Online Workshop, April 10-11 2023

Mathematical modeling has long played a role across the Social Sciences, from Economics and Political Science, to Cognitive Psychology.  But the inherent complexity of the problems in these fields means that it is only in recent decades, following technological advances in our capability for computation and data collection, that building realistic mathematical models of human behaviour has seemed even remotely plausible. In this workshop we will discuss how Mathematical Social Science can be developed as a complement to Computational Social Science, focusing in particular on the study of online social behavior. We will bring together mathematicians, computational scientists and empiricists to assess the current state of play, and discuss what role mathematical models can play in answering key questions facing the field. Our focus will be on formulating the key behavioural questions in these fields, and understanding the mathematical challenges associated with realistic models of individual and collective behaviour.