From June 20 to July 1, 2022, Faculty of Social Science will sponsor the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held at the University of Helsinki. The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars interested in computational social science. The Summer Institute is for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived).
At Helsinki we are especially working on topics such as
- political communication
- media & politics
- digital democracy
- interactive prototype development
- validity and reliability in computational social science
The instructional program will involve lectures, individual and group-based activities and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers who conduct computational social science research in a variety of settings, such as academia, industry, and government.
We focus on four broad families of computational social science
- data science
- network analysis
- simulations and complex systems
- interactive systems
In addition, we discuss crosscutting themes such as
- asking research questions through computational means
- data collection and management
- ethics
- validity and reliability
- research projects in computational social science era
The instructional program will include one month long pre-SICSS activity to ensure all participants have sufficient skills in programming and key concepts of social sciences.
There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. Because we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty for the Summer Institute will be released open source.
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. About 20 participants will be invited, and participants are expected to fully attend and participate in the entire two-week program. Due to the fluctuating COVID situation and potential changes in travel policies, we have chosen to keep SICSS Helsinki online this year. We do our best to accommodate for various timezones during the two-week period. We have also developed various mechanism to support engagement and peer-interaction to make online activities as social and community building as possible.
Application materials are due Wednesday March 30th.