karma in Charlotte, North Carolina, while Vanessa was a software engineer intern at Microsoft in Atlanta.

Now that they鈥檝e graduated, Ivory and Vanessa will both be working as software engineers in the U.S. The sisters are both grateful for the education and research experience they received at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock that helped prepare them for the next step in their careers.

鈥淢y experience has been great,鈥� Ivory said. 鈥淚 am grateful that my first introduction to working in the United States was Arkansas and COSMOS. As a team, I鈥檝e learned a lot. I feel really lucky. The people of Arkansas are very friendly. COSMOS has taught me a lot, and my degree was everything I hoped for. It has been very fulfilling, and I feel very blessed.鈥�

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