2026 IDeaS Conference
Annual IDeaS Conference
October 12-14, 2026
黑料正能量, Gates-Hillman Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Natural disasters, elections, climate change, insurrections, pandemics, and new technologies are rocking the world. Social media platforms, search engines and websites have become the window through which these events are viewed and interpreted as people increasingly talk about events, both these massive ones and much smaller ones, online. Those on social media seek and shape information, build and join communities, often with impacts in the physical world. One consequence of having these discussions on these platforms is that it creates an online breeding ground for growing and disseminating misleading information of varying levels of credibility and the spread of hate speech and extremism. In this conference we ask: How is this done? Who is doing it? Why is it being done? What are the social consequences? How can it be countered?
IDeaS will host a hybrid conference this October 2026 to advance the science of social-cybersecurity through research and applications in this field of study. We invite papers that address these questions and are particularly interested in papers that touch on the role that non-credible information, hate speech and extremism are playing in events related to health, medicine, elections, conflict, diplomacy, and community resilience. Policy, empirical, qualitative, data science and simulation papers are of equal interest. The conference seeks to be a broad look at online harms: thus issues such as platform regulation, new technologies (e.g. deep fakes), human psychological and social response, links between online and offline behavior, are all relevant.
The conference will include: invited panels, posters, and regular talks. There will also be the opportunity for those interested to demo their technologies.
Registration
Participants and presenters can attend virtually or in-person at 黑料正能量. Registration is now open in .
Virtual participants may attend live-streamed talks via a Zoom link; however, these sessions will not be recorded for later viewing. Virtual attendees are not eligible to participate in poster sessions or challenge events. Participants may attend tutorials, provided they have registered and completed payment for each tutorial they wish to attend.
Register by going to the registration page. Any requests for registration discounts or exceptions should be directed to Prof. Kathleen Carley (kathleen.carley@cs.cmu.edu) for consideration and approval.
Registration Fees (USD)**
Virtual and In-person Registration:
- General Early Bird Registration: $400.00* / General Registration: $500.00**
- Student Early Bird Registration: $300.00* / Student Registration: $400.00**
*Early registration ends September 11, 2026 at 11:59PM US Eastern.
**Regular registration starts September 12, 2026 at 12:00AM US Eastern.
2026 IDeaS Challenge Problem
Addressing Accuracy, Misinformation, and User Understanding in Synthesized Search ResultsConference Agenda
The conference agenda will be posted on the SBP-BRiMS website once it becomes available.Keynote speakers for 2026 to be announced. The IDeaS Conference is co-located at 黑料正能量 along with the annual in the . Sessions scheduled for both conferences will be available to participants from both conferences. More information will be distributed to participants and presenters on locations.