‘Data Matters Because People Matter’: Computational Social Science at UC San Diego

Video Description

Big data is only as meaningful as the people behind it. That’s the core insight of computational social science — an emerging field in both academia and the business world – where social scientists and coders come together to tackle real-world questions.

In the UC San Diego School of Social Sciences, an interdisciplinary program in Computational Social Science (CSS) offers students a practical pathway with a minor, master’s or PhD specialization.

Watch the video to see how you might fit in.

Full video transcript:

Computational Social Science / Practical Pathways in Social Sciences

An interdisciplinary social sciences program, we offer a minor, master’s or PhD specialization

Will Styler, director of the Computational Social Science Program at UC San Diego: “Computational social science is an emerging field in both academia and the business world. At its core is this insight: there are people out there like myself who are social scientists through and through — I’m a linguist — but who ask questions about humans using computational methods. Computational social scientists really believe that data matters, but data matters because people matter. That’s the core insight behind CSS.”

Students come from all kinds of backgrounds

Styler: “One of the great parts about computational social science is that people from so many different backgrounds can find a happy home here. We have students coming into our program who have a lot of computation but feel like they need more knowledge about humans and social science topics to be able to do their work. And on the other side, we have people who are social scientists but feel like, ‘Wow, I actually need some of these computational tools to be able to move forward and ask the questions I want to ask.’”

We use data to solve social issues

Styler: “If there’s one skill that I want our students in CSS to leave with, it’s the ability to go from data — which are big and messy and difficult to understand — to something that’s actionable.

We have students working at credit unions. We have students in business schools. We have students working at the Library of Congress. We have students working at nonprofits, at think tanks, doing behavioral health, doing college advising. They come into the program with their own backgrounds and go out to find the niche that’s right for them.

If you’re thinking about CSS and you believe that data matters because people matter, you belong here.”

Learn more: Explore the program in an earlier Today story and at css.ucsd.edu.