NSF Grant to Support BullyBlocker Project at LUC

The NSF grant “SaTC: Core: Interdisciplinary Models to Identify and Understand Cyberbullying” (Award No. 2227488, $390,421.00, Jan. 2022 – Dec. 2024), recently transferred to Loyola, will support the research activities of the BullyBlocker project (part of the Data Lab) at LUC. Dr. Yas Silva leads this project and collaborates with colleagues at Arizona State University and the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brazil).

The core objective of this interdisciplinary project is to design and develop models and apps to prevent and identify instances of cyberbullying in social networks. It uses psychological theory to guide investigations of the nature of cyberbullying and the adoption of automated anti-bullying tools, as well as carefully-designed data collection processes and evaluation frameworks. The project's impact includes sharing research and educational resources, raising cyberbullying awareness with policy-makers, and providing graduate and undergraduate students with the scientific scaffolding to develop into recognized interdisciplinary scholars. This grant also includes a recently received REU supplement where 50% of the undergraduate positions will support underrepresented college students.

To learn more about the award, please visit the NSF Award Website. To learn more about the Bully Blocker project, visit their website.