The Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS) was back for the third year from 03 June to 10 June 2024 at the NUS Centre for Trusted Internet and Community (CTIC). SICSS is a global initiative to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early faculty interested in computational social science. This programme is organised by CTIC and the NUS Department of Communications and New Media (CNM).
Group photo with our speaker, Dr Noshir Contractor (first row, fifth from left)
We had the honour of inviting twelve speakers who are leading experts in the fields of information studies, computer science, psychology, and communications.
Overseas in-person speakers (left) Dr Noshir Contractor, (middle) Dr Yingdan Lu, and (right) Dr Alvin Zhou
Three of our overseas speakers flew in from the United States to join us in person. Dr Noshir Contractor gave an opening presentation on how we could leverage people analytics to mine data and address issues such as team assembly and conflict. He is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioural Sciences and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University.
Also from Northwestern University, Dr Yingdan Lu, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication, demonstrated how computational analysis of visuals could shed light on political processes and outcomes.
Dr Alvin Zhou, Assistant Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, gave a closing lecture on forging synergy between question, data, and method to create a compelling research design.
In-person speakers who joined us locally (top left) Dr Prasanta Bhattacharya, (top right) Dr Chao Yu, (bottom left) Dr He Tian Yu, and (bottom right) Dr Liang Ze Wong
Together with other speakers, Dr Jiaxin Pei (University of Michigan), Dr Koustav Saha (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Dr Chris Chao Su (Boston University), Dr Diyi Yang (Stanford University), Dr Prasanta Bhattacharya (IHPC, A*STAR), Dr Joe Simons (IHPC, A*STAR), Dr Liang Ze Wong (IHPC, A*STAR), Dr He Tian Yu (NUS) and Dr Chao Yu (NUS), they guided our participants through a series of talks and hands-on problem sets.
Participants-led group projects and presentations
There were 19 participants selected from a list of global applicants. They came from universities around the world as well as Singapore government agencies such as the DSO National Laboratories and IPHC. Drawing on one another’s areas of expertise in diverse disciplines, they formed multidisciplinary teams to work on their group projects. Their presentation topics were:
A big thank you to all our speakers and participants for yet another successful run of SICSS.
Group photo with our speaker Dr Yingdan Lu (2nd row, fifth from left)
Seminar recordings will be available on our website soon!