Data Science and AI for Economic and Social Sciences
Enabling a more inclusive and productive digital economy and making positive societal impacts that improve everyone's quality of life are at the heart of the Centre for Data Science and AI.
This programme brings together world-leading expertise to provide data-driven solutions that help tackle real world societal and economic problems in a range of disciplines. Bridging across disciplines, our researchers aim to develop a deeper understanding of human-technology relationships, development of the ethical principles required for responsible adoption of AI in the financial system and enabling monitoring of the economy in real-time to help policymakers with the goal of national prosperity. We also look at the regulation of data and AI, copyright law, and the standards and ethics that underpins it, both in a general sense and as applied to specific applications such as Fintech and digital currency.
There is also strong expertise looking at the role of data science and AI in public health, inclusive learning, digital literacy and inequalities, climate modelling and resource management, and urban analytics (including transport, active travel, mobility data and urban/regional planning).
If you are interested in speaking to someone about any of these activities, or related areas of interest, please contact our Programme Director directly, or alternatively get in touch via the Centre email address (cdsai@glasgow.ac.uk).
Programme Director: Professor Bridgette Wessels
Professor in the Sociology of Inequalities (Sociological & Cultural Studies)
We asked Professor Wessels to answer a few questions about her background with data science and AI and her hopes for the future of the Centre for Data Science & AI.
Can you tell us about your background in Data Science and AI, and how your experiences have shaped your approach to the programme you'll be directing?
My research from PhD onwards has focused on the social dynamics of the innovation, development and use of digital technologies. My expertise is in the social shaping of technology and the ways in which it is developed and used in social contexts. These include health, education, work, media, inequalities and culture. A central part of my research is exploring new ways to work with data ranging back to the e-social science programme in the 2010s to more recent development of data ontologies in mixed methods research. The exciting and important topics social science addresses means it is always innovating in research methodologies. It is therefore important to ensure that AI and the data it work with is developed to meet the needs of social science research and its researchers. It is also important that social science informs the responsible and ethical use of AI in its research and in wider society.
What are your key goals and aspirations for the programme you're leading, and what do you hope and/or envision the Centre's impact on the wider University will be?
The Programme for Social Science and Economics aims to develop socially informed responsible and ethical AI that is fit for purpose, transparent and explainable. The programme will foster the social sciences to develop a research agenda that will inform research projects in various types of AI research and AI in social contexts. The research it will undertake will include critical analysis and applied research across the social sciences. In developing a research agenda and undertaking research till will train researchers at all levels in AI and related data practices. It will also seek to inform policy in the use of responsible and ethical AI.
