Computational Social Science

Overview

Digital technology has not only revolutionized society, but also the way we can study it. Currently, this is taken advantage of by the most valuable companies in Silicon Valley, the most powerful governmental agencies, and the most influential social movements. What they have in common is that they use computational tools to understand, and ultimately influence human behavior and social dynamics. 

An increasing part of human interaction leaves a massive digital footprint behind. Studying it allows us to gain unprecedented insights into what society is and how it works, including its intricate social networks that had long been obscure. Computational power allows us to detect hidden patterns through analytical tools like machine learning and to natural language processing. Finally, computer simulations enable us to explore hypothetical situations that may not even exist in reality, but that we would like to exist: a better world. 

This Computational Social Science Specialization offered by Coursera in partnership with UC Davis gives you easy access to some of the exciting new  possibilities of how to study society and human behavior. It is the  first online specialization collectively taught by Professors from all  10 University of California campuses. 

Applied Learning Project

 While no formal requisites are necessary to join this course, at the end  you will web-scrape 'Big Data' from the web, execute a social network  analysis ('SNA'), find hidden patterns with machine learning ('ML') and  natural language processing ('NLP'), and create agent-based computer  models ('ABM') to explore what might happen if we would change certain  things in society.