• Engineer for blockchain developement. Candidates are required to have experiences with
  1. Blockchain development and
  2. EVM smart contract development.
• Research Assistant or Post-Doctorate Researcher for a Web3 research project. Candidates are required to have
  1. Knowledge and experience of the Web3 industry,
  2. Blockchain data analytics skills, and
  3. Media data analytics skills.
• Research Assistant for an anti-scam initiative. Candidates are required to be capable of
  1. using AIGC, e.g., ChatGPT, for data analytics,
  2. understanding and applying communication theories in promotion campaigns,
  3. having experience with web page editing and website management.
• To apply, please send your resume, a cover letter explaining your interest and qualifications for the position, and any relevant project samples or publications to me.

Anti-scam

• Our research explores the intersection of large language model (LLM) analytics, media studies, and psychological insights to better understand and combat online scams. By continuously scanning and analyzing social media posts, such as those found in Hong Kong–based forums, our platform helps shed light on scammers’ evolving methods and the psychological tactics they use to manipulate victims. Through this integrated approach, we aim to inform preventative strategies and empower users with knowledge to protect themselves online.
• Our joint project with China Unicom Global Ltd., “Pioneering Technology, Linking the World: Big Data and AI’s New Role in Scam Prevention” was recognised as one of thirteen Outstanding Cases of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace by the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit 2024. News by CGTN

Web3

• Cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin), tokens issued on blockchain systems (e.g., USDT), and their derivative applications (e.g., De-Fi, Game-Fi, and NFT), are the frontier of financial technology (FinTech). This frontier is also known as the Web3 industry. Our team does four lines of research in this area:
  1. Cryptocurrency Transaction Analysis from a Network Perspective. All cryptocurrencies' transactions are publicly recorded in blockchains. We analyze blockchain data to unfold a panorama of human behaviors.
  2. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is a new way of online collaboration, where members make collaborative decisions with online deliberation and token-based voting. We analyze their social and transactional behavior to understand how humans may collaborate in the future.
  3. How are the world getting ready for Web3? We are composing an index to measure the preparedness of cities and regions over the globe on this matter.
  4. Cryptocurrencies, Web3 as well, may not be tamable by the current regulatory frameworks after all. However, rebuilding the conventional financial system with Web3-proven technologies might be possible. So, why not?
• We thank the RGC (and more importantly all the reviewers) for the support to our research project Balancing DAO Governance: The Interplay of Organizational Structure, Decision-making, and Sustainability and the ITC for supporting our commercialization efforts.
• Media Coverage: The Spectacular Collapse of CryptoKitties, the First Big Blockchain Game, IEEE Spectrum, August 2022.
  
• Random thoughts
  1. 迷霧中探索新世界：Web3概念的社會建構, posted on 信報, 28 Nov, 2024.
  2. To Survive, a Blockchain Game must be a Game First, posted on South China Morning Post, 1 Sep, 2021.
  3. 為什么說央行數字貨幣是區塊鏈的噩夢, 巴比特, 2020年4月27日.
  4. 還“數”于民：西方的 Web 改革浪潮及其與東方創新的潛在融合，第18屆全國互聯網與音視頻廣播發展研討會 (NWC 2019)，嘉興，2019年4月26日.
  5. 借天領地：廣播網絡能否破解區塊鏈的“三元悖論”？，首屆中國區塊鏈技術大會，杭州，2018年11月25日. （以及我們的回答）

AIGC

• Our research group is actively exploring various applications of recent AIGC technologies, such as large language models, diffusion models, and agentic frameworks, to advance social science research and address practical issues.
• We express our gratitude to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their support of our project, "AI for Farmers: A Speech Dialog App for Pesticide Safe Use," with their Catalyzing Equitable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Grand Challenges initiatives.

Dark Web

• The dark web are web services running on the darknet, which is a set of computer servers connected by and can only be accessed from encrypted networks. A common impression associated with the dark web is drug trading. But there is much more going on in that corner of the Internet. The dark web can also be considered an anonymous communication channel from the perspective of communication theory, underpinning human communication in an extremely covert environment.
• Try out dark web search engine https://hkaift.com/darkweb-search/

Smartphone user behaviors

• Modern humans spend about four hours per day on their smartphones. During lockdowns? The time can increase by up to another two hours. Our analyses of more than five million Chinese smartphone users affected by lockdowns in 2021 (filtered out from several hundred million users) show that the increased hours are prioritized according to the psychological need pyramid: physiological (e.g., food), entertainment, and social needs first, and self-actualization only later. On the contrary, both online and offline commercial activities are suppressed due to halted logistics. The suppressed desire for large merchandise (e.g., cars) purchasing is especially worrisome for the economy.
• Shanghai has endured an exceptionally long lockdown in the first half of 2022. Many humanitarian disasters during this time and their potential psychological hazards have been predicted by our data (or should we say lived through by people from other cities). We hope that whoever reads our study can help disseminate the message to policymakers and the public, hoping to avoid repeating yesterday anymore.

Data curation, analysis, and modeling for COVID-19

• Teamed with Prof. XU Xiao-Ke (Dalian Minzu University) and Prof. WU Ye (Beijing Normal University), we hand-coded daily COVID-19 case reports from Chinese local health commissions, from the first days of the pandemic, and extracted useful epidemiological information. We released the dataset on GitHub and figshare. The dataset has supported numerous publications in top-tier venues, including Science, Clinical Infectious Disease, and Emerging Infectious Disease. The Paper (澎湃) press also made a fabulous data visualization based on our data and won a major China data journalism award in 2021. Read our blog post for the story behind this massive dataset (and on the unreadiness of artificial intelligence in fighting COVID-19, as least in its early stages).
• We acknowledge the funding support from The International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) and the Grand Challenges (GC) initiative in their GC ICODA COVID-19 Data Science pilot initiative. Follow the progress of this project on The Global Health Network.
• 數字的游戲：辣評預測2020新型冠狀病毒nCov傳播規模的幾項研究，2020年1月31日.

Book

• 劉肖凡, & 謝智剛. (2015). 知諸網: 網絡科學及其在藝術、金融和社會學中的應用. 科學出版社, 北京.

Selected Papers

• [Anti-Scam] Liu, X. F., Ai, Y., Jiang, L. C., Wang, X., & Wu, Y. (2024). Understanding the human element in scams: a multidisciplinary approach. Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, 27(1), 9–24.. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.2024.2439192
• [Web3] Fan, J., Ai, Y., Liu, X. F.* (2024). DAO’s Governance Paradox: Balancing Organizational Structures for Business and Communal Goals. The 74st Annual International Communication Association Conference (ICA2024), June 2024. (Top Paper Award and Top Student Paper Award by the Organizational Communication Division at ICA 2024.)
• [Smartphone Use] Liu, X. F., Wang, Z.-Z., Xu, X.-K., Wu, Y., Zhao, Z., Deng, H., Wang, P., Chao, N., & Huang, Y.-H. (2023). The shock, the coping, the resilience: Smartphone application use reveals COVID-19 lockdown effects on human behaviors. EPJ Data Science. 12, 17. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00391-9
• [Dark Web] Chen, Z., Jardine, E., Liu, X. F.*, & Zhu, J. J. H. (2022). Seeking Anonymity on the Internet: The Knowledge Accumulation Process and Global Usage of the Tor Network. New Media & Society, 26(2), 1074-1095. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211072201.
• [COVID-19] Liu, X. F., Xu, X. K., & Wu, Y. (2021). Mobility, exposure, and epidemiological timelines of COVID-19 infections in China outside Hubei province. Scientific Data, 8, 54. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00844-8

Full Publication List

• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• CityU Scholar
• ORCID

Patents

• Liu, X. F., Fu, Z., Yan, J., "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CLASSIFYING A CRYPTOCURRENCY ASSET", US Patent, Filed, No. 18/772,118; Hong Kong Short-Term Patent, Granted, No. HK30107829.
• 劉肖凡、李正龍，“一種基于在線社交平臺群聊數據對群成員進行關聯的系統及方法”，中國發明，專利號 ZL 2016 1 0482435.3, 授權日期2020年3月31日.
• 劉肖凡、李正龍，“基于在線社交平臺群聊消息的群組間消息傳播路徑挖掘方法與系統”，中國發明，專利號 ZL 2017 1 01154048.7, 授權日期2020年8月11日.
• 蔡成委、韋志群、劉肖凡，“一種基于用戶畫像動態軌跡模型的廣告推薦方法及系統”，中國發明，公開號 CN108665083A，公開日期2018年10月16日.
• 慶光蔚、王會方、丁樹慶、馮月貴、劉肖凡、高逸夫、胡靜波、馮文龍、韓郡業、張軍、米涌、王建華、梁秉、方銘杰，“一種基于最小加權時間距離的電梯救援站點最優選址方法”，中國發明，專利號 ZL 2017 1 0236990.2, 授權日期2018年9月25日. （國家市場監管總局2020年度市場監管科研成果二等獎）

• COM3203 - Digital and Data Journalism for Bachelor students
• COM5507 - Social Media Data Acquisition and Processing for MA students
• COM5508 - Media Data Analytics for MACNM students
• COM8010 - Computational Social Science Methods for research students

• Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems
• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Blockchain
• Guest Editor, IET Blockchain
• Guest Editor, Frontiers in Physics
• Guest Editor, Mathematics