LSESU Computational Social Science Society

We are the Computational Social Science Society, established and operating under the LSE Student Union framework. The aims and objectives of our society are: i) To create an awareness of LSE talent in computational social science and big data analytics. Big tech firms tend to recruit directly from the emerging field of CSS (e.g. PhD in CSS as a requirement), but also look for broader analytical skills. Though CSS does not exist as a degree programme at the LSE, many technical social scientists qualify for these jobs. We aim to target top tech companies that have little or no presence at the LSE. Our mandate includes an effort to promote and encourage diversity and inclusion in CSS. ii) To focus on generating tech career opportunities for final-year undergrads and postgraduates. Traditionally, tech companies do not recruit directly from the LSE–students are recommended instead to go to UCL or Imperial for recruitment and networking opportunities. In turn, those students come to the LSE for investment banking and consultancy recruitment. We intend to carve our recognition for LSE students interested and working in CSS by inviting recruiters and practising computational social scientists to the LSE and showcase ongoing research by LSE students. iii) To enable informal networking and collaboration opportunities within the departments of the LSE. CSS is a new field, and the LSE is definitely expanding on its capabilities (evidenced by the LSE SEDS centre and the upcoming Master’s programme in Data Science). We want to create an environment where students from different disciplines can share their research, co-network, and work on jointly CSS and big data projects.