SOC 4390 - Social Dynamics and Computational Methods

(CU-SBY)

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

M. Macy.

This course is intended for a select group of highly motivated undergraduates with a keen interest in computational social science. The course provides an opportunity to participate in on-going research in the Social Dynamics Lab. Projects range from online experiments to computer simulations to collection and analysis of data from social media. Students in this course bring a range of skills and experience to the lab, including coding, data analysis, modeling, and running experiments, and the research affords an opportunity to develop these skills further. In rare cases, students bring a project with them to the lab to work on for the semester. In most cases, however, students work in small teams as research assistants for ongoing research projects. In short, the course is an opportunity for “interdependent study” — a team version of the more familiar “independent study.” The research projects often lead to papers for submission to academic journals and/or conferences, but most projects are on-going and not completed during the semester. Students also occasionally develop a senior honors thesis from the research in the lab. Weekly meetings provide an opportunity for the projects featured that week to get feedback and suggestions from lab members. On occasion, we have collaborators from other universities Zoom/Skype in as well. Reading assignments are used to get background on a project and as part of the literature review that is needed to identify the project’s particular contribution. However, most of a student’s time will be spent actively participating in research, not just reading about previous studies. Students keep a weekly log of their activity that is submitted at the end of the semester.