David Abián | Computational Social Science Researcher

Welcome! I’m David, a computational social science researcher pursuing a PhD at the University of Zaragoza.

I wonder why social systems become cooperative, resilient, and welcoming—or unequal, fragile, and harmful. I use networked agent-based modelling and network analysis of large-scale digital trace data to study how individual behaviour, interaction patterns, and institutional conditions jointly shape those outcomes.

Selected publication

Scientific Reports · 2026

Individual and collective gains from cooperation and reciprocity in a dynamic-network Prisoner’s Dilemma driven by extraversion, openness, and agreeableness

D. Abián, J. Bernad, S. Ilarri, and R. Trillo-Lado

An agent-based study of how Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness shape partner choice, reciprocity, inequality, and collective welfare in an evolving Prisoner’s Dilemma network. High initial willingness to cooperate, combined with history-sensitive responses, yields systems that are more prosperous, fairer, and more resistant to exploitation.

Accepted work

Communications of the ACM

The public mission of academic research in computing

D. Abián

An opinion article arguing that academic computing’s distinctive public mission is to produce inspectable, reusable, and durable public goods through explanation, verification, and long-term stewardship.

IEEE CoG 2026

CVshredder: A telemetry-rich paradigm for sequential stopping under time pressure, partial observability, and costly information acquisition

D. Abián and P. Gutiérrez-Sánchez

A reusable experimental task for studying when people stop searching and commit to an option under time pressure, limited information, and explicit information-acquisition costs.

Education

PhD in Systems Engineering and Computer Science ongoing
MSc in Data Science
BSc in Psychology ongoing
BSc in Computer Science Engineering

Earlier experience and service

Decade-plus peer-production governance

Long-term contributor to free-knowledge peer-production communities, spanning governance, content, outreach, and technical development. This included board service at Wikimedia España, participation in Wikidata from its launch, and community-elected administrator roles on Spanish Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Knowledge systems and peer-production research

Academic positions at King’s College London and the University of Zaragoza, with earlier research on knowledge graphs, data quality, and online peer production.

Database engineering and instruction

Industry experience in technical training and the production migration of large relational database systems, including a migration spanning more than 4,400 tables and 3.5 million lines of source code.