SICSS-Singapore 2026: Connecting People, Methods and Ideas Across Disciplines

 

From 13 to 20 July 2026, the National University of Singapore hosted the fifth edition of the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science – Singapore (SICSS-Singapore). The week-long programme brought together graduate students and early-career researchers interested in applying computational methods to important social questions.

 

Co-organised by the NUS Centre for Trusted Internet and Community (CTIC) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), SICSS-Singapore 2026 welcomed 20 participants from institutions across Singapore, China, Hong Kong, India and the United States.

 

The participants brought diverse academic perspectives spanning communication, history, psychology, and environmental studies. This diversity enriched discussions throughout the programme and encouraged participants to approach computational research from different disciplinary and cultural perspectives.

 

 

International Perspectives on Computational Social Science

 

Participants learnt from speakers based in Singapore and overseas, including Prof. D. Sunshine Hillygus from Duke University, Asst. Prof. Elisa Baek and Prof. Emilio Ferrara from the University of Southern California, Asst. Prof. Yihong Huang from Peking University, Assoc. Prof. Hai Liang from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Dr. Dilrukshi Gamage from the University of Colombo. They were joined by Dr. Prasanta Bhattacharya from A*STAR’s Institute of Advanced Intelligence and Computing, Asst. Prof. Kiran Garimella from Rutgers University, and Asst. Prof. Swapnil Mishra from the National University of Singapore.

 

Their lectures covered survey research in the age of AI, social and information networks, political communication, behavioural experiments, human–AI communication, online trust and safety, public health, misinformation, bots and AI-generated content. Across the sessions, speakers demonstrated how computational methods can be applied to understand social connection, information sharing, public opinion, online influence and health-related behaviour, while emphasising the importance of careful research design, transparency, ethical judgement and human oversight.

 

 

Learning Through Collaboration

 

Alongside the lectures, participants took part in discussions and hands-on group work, applying computational approaches to research questions of their own. The programme encouraged them to think not only about technical methods, but also about research design, causal inference, data quality, ethics, transparency and reproducibility.

 

In the latter half of the programme, participants formed interdisciplinary teams to develop and present four original research projects:

Networks of Perversion on X

Vaccination Hesitance

Heat the Debate

Spiral of Politicization?

 

The projects examined timely social issues through a range of computational perspectives, including network analysis, online discourse, public-health communication, climate-related debate and political communication. During the final presentations, each team shared its research question, proposed methods and preliminary findings, receiving feedback from fellow participants and the teaching team.

 

The participant-led projects reflected the central spirit of SICSS: bringing together people with different disciplinary strengths to develop socially meaningful research through open exchange and collaborative experimentation.

 

 

We extend our sincere appreciation to Asst. Prof. Subhayan Mukerjee, Dr. Zhicong Chen, Dr. Cai Mengxuan, Rongxin Ouyang, Xu Dong, Cai Yang, Sarthak Ingle and the organising team for making SICSS-Singapore 2026 possible.

 

Finally, thank you to all our speakers and participants for contributing to an inspiring week of learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and international community-building.