Melody Sepahpour-Fard

I am a PhD student at the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research Training in Foundations of Data Science (University of Limerick). Thanks to my background in Social Science, my research is focus on the analysis of human behaviour using data science techniques.

EMPLOYMENT

• Data science intern (2022)

Microsoft

Build a classifier using BERT for Sentence Classification to better detect reviews related to gender inclusion in Microsoft products.

• Linguist (2020 – 2021)

Appen 

Textual annotations to train machine learning models.

• Volunteer - Ecosystem development (2018 – 2019)

Lab School Paris 

Lab School Paris is defined by an evidence-based pedagogy and the scientific evaluation of pedagogical practices, in terms of academic success and well-being at school. 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

• How does audience affect the way we express our gendered roles?

Team: Michael Quayle (University of Limerick), Maria Schuld (University of Johannesburg), and Taha Yasseri (University College Dublin)

Objective: We created a user embedding adding users as tokens in documents. This way, we could track changes in individual behaviour across different contexts.

• Mental health concerns prelude the Great Resignation: Evidence from Social Media

Team: R Maria del Rio-Chanona (Complexity Science Hub), Alejandro Hermida-Carrillo (LMU Munich), Luning Sun (University of Cambridge), Renata Topinkova (Charles University), Ljubica Nedelkoska (Harvard Growth Lab)

• Building a Statistical and Machine Learning Approach to the Risk Stratification of Prostate Cancer Patients

Supervision: Dr Jalali (University of Limerick), Dr Moghaddam (University of Limerick), Dr Bargary (University of Limerick), and Dr Watson (University College Dublin)

Objective: Build a method to improve current diagnosis of prostate cancer using biomarkers.

• Copying With job Loss - Can online communities help?

Team: R Maria del Rio-Chanona (Complexity Science Hub), Alejandro Hermida-Carrillo (LMU Munich), Luning Sun (University of Cambridge), Renata Topinkova (Charles University), Ljubica Nedelkoska (Harvard Growth Lab)

Objective: Track users on Reddit to study the effects of involuntary and voluntary job loss. 

• Research intern at the Center for Complex System and New Technologies

University of Warsaw (2020)

Supervision: Dr Andrzej Nowak (University of Warsaw, Poland)

I learned how to collect data from social media and analyse it. I created a bipartite graph linking climate scepticism to other ideologies on Reddit.

• Research assistant

Lab School Paris

Supervision: Dr Pascale Haag (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France)

I contributed to a study assessing Parisian schools on their use of innovative practices and the influence of the latter on well-being and achievement.

• PhD in Data Science (2021 – Present)

SFI Centre for Research Training in Foundations of Data Science (University of Limerick) 

Supervision: Mike Quayle (University of Limerick), Dong Nguyen (Utrecht University), and Taha Yasseri (University College Dublin)

Thesis project: People-Opinion Networks – A study of polarization in language. The project, together with a team of researchers in Switzerland and South Africa, aims at creating a measure of polarisation around opinions published in newspapers and social media. 

• M.Sc. Psychology (2019 – 2021)

Global-MINDS - European master in the psychology of mobility, inclusion, and diversity in society (ISCTE-IUL, University of Oslo, University of Limerick) 

Final grade: A (ECTS grading system) 

Thesis: How do mothers and fathers talk about parenting to different audiences? An analysis of r/Daddit, r/Mommit and r/Parenting with Natural Language Processing. A short version has been published in Proceedings of ACM Web Conference 2022.

• M.Sc. Social Psychology (2017 – 2018), 1st year

Université Paris Cité

Final grade: A (ECTS grading system), rank: 1st 

Thesis: Empathy and social identity - Can a more inclusive social category broaden the scope of empathy?

• B.Sc. Language Sciences (2015 – 2017)

Université Paris Cité

Final grade: A (ECTS grading system) 

• B.Sc. Psychology (2013 – 2017)

Université Paris Cité

Final grade: B (ECTS grading system)