Millions of selfies are posted on social media, prompting questions about how this activity impacts its users. How does selfie-taking, editing and sharing harm or benefit young people, and why? Theoretical conflicts exist on positive and negative effects. Hence, I aim to further our understanding of the circumstances, for whom and how selfie-taking, editing, and sharing exert harm or benefits. My research integrates innovative theories addressing online capacities for enhanced self-presentation, psychological impacts, and cultural aspects influencing users differently. Hypotheses are empirically examined cross-culturally, both short-term and long-term. Results will inform academic, parental and societal concerns over new media effects.

Kumbh Mela is the largest religious festival, and involves the pilgrimage of 100 million Hindus to a sacred river. The next festival will take place in Ujjain in 2016. Unfortunately, many of the previous versions of this event have been marred by accidents and deaths. Human crowds are complex systems and so predicting their behavior is challenging. However, the combination of computational modeling and data does offer ways in which crowds can be managed. In this proposal we plan to develop sophisticated methods and algorithms to aid planners and event managers in managing extremely large crowds. The project aims to deliver the core components of an entire crowd management solution, all the way from designing and building personnel devices for tracking movement (or more precisely human-to-human interaction) to developing advanced computational models to help predict how the crowd may evolve. This leads to a vision of a living simulation where various data sources (personal devices, video cameras, smart phones, monitoring drones) can be fused into models and executed on an advanced compute infrastructure capable of providing both a prioi planning, as well as real-time reactive decision-making. This proposal addresses three key research areas related to the understanding and management of huge human crowds: Data Collection (UAVs, wireless bracelets etc.); Data Analysis (Real-time); Modelling and Prediction. The research will be coordinated to coincide with the upcoming Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, April-May 2016 and will present a once in a lifetime opportunity to do both extremely exciting new science and application.