Mark Torres

I study how AI and social media algorithms interact with human psychology and sociology to shape social learning online. As a research engineer, I build large-scale data systems, AI-driven simulations, and LLM-based methods to understand and redesign digital environments for healthier discourse. I also consult with teams on shipping real-world AI systems as well as building AI agents and tools that drive value.

Hi!Permalink

I’m Mark, an AI engineer, researcher, and systems builder. As a research engineer, I combine social sciences with AI tools, AI agents, and large-scale algorithms to study social media platforms and computationally redesign them to promote healthier discourse. In parallel, I work at the intersection of AI research and methodology, developing and evaluating large language models as tools for computational social science. Outside academia, I also consult with teams across industries, helping startups, researchers, and organizations turn AI ideas into working systems. I believe the future of AI isn’t about replacing human judgment, but about amplifying us through human-AI workflows that allow us to use the best of both worlds to solve real-world problems.

Current: Lead AI Engineer @Northwestern (2023-present)Permalink

Building applied AI systems for social media research and computational social science.

  • Leading development of an AI agent simulation platform to study information flow, opinion dynamics, and influence on digital platforms — a modular, “custom AI-powered Facebook simulator” for academic use.
  • Creating open-source tools that provide scalable, reproducible access to millions of social media records for research teams studying behavior, ideology, and discourse online.
  • Designing and prototyping large-scale, AI-driven feed ranking algorithms for experimental studies in political and social influence.
  • Bridging ML engineering with academic research by owning data pipelines, modeling infrastructure, and real-time recommendation engines used across lab projects.

Previous: Data Scientist @SetSail (Series A Silicon Valley startup) (2021-2023)Permalink

  • Lots of typing (data scientist startup bro edition)

Previous: Data Scientist @Yale (2020-2021)Permalink

  • Developed a proprietary predictive algorithm for tracking the spread and incidence of COVID using network graph data (see Hunala).
  • Lots of typing (yung fledging data scientist edit)

Published a few papers here and therePermalink

My Google Scholar Profile.

  • Brady, W.J., Doyle, M, Elnakouri, A., Finkel, E., Jackson, J.C., Kteily, N., Parker, V., Puryear, C., Spelman, T. , Teeny, J., & Torres, M. (In Principle Acceptance; registered report). Redesigning algorithms to intervene on social norm misperceptions during a national election. Nature.
  • Brady, W.J., McLoughlin, K.L., Torres, M.P. et al. Overperception of moral outrage in online social networks inflates beliefs about intergroup hostility. Nat Hum Behav 7, 917–927 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01582-0
  • Iwamoto, S.K., Alexander, M., Torres, M. et al. Mindfulness Meditation Activates Altruism. Sci Rep 10, 6511 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62652-1

EducationPermalink

  • MS, Computer Science, @UT Austin
  • BS, Statistics, @Yale
  • Certificate, Mrs. Puff’s Boating School

Et ceteraPermalink

I am a former digital nomad, now based out of Chicago.