Featured Member
- iSchools News
- Sep 17
- 5 min read
Issue #6
Ananya Sen
North American Region USA
Carnegie Mellon University
Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
iSchools member since 2008
Hello Ananya! Please tell us a bit about you!
I am currently an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. My research focuses on platforms and digitization, particularly in media and education, employing a variety of empirical methods (e.g. field experiments and natural experiments). My work aims to bridge managerial and policy issues, analyzing how digital technologies impact firm profitability and societal outcomes relevant to policy debates. My work often spans multiple disciplines, and therefore, I publish in various types of journals, including Management Science, Nature, and PNAS. At Heinz College, I teach courses on A/B Testing and Managing Disruptive Technologies. Before coming to Heinz College, I was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy before which I got my PhD from the Toulouse School of Economics.
Your research focuses on topics at the intersection of technology, business, and society and is empirical with various methods, including field experiments, natural experiments within observational data, and online survey experiments. In your opinion, what is the most challenging part of conducting empirical research in this field?
One of the biggest challenges in doing empirical work at the intersection of technology, business, and society is that you are always balancing two dimensions: asking a meaningful question and figuring out whether it is actually doable in practice. Like any research area, it starts with identifying a question that matters—something that could have implications for policymakers, for society, or for managers within firms. But in empirical research, you have the added constraint of data access. You are constantly asking: is there a way to observe this phenomenon in the real world? Can I get the data or run the study in practice?
A second challenge is the inherent risk built into different kinds of empirical projects. With field experiments, for instance, you need to commit a considerable amount of effort upfront—getting the question right, designing the intervention, and executing carefully. If something goes wrong at any of those stages, the whole study can unravel. With observational data, the path can feel more incremental, but there is a different risk: you can invest months cleaning and analyzing data only to discover, at the final stage, that a key robustness check does not hold—and suddenly your main results do not stand.
Finally, the types of questions I ask often require collaborating with companies, since they hold the data and context that can make the research most impactful. But that brings its own complications. Sometimes, the most important answers are precisely the ones that may be uncomfortable for a company to disclose publicly. Because I make it clear that collaboration cannot come with control over findings, this can create uncertainty in forming partnerships. It is a necessary trade-off to preserve scientific integrity, but it means that some of the highest-value questions are also the most challenging to study.
You have been named to the 2024 class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows by Carnegie Corporation of New York and received a research grant for your project "Automation Technologies, Online Misinformation, and Echo Chambers”. Can you tell us a bit more about your project?
I am grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for selecting me as one of its 2024 class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows, alongside numerous distinguished political scientists and sociologists working not only in academia but also in industry. My project examines the role of automation technologies within the online news ecosystem in fueling political polarization, with a focus on misinformation and the creation of echo chambers. I am working on field experiments that aim to highlight the role of AI in generating misinformation and its consequences for mainstream media outlets. Additionally, I am launching field experiments focusing on combating the monetization of misinformation by informing companies about their advertising practices and exploring the effects of algorithmic recommendations on echo chambers among news readers. The overall aim is to provide low-cost interventions to limit the spread of misinformation and to develop algorithmic solutions that ensure individuals are exposed to diverse political opinions.
Your iSchool is active in many projects around the topics of information, technology and society. Please tell us a bit more about your iSchool!
Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is home to two internationally recognized schools: the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. Heinz College leads at the intersection of technology, policy, and society, with expertise in analytics, artificial intelligence, arts & entertainment, cybersecurity, health care, and public policy. The college offers top-ranked undergraduate, graduate, and executive education certificates in these areas. Heinz College faculty are leaders in their respective fields, Stockholm Prize winners, Andrew Carnegie Fellows, and members of National Academies. They advise U.S. Presidents on policies related to economics and artificial intelligence, and they are sought out by media outlets worldwide for their expertise. Our faculty collaborates with governments, companies, and researchers across the globe to produce impactful research.
You received your PhD in Economics and came to Heinz College in 2019. What inspired you to choose an iSchool for your future research career?
I first began working on technology and digital platform–related topics during my PhD in economics. I was genuinely interested in those issues as I started thinking about a thesis topic. At the time—about 15 years ago—these were not the kinds of subjects that typically made their way into an economics dissertation, so in many ways I was exploring new ground. Over time, I found myself increasingly collaborating with scholars outside of economics, especially during my postdoctoral period at MIT Sloan. There I was part of an interdisciplinary group, which gave me the chance to engage more closely with iSchool and management researchers who were also studying the role of technology in business and society.
So when I went on the job market, Heinz College was an especially exciting opportunity. The school has long been a leader in research at the intersection of technology, business, and society, and I was fortunate that they were hiring at the time. Looking back, it has been a great fit—both in terms of my research interests and the collaborative, interdisciplinary environment I value.
If you could give just one advice to future information scientists, what would it be?
If I could give one piece of advice to future information scientists, it would be to look past the buzzwords and focus on fundamentals. We live in a time of constant technological change, and the challenge is to make sense of it in ways that truly matter. That requires being upfront about what your research can and cannot say, and being sincere in the questions you choose to pursue, rather than simply chasing fads due to the short-term reward.
Thank you very much, Ananya!
Featured Members is a new iSchools Feature series spotlighting members of iSchools who are part of the development and organization of thought provoking projects or conferences. Please contact admin@ischools-inc.org in case you would like to be featured as well.