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27 November 2007

Conference on computational social science @ Harvard on December 7

Announcement of the Eric Mindich Conference on Computational Social Science, December 7, 12:00-5:45

The development of enormous computational power and the capacity to collect enormous amounts of data has proven transformational in a number of scientific fields. The emergence of a computational socialscience has been slower than in the sciences. However, the combination of the still exponentially increasing power of computers with a massive increase in the capturing of data about human behavior makes the emergence of a field of computational social science desirable, but not inevitable. The creation of a field of computational social science poses enormous challenges, but offers enormous promise to achieve the public good. The hope is that we can produce an understanding of the global network on which many global problems exist: SARS and infectious disease, global warming, strife due to cultural collisions, and the livability of our cities. That is, can sensing our society lead to a sensible society? This conference brings together the wide array of individuals who are working in this emerging research area to discuss how we might address these global challenges, and to evaluate the potential emergence of a field of "computational social science."

This conference is co-chaired by David Lazer and Sandy Pentland, and co-sponsored at Harvard by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the Program on Networked Governance, and at MIT by the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship and the MIT Living The Future project.

See: http://www.iq.harvard.edu/NewsEvents/Conferences/ESS/ for the up to the minute confererence agenda. Please also note that video of these presentations will be deposited at this website.

CONFERENCE AGENDA
(All events will take place in room S010, 1730 Cambridge Street)

Friday (December 7):

Lunch (12 to 1:20)

Opening remarks: Gary King (Harvard), David Lazer (Harvard), Sandy Pentland (MIT)

Panel 1: Where is social science hitting its limits on BIG problems?
Gary King (Harvard), Nicholas Christakis (Harvard)

Short break (1:20 to 1:30)

Panel 2: Where is computer science creating possibilities? (1:30 to 2:30)
Laszlo Barabasi (Northeastern), Tony Jebara (Columbia), Deb Roy (MIT), Sandy Pentland (MIT)

Coffee break (2:30 to 3:00)

Panel 3: Some initial forays in the social sciences (3:00 to 4:30)
Noshir Contractor (Northwestern), Sinan Aral (NYU), Lada Adamic (Michigan), Alessandro Vespignani (Indiana), David Lazer (Harvard),

Panel 4: Managing human subjects issues (4:30 to 5:45)
William Bainbridge (NSF), Dean Gallant (Harvard), Leigh Firn (MIT), Marshall Van Alstyne (BU), Myron Gutman (Michigan)

Please RSVP to: register@iq.harvard.edu

Posted by David Lazer at November 27, 2007 1:23 PM

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