About Computational Social Science

IC²S² brings together interdisciniplinary researchers to explore the biggest questions facing the field of computational social science.

What is computational social science?

Why is computational social science emerging now?

Due to advances in machine learning and computational techniques, and the proliferation of digital footprints, human and societal behavior that was previously unquantifiable and unobservable now generates data that can be collected and analyzed to make insights and predictions.

Watch past 2016 keynote Matt Salganik discuss one emerging evolution in social science research: digital experiments

Why is industry interested computational social science?

This ability to collect and analyze massive amounts of social and behavioral data is poised to disrupt and transform business intelligence, operations, and organization.

See how the exchange of ideas between industry and academia is leading to methodological advances, newly accessible datasets, and novel private-public collaborations

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Sample of Past Conference Keynotes

IC²S²
13–15 July 2018 /
General Session

12 July 2018 /
Pre-Session

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Workshops & Datathon

IC2S2 features two special events prior to the main conference: a datathon and a series of skills workshops.

Workshops are intended to be an introduction to core computing skills used in computational social science. It is a great opportunity for sociological researchers who are newcomers to computational techniques or who want to broaden their tool-kits with exposure to new methodologies.

The datathon is a marathon research session in which participants work together to turn datasets into insight. Participants will utilize prepared datasets and computational methods to respond to a theory-driven prompt developed by a panel of judges.

Check back later for more details on these sessions as the agenda is finalized.

Concurrent Sessions

Concurrent Sessions will address issues such as social contagion, social dynamics and influence, political collective action, economical models, social media and more. Panels will be run concurrently and will feature nearly 150 speakers. Presenters will be from a diverse selection of research institutions and organizations. They will be from numerous countries and disciplines, and their commonality will be the contributions they are making to the field of computational social science.

The final agenda will be posted closer to the conference date.

McCormick / NICO / Kellogg 2018: 4th Annual International Conference on Computational Social Science