EDUCATION
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (August 2016 – Present)
- Ph.D Computer Science, Advisor: Dr. Tim Weninger
- Focus: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Media Literacy, Online Social Behavior, Healthcare Analytics
- Candidacy Proposal: Measurements for adoption, spread, and prediction of online human behavior (March 19, 2020)
- Committee Members: Dr. Julian McAuley, Dr. Dong Wang, Dr. Meng Jiang, Dr. Tim Weninger
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (August 2007 – May 2013)
- MS Computer Science (August 2011 – May 2013)
Focus: Algorithms, Cybersecurity
- BA Mathematics, Political Science (August 2007 – May 2011)
Minors: Computer Science, History, Western European Studies
AWARDS AND HONORS
Responsible Innovation Fellowship, September 2020
Graduate Workshop in Computational Social Science, Santa Fe Research Institute, June 2019
Panelist, Hello Research, Indiana University, October 2018
Data and Team Science Workshop, Purdue University, CSol, May 2018
Disease Diagnostic Investors Challenge, Purdue University, CTSI, July 2018
Leadership Advancing Socially Engaged Research Fellowship, April 2018
Runner up, Outstanding TA Award, May 2017
Hackathon Winner, Tech for Justice, March 2017
PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
University of Notre Dame, Research Assistant (August 2016 – Present)
Notre Dame, IN
- Researched machine learning and data mining methods
- Investigated online social behavior in GitHub and on social media
- Collaborated with others in healthcare analytics space
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Intern (May 2019 – August 2019)
Richland, WA
- Focused on topic spread on social media during censorship events
- Performed extensive statistical analysis on social networks.
Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, IBRI Scholar (April 2017 – August 2018)
Indianapolis, IN
- Worked to cleanse data coming in from multiple sources using Pyspark
- Developed algorithms to research trends in heart disease and diabetes
University of Notre Dame, Associate Instructor (August 2016 – May 2017)
Notre Dame, IN
- Graded homework and exams and ran office hours for:
- Data Science – Fall 2016, Dr. Nitesh Chawla
- Ethics and Professional Issues In Computer Science – Spring 2017, Dr. Peter Bui
- Runner up for Outstanding TA award, 2016-2017
Eli Lilly and Company, Associate Consultant – IT (March 2016 – July 2016)
Indianapolis, IN
- Won company recognition for work on data migration project
- Consulted with different business groups looking to use text mining
- Contributed to custom Lilly app developed using Agile methodologies
Eli Lilly and Company, Senior Analyst – IT (July 2013 – March 2016)
Indianapolis, IN
- Stood up ITIL services incorporating vendor software into the Lilly environment
- Consulted on data mining and natural language processing projects
School of Informatics and Computing, Research Assistant (January 2011 – May 2013)
Bloomington, IN
- Researched cryptography and data security
- Implemented new homomorphic encryption schemes using Sage and Python
Raytheon BBN Technologies, Programming Intern (May 2012 – August 2012)
Cambridge, MA
- Wrote scripts and parsers to evaluate data in Python, C, and MATLAB
- Worked on complicated Makefiles to compile large amounts of code
Indiana University CS Department, Associate Instructor (January 2012 – May 2013)
Bloomington, IN
- Taught Introduction to Computer Science Scheme course
- Ran lab sections where students implemented simple code
PUBLICATIONS
William Theisen, Joel Brogan, Pamela Bilo Thomas, Daniel Moreira, Pascal Phoa, Tim Weninger, Walter J. Scheirer Automatic Discovery of Political Meme Genres with Diverse Appearances. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), January 2021.
Pamela Bilo Thomas, Rachel Krohn, Tim Weninger. Dynamics of team library adoptions: an exploration of GitHub commit logs. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining. August 27, 2019.
Pamela Bilo Thomas, Daniel H Robertson, Nitesh V. Chawla. Predicting onset of complications from diabetes: a graph based approach. Applied Network Science, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Page 48. December 1, 2018.
Saurabh Nagrecha; Pamela Bilo Thomas; Keith Feldman; Nitesh V. Chawla. Predicting Chronic Heart Failure using Diagnoses Graphs. Cross Domain Conference for Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction, Reggio Calabria, Italy August 29 – September 1, 2017
POSTERS AND PRESENTATIONS
P.B. Thomas, T. Weninger. “Deploying a Media Literacy Intervention – a Case Study in Indonesia.” Conference for Truth and Trust Online, October 2020.
P.B. Thomas, E. Saldanha, and S. Volkova. “The Effect of External Events on Online Social Interactions”, 2019 IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) International Leadership Summit, Richland, WA, USA, July 30, 2019.
M.P. Pradhan, M.D. Mathews, P. B. Thomas, T. Huschto, W. Petrich, T. Schleyer, S.M. McAhren, and D.H. Robertson, “Understanding Type 2 Diabetes Patient Sub-Groups through Electronic Medical Records”, Indiana Life Sciences Summit 2017, Indianapolis, IN, USA, October 9, 2017.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Machine learning, data mining, media literacy, online social behavior, healthcare analytics
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Notre Dame Graduate Society of Women Engineers, President (May 2018 – May 2019)
Notre Dame, IN
- Led and managed organization in determining social and professional development events
Science Policy Initiative, Communications Director (May 2018 – May 2019)
Notre Dame, IN
- Managed communications regarding science policy on a municipal, state, and federal level that are of importance to the Notre Dame community
- Helped to organize Indiana Science Communication Day at Indiana Statehouse
Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering Graduate Student Board (August 2018 – May 2019)
Notre Dame, IN
- Helped plan social and professional development events for graduate students in Computer Science and Engineering
- Acted as liaison between students and faculty to express concerns and issues
Elkhart County Public Library, Speaker Series (February 2019)
Elkhart, IN
- Organized a speaker series about the effect of the spread of misinformation on social media in various facets of society
Robinson Community Learning Center, Tutor (August 2017 – December 2018)
South Bend, IN
- Tutored students in math and helped write college essays
Notre Dame Graduate School, Graduate Orientation Ambassador (May 2018 – August 2018)
Notre Dame, IN
- Helped plan and organize new student orientation
Notre Dame Graduate Society of Women Engineers, Secretary (August 2017 – May 2018)
Notre Dame, IN
- Helped to plan and organize different social and professional events throughout the year
- In charge of organizing email campaigns to remind students of events
Indiana University Graduate Women in Computing, Co-President August 2012 – May 2013
Bloomington, IN
- Led events to promote women in computing
- Worked to create a supportive environment for female computer scientists
