Discovery Lab (a.k.a. "Disco Lab") is a computational social science lab that studies the drivers of scientific and technological innovation. We are interested in how organizational design and technology can accelerate scientific discovery. We use a variety of methods, from field experiments to agent-based models to surveys. The lab is based at the University of Michigan School of Information and headed by Misha Teplitskiy.

The presentation schedule is here: link.

If you are interested in learning more about our work or research opportunities, email Misha at tepl@umich.edu.

Below are the lab's current members and alumni!

"I am a 4th year PhD Student at the University of Michigan School of Information. Broadly, I use computational social science techniques to tackle questions that require interdisciplinary approaches. My research interests are in knowledge and cultural production, science of science, and science and technology public policy. More specifically, I'm interested in the cultural and cognitive factors that inspire the creation of new knowledge, as well as policies that promote novel and useful science."

“I’m a 4th year PhD student at UMSI co-advised by Misha Teplitskiy and Daniel Romero. My research interests broadly encompass science of science, network science, and dynamical systems. I’m interested in studying the dynamics of knowledge production, especially as it relates to the disciplinary structure of academic science. In my free time, I enjoy drawing and biking around Ann Arbor.” 

"I’m a 4th year PhD student at UMSI co-advised by Misha Teplitskiy and David Jurgens. I have a broad interest in computational social science. Particularly, my research interests are: (1) science of science, and social and information networks of scientific communities, (2) natural language processing, and developing text analysis methods to study social science questions. Recently I have been exploring publication strategies of scientists."

Website: https://hongchen-max.github.io/ 

"I’m a first-year PhD student in Sociology. My interests are in the intersection of the knowledge, politics, culture, cognition, and computational social science. I’m interested in developing computational and cultural approaches to characterizing the ‘market of ideas’ in academic and nonacademic knowledge fields.” 

"I'm a lecturer and research investigator at the University of Michigan. My research focuses on how scientists develop software to support their research and adopt computational methods for discovery. Before getting into meta-science, I worked on computational neuroscience with a particular focus on the auditory nervous system.” 

"I am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business. I study the design of modern work in creative, knowledge-intensive fields like technology and academic science. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, I explore how strategic design choices—such as incentives, evaluation processes, and task structures—impact individual motivation and productivity among knowledge workers, shaping organizational output and fostering innovation."

https://www.ismirnova.net/