On October 25th, the Centre for Social and Cultural Data Science celebrated its official launch. Centre Director Derek Ruths opened the event to a packed hall of over 170 attendees - including McGill faculty and students as well as civic and industry leaders.
Dean Lennox, from the Faculty of Science, who offered congratulatory remarks was followed by the keynote address, delivered by Dr. Duncan Watts. Dr. Watts, an leading researcher in the area of computational social science and an acclaimed author, offered his perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing those working at the interface between quantitative modeling and the study of social and cultural phenomena. The launch of the Centre for Social and Cultural Data Science, now in its second year, follows a number of successful and impactful events including an interdisciplinary research slam and a data science summer camp. Upcoming CSCDS events include the Datascapes 2017 hackathon, PopDataViz, a spring research slam, and the second annual data science summer camp.
As Director Derek Ruths remarked at the launch, “Data science is for everyone.” If you’re interested in getting involved in the centre or participating in any upcoming events, please get in touch!
For more photos from the event, check out our Facebook page! http://bit.ly/2oEI4hE