A reminder: David Lazer will present the final IACS Seminar of the fall semester tomorrow, Nov. 30. See below for announcements about winter events. Wishing a happy holiday season to the IACS community! ************** Date: Friday, November 30, 2012 Speaker: David Lazer, Professor of Political Science and of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University; Visiting Research Fellow, Harvard University Location: Maxwell-Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Time: Informal lunch with speaker, 12:30pm. Talk, 1:00pm. Title: Will "Big Data" Yield Big Insights about Human Society? Abstract: The emergence of "big data" about human behavior combined with ever-escalating computational power offers the possibility of paradigm-shattering research about society. Human behavior is being captured in minute detail as never before--from our political opinions expressed in various social media, to our various personal and professional communications expressed in various electronic forms, to our most intimate questions, as captured by Google. These massive, passive data, however, are not designed for scientific purposes. The objective of this talk is to discuss the scientific opportunities and pitfalls these various data sources offer, as well as to examine institutional barriers to the development of a computational social science. Bio: David Lazer is Professor of Political Science and of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University, as well as a visiting research fellow at Harvard. He is a leading figure in the areas of computational social science and network science, with papers in such journals as Science, PNAS, Public Opinion Quarterly, and the American Political Science Review. ************** ANNOUNCEMENTS: COMPUTEFEST IS COMING! IACS will present the third annual ComputeFest Jan. 15-25. Look for a major symposium, a special Markov chain centenary celebration, a student competition, Computational Science Ventures, and an expanded program of workshops in scientific and statistical software and cluster, grid and cloud computing. Website: http://computefest.seas.harvard.edu. NEW SEMINAR-BASED COURSE: A new course created around the IACS Seminars will launch in spring semester 2013. Students will engage in readings, presentations and discussions focusing on the seminar topics. Applied Computation 298r will be taught by Efthimios Kaxiras, IACS Director, and Daniel Weinstock, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies. APPLICATIONS FOR FALL 2013 ADMISSION TO THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CSE are due December 14. For additional information about future events at IACS, see http://iacs.seas.harvard.edu/events. _______________________________________________ Iacs-events mailing list Iacs-events(a)seas.harvard.edu https://lists.seas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/iacs-events _______________________________________________ Iacs-events mailing list Iacs-events(a)seas.harvard.edu https://lists.seas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/iacs-events