Dr Nicholas Micallef

Lecturer in Computer Science

Computer Science

nicholas.micallef@swansea.ac.uk

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2683-8042

ResearchGate

Google Scholar

About

Dr Nicholas Micallef is a Lecturer at Swansea University. His research interests include HCI, Misinformation, Usable Security and Privacy, Authentication and Mobile HCI. His recent research focuses on misinformation both from a data-driven and human aspects perspective. In his previous role at New York University Abu Dhabi he was involved in various projects that studied the countering of misinformation and the spreading of cross-platform multimodal misinformation. In his position at the University of New South Wales his research focused on designing privacy-enhancing technologies that provide users with realistic information to anonymize their online identities. Dr. Micallef obtained his PhD from Glasgow Caledonian University United Kingdom. In his PhD he investigated the use of mobile sensing to improve the usability of smartphone authentication

Areas Of Expertise

HCI
Misinformation/Disinformation
Usable Security
Usable Privacy
Authentication
Mobile HCI

Career Highlights

Award Highlights

“Best Paper Award” at the International Workshop on Mining and Learning from Smartphone Apps for users (AppLens 2018), held in conjunction with the 2018 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2018). Awarded an “Excellent reviewer recognition” award at CHI 2017. “Honorable Mention Award” at MobileHCI 2015.

Publications

Research Highlights

Ghafourian, T., Micallef, N., & Patil, S. (2024). From the Childhood Past: Views of Young Adults on Parental Sharing of Children's Photos. In Usenix Security
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66542
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Weerasinghe, R. (2024). Swa-Bhasha Dataset: Romanized Sinhala to Sinhala Adhoc Transliteration Corpus. In 2024 4th International Conference on Advanced Research in Computing (ICARC) (pp. 189-194). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/icarc61713.2024.10499771, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65621
Micallef, N., Sandoval-Castañeda, M., Cohen, A., Ahamad, M., Kumar, S., & Memon, N. (2022). Cross-Platform Multimodal Misinformation: Taxonomy, Characteristics and Detection for Textual Posts and Videos. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (pp. 651-662
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60586
https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19323
Micallef, N., Armacost, V., Memon, N., & Patil, S. (2022). True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW1), 1-44.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3512974, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60585
Micallef, N., Avram, M., Menczer, F., & Patil, S. (2021). Fakey: A Game Intervention to Improve News Literacy on Social Media. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1-27.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449080, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60583
Micallef, N., He, B., Kumar, S., Ahamad, M., & Memon, N. (2021). The Role of the Crowd in Countering Misinformation: A Case Study of the COVID-19 Infodemic. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/bigdata50022.2020.9377956, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60582
Avram, M., Micallef, N., Patil, S., & Menczer, F. (2020). Exposure to social engagement metrics increases vulnerability to misinformation. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(5)
https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-033, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60580
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Hough, J. (2024). Can LLMs assist with Ambiguity? A Quantitative Evaluation of various Large Language Models on Word Sense Disambiguation. In NLPAICS 2024 : First International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (pp. 97-108).
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67920
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Hough, J. (2024). Assessing GPT's Potential for Word Sense Disambiguation: A Quantitative Evaluation on Prompt Engineering Techniques. In 2024 IEEE 15th Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC) (pp. 204-209). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/icsgrc62081.2024.10691283, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67921
Daish, P., Micallef, N., Lorenzo-Dus, N., Paiement, A., & Sahoo, D. (2024). Towards Co-designing a Human-Agent Interface: A Case Study in Online Grooming Detection.. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 390-392). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3687272.3690893, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68341

All Research

Journal Articles

Micallef, N., Armacost, V., Memon, N., & Patil, S. (2022). True or False: Studying the Work Practices of Professional Fact-Checkers. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW1), 1-44.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3512974, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60585
Micallef, N., Avram, M., Menczer, F., & Patil, S. (2021). Fakey: A Game Intervention to Improve News Literacy on Social Media. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1-27.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3449080, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60583
Avram, M., Micallef, N., Patil, S., & Menczer, F. (2020). Exposure to social engagement metrics increases vulnerability to misinformation. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(5)
https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-033, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60580

Conference Contributions

Daish, P., Micallef, N., Lorenzo-Dus, N., Paiement, A., & Sahoo, D. (2024). Towards Co-designing a Human-Agent Interface: A Case Study in Online Grooming Detection.. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 390-392). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3687272.3690893, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68341
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Hough, J. (2024). Can LLMs assist with Ambiguity? A Quantitative Evaluation of various Large Language Models on Word Sense Disambiguation. In NLPAICS 2024 : First International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (pp. 97-108).
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67920
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Hough, J. (2024). Assessing GPT's Potential for Word Sense Disambiguation: A Quantitative Evaluation on Prompt Engineering Techniques. In 2024 IEEE 15th Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC) (pp. 204-209). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/icsgrc62081.2024.10691283, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67921
Ghafourian, T., Micallef, N., & Patil, S. (2024). From the Childhood Past: Views of Young Adults on Parental Sharing of Children's Photos. In Usenix Security
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66542
Daish, P., Micallef, N., Lorenzo-Dus, N., Paiement, A., & Sahoo, D. (2024). Towards Co-Designing a Continuous-Learning Human-AI Interface: A Case Study in Online Grooming Detection. In Alan Dix, Matt Roach, Tommaso Turchi, Alessio Malizia, Ben Wilson (Ed.), CEUR Workshop Proceedings
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68369
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3701/
Sumanathilaka, D., Micallef, N., & Weerasinghe, R. (2024). Swa-Bhasha Dataset: Romanized Sinhala to Sinhala Adhoc Transliteration Corpus. In 2024 4th International Conference on Advanced Research in Computing (ICARC) (pp. 189-194). IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/icarc61713.2024.10499771, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65621
Micallef, N., Sandoval-Castañeda, M., Cohen, A., Ahamad, M., Kumar, S., & Memon, N. (2022). Cross-Platform Multimodal Misinformation: Taxonomy, Characteristics and Detection for Textual Posts and Videos. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (pp. 651-662
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60586
https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19323
Micallef, N., He, B., Kumar, S., Ahamad, M., & Memon, N. (2021). The Role of the Crowd in Countering Misinformation: A Case Study of the COVID-19 Infodemic. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)IEEE.
https://doi.org/10.1109/bigdata50022.2020.9377956, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60582

Supervision

Investigating Positive Biasing of Large Language Models Towards Understanding Adversarial Autonomous Agents (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Simon Robinson

Other supervisor: Prof Jiaxiang Zhang

Other supervisor: Prof Matt Jones
Promoters and Detractors of Customer Experience at HSBC (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Simon Robinson

Other supervisor: Dr Matt Roach

Other supervisor: Prof Matt Jones
User Account Authentication Methods, Preferences, and their Efficacy (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Bertie Muller
Using a Human-Centred Approach and ML «br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /» Techniques to Automate/Visualise Anomaly and Vulnerability Detection in Critical Communication Systems Context (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Giedre Sabaliauskaite
Dispelling the 'Fog of War': Contextualising Misinformation in Conflict Zones (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Matt Roach
Investigating Textual Ambiguity using Computational Linguistics. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Joe Macinnes

Taught Modules

CS-130 Professional Issues 1: Computers and Society

Students will be introduced to the main professional issues associated with software engineering and computer science research. Students will also examine the main impacts of computing on society and social issues on the practice of computing, including legal and ethical concerns such as copyright and the Data Protection Act 2018 (i.e., the UK¿s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR). Issues of network security will also be discussed. The course also includes communication and technical-report writing skills.

Career History

Postdoctoral Associate, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

July 2019 - April 2022
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia

February 2017 - February 2019
Postdoctoral Researcher, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

June 2015 - December 2016

Dr Nicholas Micallef

Email address

LinkedIn Account

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Publications

Research Highlights

All Research

Journal Articles

Conference Contributions

Supervision

Investigating Positive Biasing of Large Language Models Towards Understanding Adversarial Autonomous Agents (current)

Promoters and Detractors of Customer Experience at HSBC (current)

User Account Authentication Methods, Preferences, and their Efficacy (current)

Using a Human-Centred Approach and ML «br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /»«br /» Techniques to Automate/Visualise Anomaly and Vulnerability Detection in Critical Communication Systems Context (current)

Dispelling the 'Fog of War': Contextualising Misinformation in Conflict Zones (current)

Investigating Textual Ambiguity using Computational Linguistics. (current)

Taught Modules

CS-130 Professional Issues 1: Computers and Society

Career History

Postdoctoral Associate, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia

Postdoctoral Researcher, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom