From June 17 to June 28, 2024, ODISSEI will host the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held at Erasmus University Rotterdam in cooperation with ODISSEI partner organizations. The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty interested in computational social science. ODISSEI-SICSS is unique within the SICSS framework in focusing primarily on the analysis of administrative data. The Summer Institute is for both social scientists and data scientists.
ODISSEI is the national infrastructure for Social Science in the Netherlands. Providing analytical tools and software, secure supercomputing power and expertise, ODISSEI is building an overarching and interlinked infrastructure to guide researchers through the rich datasets that are available in the Netherlands. SICSS-ODISSEI participants will be able to share their research, discuss their ideas and connect with other researchers in related fields, across the world.
ODISSEI will provide participants with unique access to its infrastructure during the summer school including executing specific projects using microdata via the CBS Secure Remote Access Environment, an introduction to the ODISSEI secure supercomputer, the support of Research Software Engineers (RSE) at the Netherlands eScience Center and work with data obtained with the nationally representative LISS Panel. The second week will consist of a pioneering benchmarking challenge in the social sciences.
The course will be an accredited school course by the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH) covering 5 ECTS. The curriculum of the summer school will be supported by ODISSEI partner organizations such as SURF (the Netherlands High Performance Computing Center), the Netherlands eScience Center, and the Dutch Statistical Office (CBS), including free access to the infrastructure during and three months after the summer school for participants.
The instructional program will involve lectures, group problem sets, 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. Topics covered include network analysis, machine learning, benchmarking, and ethics. 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 and students 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.
Application materials are due 28 February 2023.
Photo by Dennis Möller on Unsplash