Alexandre Gonçalves

Understanding Social Dynamics Through Data-Driven Insights

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Education

Work and Research Experience

2023 - now
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Assistant Professor of Journalism

2019 – 2023
Columbia Journalism School
Doctoral Research

  • Investigated the use of social media by the new Right in Brazil.
  • Conducted 65 in-depth interviews with intellectuals, activists, and entrepreneurs to understand the new Right’s motivations, media strategies, and business models.
  • Performed regression and network analyses on social media data to identify the networks of influence that underlie the new Right in Brazil.

2022 – now
Brown Institute for Media Innovation ▪ Columbia University
Researcher ▪ Software Developer

  • Built state-of-the-art machine learning procedures at the Local News Lab to improve article recommendation and subscription rates in local newsrooms.
  • Gave technical advice to the institute’s grantees on their new media projects.

2019 – 2021
School of Communication Research ▪ University of Amsterdam
Researcher

  • Designed and managed the database infrastructure for millions of records of online behavioral data and longitudinal survey data.
  • Identified and fixed inconsistencies in online behavioral data.

2019
Columbia School of International and Public Affairs
Researcher

  • Performed computational (NLP) and quantitative analysis of the impact of offshore leaks on the global debate about tax fairness.

2018
Tow Center for Digital Journalism ▪ Columbia University
Fellow

  • Evaluated the reliability of online behavioral data provided by a content analytics company for a study on the impact of social platforms on traditional publishers.
  • Researched methods to identify algorithmic bias in recommendation systems.

2016 – 2018
Workbench ▪ Columbia Journalism School
Researcher ▪ Software Developer

  • Interviewed potential users to assess the demand for CJ Workbench—an open-source data tool to assist journalists and researchers with no coding skills.
  • Worked on the development of CJ Workbench.

2015 – 2017
Brown Institute for Media Innovation ▪ Columbia University
Researcher ▪ Software Developer

  • Interviewed experienced journalists, activists, and public officials to evaluate the demand for a tool that could further the transparency of public contracts.
  • Built open.contractors—a web dashboard to make defense contracting data available to reporters and the public.

Summer 2015
Pew Research Center
Google News Lab Fellow ▪ Journalism & Media Team

  • Evaluated machine learning techniques (topic modeling, SVM) to classify news articles.

2013 – 2015
MIT Center for Civic Media
Researcher

  • Connected with grassroots organizations in Brazil to work together on Promise Tracker—a mobile app to keep track of promises made by politicians.
  • Led codesign workshops in underprivileged communities in Brazil to inform the design of Promise Tracker.

2012 – 2014
MIT Comparative Media Studies
Master’s Research

  • Adapted Media Cloud—a Harvard-based web platform for studying media ecosystems—to the Brazilian digital landscape and used it to study online controversies.
  • Investigated the media debate around a wave of flash mobs convened by poor youth in Brazil using semi-automated content analysis and interviews with opinion-makers.

2008 – 2012
O Estado de S. Paulo ▪ Newspaper of Record ▪ Brazil
Science Reporter

  • Published hundreds of news stories with considerable impact on the public conversation about science in Brazil.
  • Edited the newspaper’s section on science, health, the environment, and religion.
  • Organized a hackathon that united journalists and developers to work on stories together.
  • Mentored several young journalists through the newspaper’s trainee program.

1999 – 2007
Various Contractees in Brazil ▪ IBM ▪ Matera ▪ Totvs ▪ Funcamp
Software Developer

  • Built systems for business management, including software to oversee human resources, resource planning, and business intelligence.
  • Built and administered SQL databases.
  • Built a system for electronic data interchange (EDI) on IBM infrastructure.
  • Built software for schools, such as systems for peer evaluation and feedback reporting.

Courses Taught (recent entries only)

Conferences and Publications

Awards and Grants

  • Brown Institute Magic Grant 2015
    $42,500 grant for the development of a platform to make defense contracting data searchable by journalists and transparency activists.
  • Google News Lab Fellowship 2015
    $8,500 stipend plus a travel budget of $1,000 for a ten-week fellowship at the Pew Research Center.
  • Person of the Year Fellowship 2012
    $10,000 prize awarded by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce to young professionals pursuing graduate studies in the US.
  • Visionary Journalist Fellowship 2011
    $55,000 prize toward a Master’s Degree in Communication abroad. The prize is awarded by the Ling Institute (Brazil) to young journalists.
  • Medal of Honor IPq-USP 2010
    Awarded by the main mental health research organization in Brazil for my contribution to the fight against the stigma of psychiatric disorders.

Computing

  • Databases: Professional experience with SQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, OracleDB). In research settings, Presto (on AWS Athena) and NoSQL Databases (MongoDB).
  • Programming Languages: Professional experience with Java and C++. In research settings, Python for data cleaning, data analysis, and machine learning (pandas, Scikit learn, Gensim, etc.) and R for hierarchical clustering and regression analyses.
  • Operating System: Professional experience with Linux and Bash scripting.
  • Cloud Services: Professional and academic experience with services on Google Cloud, Azure, IBM Watson, and especially AWS.

Languages

  • Fluent in English and Portuguese.
  • Proficient in Spanish.