Summer Institute in Computational Social Science

From July 17 to 27, 2023, the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data (IMFD), the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), the Department of Computer Science of Universidad de Chile (DCC UCH), and the Institute of Sociology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (ISUC) will sponsor the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held at the Pontificia Universidad Católica, Campus San Joaquín. The Summer Institute aims to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty interested in computational social science. It is aimed at both social scientists and data scientists (in a broad sense).

The instructional program will include lectures, tutorials, exercises, and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers conducting research in computational social science in a variety of settings, such as academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include:

• Ethics
• Data collection
• Machine learning
• Text as data
• Image as data
• Surveys in the digital age
• Network science
• Visualization tools

There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with organizers, other participants, and guest speakers. Since we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by instructors and students for the Summer Institute will be released as open source.

Participation is aimed at people interested in research, ideally graduate students (master’s and Ph.D. programs), postdoctoral researchers, and non-tenured faculty within seven years of their Ph.D. That said, we intend to accept applications from undergraduate students who are completing their studies, pursuing a graduate program in a related field, or who have proven research experience. In addition, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially those from groups currently underrepresented in computational social science. About 20 participants will be invited, who are expected to attend and fully participate in the two-week program.