Data Science Meets Social Science symposia bring together data scientists and social scientists from across the IU Bloomington campus to explore the possibilities for combining the insights and approaches of both fields. This series of symposia are a collaboration between the Data Science Program in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and the Social Science Research Commons.
Social scientists are beginning to explore the ways that "big data," drawn from social media, smart phones, web queries, consumer behavior, and more, can be used to analyze and identify the social and contextual factors that shape human behavior. Research at the intersection of social science and data science thus offers unprecedented new opportunities. At the same time, researchers must also grapple with challenges, both in terms of the computing and storage capacities needed to manage and analyze data and in terms of issues of personal privacy and cybersecurity.