Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group

In 2019, I packed my bags and flew from Sri Lanka to Virginia to begin my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Old Dominion University. I did not have a clear roadmap or any prior research experience; all I had was the hope that I would be able to figure things out along the way. After six years, I found myself diving deep into eye-tracking, human-computer interaction, and machine learning; eventually completing my dissertation in multi-user eye-tracking using commodity cameras, with the support of my advisor, Dr. Sampath Jayarathna , NIRDS Lab , and ODU Web Science and Digital Libraries Research group .        When I started my Ph.D. at ODU , I had limited knowledge and experience in eye tracking and computer vision research. After learning about ongoing research at the lab on cognitive load using eye tracking , I was fascinated by how we could use technology to better understand humans in terms of their intentions, focus, attention, and interactions with the world. Tha...

  The 17th ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2025) took place at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey The 17th ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2025) was held from May 20–23 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The theme was "Maintaining a Human-Centric Web in the Era of Generative AI" and highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of Web Science, which examines the complex, reciprocal relationship between the Web and society. This trip report is authored by Kritika Garg and David Calano from the Web Science and Digital Libraries (WSDL) research group at Old Dominion University , who had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the conference.  Tuesday, May 20, 2025 On the first day of the conference, a series of workshops and tutorials were held on cutting-edge topics such as Generative AI, the Human-Centric Web, and Information Security. Tutorials included sessions on using the National Internet Observatory for collecting web data for res...