Souneil Park

Souneil Park

Researcher in computational social science.

Hello! This page serves as an overview of my research endeavors. I have a background in computer science and have been captivated by the subjects of inequality and segregation in both online and offline spaces since my time in graduate school.

In my dissertation, I focused on exploring how news browsing interfaces, combined with interactive tools and machine learning techniques, can enhance exposure to political diversity. The motivation behind this study stemmed from the socio-political landscape of my home country, S. Korea, where the conservative bias in the news media market has prevailed for decades. This work was one of the early efforts that bridges the realms of computation and journalism, emphasizing the active role of technology in the public sphere. In hindsight, I summarize this aspect of my research as 'ideological segregation in online spaces.' [CHI 2009] [IUI 2010] [CSCW 2011] [ACL 2011] [TiiS 2012] [TKDE 2012] [ICWSM 2013] [C+J 2014] [ICWSM 2015] [CHI 2018]

Upon joining Telefónica Research in Barcelona, I had the opportunity to broaden my perspective on the topic by incorporating large-scale mobility data to examine offline spaces [TiiS 2018] . This data provided valuable insights into the socio-economic dynamics [Cities 2022] that influence segregation [CEUS 2021] , public health, and equity issues in urban resources such as green spaces [NMH 2023] and mobile connectivity quality [COMPASS 2022] . These lines of research naturally intersect with various social sciences, and I consider myself fortunate to have found and collaborated with great people in geography, urban economics, and epidemiology. It has been a exciting experience to extend the existing literature in these fields through the utilization of large-scale data analytics.

I am open to collaborations on these topics. Drop me a line!