The Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Collaborative Workshop on Big Data and Computational Social Science took place on 21 November 2019. The workshop was jointly organised by the Office of Deputy President (Research & Technology) (ODPRT) and the Research Division, Dean’s Office, Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS).
Led by Associate Professor Jungpil Hahn, Department of Information Systems and Analytics, NUS School of Computing, the session was presided over by Professor Chen Tsuhan, NUS Deputy President of Research and Technology, and Professor Brenda Yeoh, Director of Humanities and Social Sciences Research.
During his dialogue, Assoc Prof Hahn broke down the different interpretations of and approaches to computational social sciences and their increasing relevance in contemporary research methodology. The interdisciplinary appeal of the field was apparent by the diverse backgrounds of the audience alone: attendees of the workshop hailed from FASS, East Asian Institute, Yale-NUS College, School of Computing, Business School, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and Asia Research Institute.
Prof Yeoh took the opportunity to encourage inter-institutional research collaborations by informing the audience of the grant and funding opportunities available to them. NUS recognises the importance of bringing together researchers from diverse backgrounds to examine and address critical issues through an inter-disciplinary approach.
Prof Chen voiced his support for such cross-disciplinary research collaboration and encouraged the audience to consider climate change as a pressing current issue that can bring together researchers from diverse disciplines. He went on to express his hopes for a university-level Institute focusing on climate change research in the long-run.
Following up on this productive session with Assoc Prof Hahn, ODPRT will once again be working with the Research Division, Dean’s Office at FASS to organise a Grant Writing Workshop, to be held in January 2020. The workshop will invite speakers who have successfully submitted successful grant proposals to demystify the process of writing a strong grant proposal.
More details will be revealed closer to the date.