Prasanta Bhattacharya

Dr. Prasanta Bhattacharya is a Research Assistant with the Department of Information Systems & Analytics in the School of Computing at National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests lie broadly in the area of computational social science, where he leverages statistical and computational approaches for studying causality related questions about human behavior on the Internet, and particularly on online social networks. Prasanta's research is largely inter-disciplinary has been presented at leading Computer Science, Information Systems, and Marketing conferences worldwide. He holds Masters and Undergraduate degrees in Software Systems and Computer Science respectively, and has worked with teams at the eBay Center of Excellence (India), Microsoft Research India and Rakuten Institute of Technology (Consumer Behavior Lab, Singapore).

Research Interests

Prasanta’s current research focuses on analyzing human behavior on online social communities (e.g. social network sites, crowdsourcing/crowdfunding platforms, MOOCs etc.) using experimental and computational approaches. His doctoral dissertation aims at understanding value creation on large online social networks and how users on these platforms create value for not just themselves (e.g. by forming lasting social connections), but also for other stakeholders like platform owners and digital marketers (e.g. by producing a lot of personalized content).

Prasanta’s broader research agenda focuses on understanding the interplay between an individual's online and offline behavior in specific contexts (e.g. social media, search engines etc.). Through his research, Prasanta tries to offer insights that not only enrich our understanding of how users behave on these emerging platforms, but also practically benefit customer-centric organisations. Also, as someone who works at the confluence of computer science and social psychology, he is flexible in the choice of research methods. While computational modeling, large scale experimentation, and econometric modeling are his preferred approaches, he has also had interesting stints doing ethnographic studies and discourse analyses.

Educational Qualifications

• BTech (Computer Science and Engineering), SRM University
• MEng (Software Systems), Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
• PhD (Information Systems), National University of Singapore