Dr. Olya Hakobyan
Current Research
My current research focuses on analyzing social interaction data from digital communication platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Specifically, I study the effect of major life events, such as war, on social interactions and well-being. Methodologically, I combine quantitative social interaction data with unsupervised machine learning and time-series approaches, with a focus on interpretable behavioral patterns. In the realm of interpretable ML, I have contributed to research on representational bias and the use of explainable AI methods in the audiovisual datasets for emotion recognition.
Previous Research
I have a background in cognitive science and a PhD in computational neuroscience. Much of my work in the latter field has focused on the hippocampus, a brain area largely involved in spatial processing and memory. I have worked on spiking neural networks and more abstract algorithmic models of cognition, using components of machine learning methods.
- CV
since June 2021
Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Bielefeld in the Human-Centered AI Lab 2016-2021 PhD in Computational Neuroscience, the Institute for Neural Computation, Ruhr University Bochum 2014-2016 Master in Cognitive Science, Ruhr University Bochum 2010-2014 Bachelor in Linguistics, Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences - Publications