Leveraging Computational Social Science
to Address Grand Societal Challenges
Thursday
June 18, 2015, 3-4:30 p.m.
Lecture Hall Room 4016 Hunt Library
Professor
Noshir
Contractor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences,
Northwestern University
Abstract-
The increased access to big data about social phenomena in general, and network
data in particular, has been a windfall for social scientists. But these
exciting opportunities must be accompanied with careful reflection on how big
data can motivate new theories and methods. Using examples of his research in
the area of networks, Contractor will argue that Computational Social Science
serves as the foundation to unleash the intellectual insights locked in big
data. More importantly, he will illustrate how these insights offer social
scientists in general, and social network scholars in particular, an
unprecedented opportunity to engage more actively in monitoring, anticipating
and designing interventions to address grand societal challenges.
Sponsored by the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences, College of
Humanities and Social Sciences, and Department of Communication.
