Understanding Public Health using Twitter

Abstract: Twitter and other online social networks provide unprecedented, real-time insight into the state of the world. My research investigates machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to use this data to inform public health applications. I will review a few of our recent projects using Twitter data to (1) track the national flu rate; (2) track alcohol consumption; (3) infer user attributes such as location, race, and age; (4) infer health statistics (obesity, diabetes rates) of a community. I will then propose a framework for and outline the challenges of conducting Web scale observational studies of health to answer epidemiological questions such as how health is affected by proximity to a landfill or contaminated water source.

Event Topic

Data Science