Social sciences undergo a rapid change. The data deluge due to the fantastic development of computers and information-communication technology opens unprecedented possibilities so that earlier inaccessible problems can be studied and understood, and even predictions can be made. These problems include the large-scale structure of society, multi-scale dynamics of human mobility, social contagion, filtering fake news and identifying echo chambers, urban dynamics and well-being in cities, and many more. The new challenges brought by using Big Data in social sciences require new methods and multi-disciplinary effort. As a result, a new field has emerged based on social science, computer science and complexity science, where computers are pivotal in designing and performing research. Techniques like data mining and processing, agent-based modeling and online experiments, statistical evaluation and theoretical analysis are equally part of it. The goal of the course is to give an introduction to this new, emergent field.
- Teacher: Gerardo Iniguez
- Teacher: Janos Kertesz