Contact | Social & Computational Intelligence Research

The SCIRE (Social and Computational Intelligence Research) Group develops computational methods for understanding language beyond its literal meaning — argumentation, misinformation, narrative maneuvers, and regulatory compliance. Before reaching out, browse the research themes and recent publications to see if there is a natural connection to your own interests.

The principal investigator, Dr. Banerjee, can be reached at rbanerjee@cs.stonybrook.edu.

Collaborators

Collaboration works best when it starts from a specific research question rather than a general interest in working together. If your work touches on misinformation, pragmatic language understanding, privacy and regulation, or biomedical language processing — or if you work in political science, sociology, public health, or law, and see a connection — please reach out directly with a brief description of what you have in mind.

Postdoctoral Researchers

The research group may occasionally host postdoctoral researchers on specific funded projects. Send an email with your academic CV, a publication list, a brief research statement (no more than 2 pages), and links to your homepage and any public code repositories.

Prospective Ph.D. Students

PhD students join through Stony Brook University’s graduate programs. Apply to the Ph.D. in Computer Science or the Ph.D. in Data Science program, and indicate in your application that you want to work with Dr. Banerjee.

If you want to make contact before applying, your email should:

describe your background in NLP and/or ML concisely,

mention a specific paper or project from SCIRE and explain the connection to your own interests, and

ask pose specific and well-formulated and convincing research question that you would like to pursue as your primary topic.

The group is highly selective and admits very few students. Strong candidates typically have a background in mathematics and statistics, solid Python programming skills (PyTorch experience is a strong plus), and ideally at least one prior research output.

Temporary or short-term research positions cannot be accommodated for candidates outside Stony Brook University.

Current Stony Brook Students

Ph.D. students already enrolled in Computer Science or Data Science are welcome to reach out about opportunities within the group. Ph.D. students are expected to have the ability to formulate a research problem that they want to pursue. Please be prepared to start your journey by presenting a convincing proposal for your research.

M.S. (or 5-yr B.S./M.S.) students (CSE 523/524 or thesis track CSE 599) should send: a brief statement of research interest, transcripts, a link to any code repositories, and prior research experience if any. Successful applicants will have strong ML/NLP coursework at the graduate level, solid Python Programming skills, and a commitment of approximately 10–12 focused hours per week. Work is expected to reach a caliber suitable for peer-reviewed publication.

Undergraduate students can participate through CSE 487 or the Honors Research sequence (CSE/HON/WSE 495/496). Exceptional performance in machine learning or NLP coursework is a prerequisite. The goal is publishable work; significant contributors are listed as co-authors.

It may not always be possible to respond to individual queries.