Social computing refers to human interactions via and with computing technologies, where humans actively provide inputs to influence computations and where computational outcomes shape individual lives and social groups. Computational social science is concerned with taking computational approaches to social sciences, particularly using computational methods to model, simulate, and analyse social phenomena. Through user studies, analysis of large datasets, and design and deployment of new systems, these emerging fields seek to understand and influence the behavior of these systems and their users.
Groups and Researchers in this Field
Algorithms & Inequality
Rediet Abebe is a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Her research examines the interaction of algorithms and inequality, with a focus on contributing to the scientific foundations of this area. Abebe has also co-founded numerous organizations, including the ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO), and the associated international research initiative. Abebe is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Hector Endowed Fellowship by the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), MIT Technology Fellows 35 Innovators under 35, the ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award, and an honorable mention for the ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award. Abebe is currently leading several large-scale evaluations of ML systems used in commercial, legal, and policy contexts. Read more
Meeyoung Cha is a scientific director of MPI-SP in Bochum, Germany. Her interests include data science and computational social science, with a focus on understanding social information and human-machine interactions. Meeyoung’s research on misinformation, poverty mapping, fraud detection, and long-tail content has received wide citations and best paper awards. She is the recipient of the Korean Young Information Scientist Award 2019, the AAAI ICWSM Test-of-Time! Award 2020, and the ACM IMC Test-of-Time Award 2022. Prior to joining MPI, Meeyoung was a chief investigator at IBS (2019-current), a faculty member at KAIST (2010-current), a visiting professor at Facebook (2015-2016), and a postdoctoral researcher at MPI-SWS (2008-2010). She received her Ph.D. in computer science from KAIST in 2008. Read more
Manuel Gomez Rodriguez is interested in developing machine learning and large-scale data mining methods for analysis and modeling of large real-world networks and processes that take place over them. His research comprises several dimensions: developing models of these networks and processes, assessing their theoretical properties and limitations; developing machine learning algorithms to fit the models and computational methods to influence processes over networks; and validating models and methods on gigabite- and terabyte-scale real-world datasets. Ultimately, he aims to provide computational tools with applications in a variety of domains, e.g. social and information sciences, economics, decision theory, causality, and epidemiology. Read more
Krishna Gummadi heads the Social Computing research group at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. He is broadly interested in understanding and building networked and distributed computer systems. Currently, the group's research focuses on social computing systems: an emerging class of societal-scale human-computer systems that facilitate interactions and knowledge exchange between individuals, organizations, and governments in our society. A few examples include social networking sites like Facebook, blogging and microblogging sites like LiveJournal and Twitter, and content sharing sites like YouTube, among many others. Through user studies, examining data, and building systems, the group aims to understand, predict, and control the behavior of their constituent human users and computer systems. Read more
Moritz Hardt is a scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, where he leads the Social Foundations of Computation Department. His research contributes to the scientific foundations of machine learning and algorithmic decision making with a focus on social questions. His research interests span four areas: (1) Applying machine learning in social and economic contexts, (2) formulating social and dynamic actions as mathematical models, (3) examining the validity and reliability of statistical methods and the construction of datasets within scientific communities, and (4) the pursuit of normative goals, and in particular, how to formulate values and norms mathematically. Hardt is co-founder of the conference "Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning." He is co-author of "Fairness and Machine Learning: Limitations and Opportunities" (MIT Press, 2022) and "Patterns, Predictions, and Actions: A Story About Machine Learning" (Princeton University Press, 2022). Read more
