This Research Workshop, sponsored by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Big Data and Population Processes and organized by CSDE Training Director Emilio Zagheni, is a side event at the 11th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media ICWSM-17, taking place in Montreal, Canada, 16-18 May 2017.
The IUSSP Panel on Big Data and Population Processes invites contributions from colleagues interested in Computational Demography. The Panel encourages submissions from researchers who wish to present their work, as well as the attendance of scholars interested in broadening their exposure to the topic.
Demography has been a data-driven discipline since its birth. Data collection and the development of formal methods have sustained most of the major advances in our understanding of population processes. The global spread of Social Media has generated new opportunities for demographic research, as individuals leave an increasing quantity of traces online that can be aggregated and mined for population research. At the same time, the use of Social Media and Internet are affecting people’s daily activities as well as life planning, with implications for demographic behavior.
There are clear benefits inherent in connecting demography and data science. As ever more complex population-level data become available, demography can offer rigorously-developed concepts, measures and methods to those involved in the ‘big social data’ revolution. As social media services become a major source of social scientific data, the interaction with data science holds great potential to advance demographic research as well. Despite the great potential involved in these interactions, there is unfortunately very limited communication between population researchers and data scientists. This workshop is intended to favor communication and exchange between the two communities and would revolve around the main theme of applications and implications of social media for demographic research.
Topics that are relevant for the workshop include, but are not limited to:
- Population research with social media data
- Demographic features of online communities or services
- Sentiment analysis associated to demographic events like immigration
- Implications of social media and Internet for demographic behavior
- Nowcasting fertility, mortality or migration with online data
- Understanding population health with social media data
- Methods for extracting information from non-representative samples
- Applications of demographic methods to online populations
This workshop is organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Subjective Well-being and Demographic Events as a pre-conference side meeting at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, taking place in Chicago, 27-29 April 2017. The workshop will take place from 1 to 6 pm on the afternoon before the PAA Welcome Mixer, on Wednesday, 26 April 2017.
With the ever increasing research interest in subjective well-being, also in demography, the purpose of the workshop is to establish a forum for academics to present their papers on subjective well-being and demographic processes. Priority will be given to papers that are not otherwise presented at the PAA conference. The workshop will take a broad and inclusive perspective. We welcome papers and research ideas/projects that consider subjective well-being either as a driver or an outcome, comparative or longitudinal (or both), developing or developed countries, and also papers of a more methodological nature (both in terms of statistical analysis, measurement and theory).
The workshop provides on opportunity for presentation of 6/7 research papers within the topics listed above.
The session will conclude with a round-table discussion organized by the IUSSP Panel.
Submissions:
You may submit a paper for consideration by the Programme Committee by Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at http://iussp.org/en/iussp-seminar-submissions.
- General information about the PAA Annual Meeting is available here.
This is an immediate opening for a population projection and estimate analyst with applied experience in state and local demography. The ideal candidate will have experience using advanced demographic techniques to develop databases and models and in independently conducting research to support statutorily required estimates and forecasts. The Population Unit operation focuses on team work and cross training. This position will be part of certain team(s) that produces a variety of estimates and forecasts with the emphasis on OFM’s official population estimates, state and county total population and characteristics forecasts, and small area population and demographic estimates. The ideal candidate will have SAS and/or GIS skills and be able to lead and participate in coding complex demographic models. The following duties also may be considered for this position with internal adjustment of responsibilities: guide efforts to help the public and state and local governments to properly use federal census and survey data; conduct senior-level demographic research needed by the OFM Director, Governor and Legislature to support budget and policy development; and work closely with the Senior Forecast Manager in the development of population estimates and forecasts by race and ethnicity. This position has certain lead responsibilities within OFM, as well as with other local, state and federal agencies, in coordinating data acquisition, method development and evaluation in population programs.
When you are an international graduate student, communicating with faculty from a different culture can sometimes be stressful. This event will introduce different approaches that will make communication with faculty easier. At this workshop, a panel of faculty and staff members from across the disciplines will share insights on this topic.
During the workshop, you will:
- Learn tips to communicate effectively with faculty members
- Discuss strategies to navigate miscommunications
- Network with fellow international graduate students
Panelists:
- Mari Ostendorf, Professor, Electric Engineering
- Wendy Thomas, Associate Professor, Bioengineering
- Xiaosong Li, Professor, Chemistry
- Kelly Edwards, Professor, Bioethics
- Jennifer Tee, Graduate Advisor, Public Health
Refreshments provided!
The free event is co-sponsored by Core Programs in the Graduate School, GPSS and FIUTS. Send questions or comments to Ziyan Bai.
Jennifer Stuber, CSDE Affiliate and Associate Professor of Social Work at UW, recently went on air to discuss her suicide-prevention work with KUOW. With February 16 marking National Suicide Prevention Education Day, Stuber’s eager to speak about her legislative efforts in Washington state. She’s even earned the support of an unlikely ally: the NRA. Listen to the full story below to see how they’ve managed to work together.
After reviewing applications, CSDE has awarded four Trainees with annual memberships to the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS)! All recipients are graduate students in the Department of Sociology at UW, but they encapsulate a wide range of research interests:
- Mike Esposito focuses on identifying if/how the ways in which social conditions (e.g., education; incarceration; marital status) operate as health inputs are contingent upon one’s social location (e.g., race, gender, age, and their intersections).
- Savannah Larimore conducts research examining the relationship between race, place, and health in the United States.
- Madison Leia uses longitudinal biomarker data to investigate health disparities, particularly the role of protective agents and possible interventions in the stress process.
- ManChui Leung works on developing an interdisciplinary approach to immigrant and gender health inequities that examines how social structural processes and social factors interplay to affect health. She has also received the CSDE Demographic Methods Graduate Certificate.
Congratulations to those selected! We hope your IAPHS membership serves you well in your studies.
We hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s Population Research Discovery Seminar with Ichiro Kawachi! As a reminder, there will be no seminar this Friday, 2/24.
Our next seminar—scheduled for Friday, 3/3—will feature a talk on the TransYouth Project from Kristina Olson of the UW’s Department of Psychology. You can read more about each talk in our Seminar Series below.
Abstract: Consider the standard partially linear model (PLM): Y_i=X_i^T\beta+g(W_i)+u_i. Here we assume (X_i,W_i.u_i)_{i=1}^n are i.i.d., X_i\in\mathbb{R}^p, W_i,u_i\in\mathbb{R} with p\gg n, g(\cdot) is an unknown nonlinear function, and s:=\|\beta\|_0 is much smaller than p. Our aim is to estimate \beta. For this, existing literature is focused on the least square estimators (LSEs), and the best theoretical results to date prove rate-optimality under the following four assumptions: (i) g\in\mathcal{G} for some known function class \mathcal{G} of finite entropy integral value; (ii) s^2\log p/n\to 0; (iii) u_1 is subgaussian; (iv) \max_{i,j} |X_{ij}|\leq M for some universal constant M. Though some of them could be proof artifacts, the other assumptions are related to long-standing problems in nonparametric statistics, and are arguably difficult to relax. In this talk, an alternative to LSE, Honore and Powell’s pairwise difference approach, is shown to attain rate-optimality with all four assumptions relaxed. Particularly, without sacrificing the rate, it proves to be able to automatically adapt to the choice of g function, and work even when g is piecewise Holder of discontinuity, a result new to both statistics and econometrics communities. In addition, we improve the scaling condition, allow X_1 subgaussian distributed, and only require \mathbb{E} u_1^2\leq M_u for some universal constant M_u. The improvement is viable based on newly developed U-proc
The School of New and Continuing Studies at Seattle University invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure track instructor. The appointment, located in Seattle, Washington, is for three years with the possibility of renewal, beginning September 1, 2017. The interdisciplinary Digital Technology and Cultures B.A. will be offered in online and hybrid format for part-time, post-traditional students. The B.A. in Digital Technology and Cultures provides a program for adult learners that focuses on humanistic inquiry into digital culture. It also offers students the opportunity to develop the applied technology skills necessary to produce rhetorically sound and ethically informed media content that values diversity and justice.
The Instructor of Digital Technology and Cultures will be responsible for developing course content in online and hybrid formats; teaching; faculty advising; and service.
The ideal candidate will have experience teaching adult learners and designing and teaching online/hybrid classes that creatively integrate technology and digital pedagogy. A teaching/research interest in one or more of the following areas is preferred: digital cultural studies, computers and writing, digital/social media, digital rhetoric, multimodal composition, applied technology studies, history of text technologies.
Ithaca College, located in Ithaca, NY, seeks candidates for a 3 year non-tenure eligible position to begin August 16, 2017. Position duties are: 75% devoted to teaching in the Department of Sociology (typically 3 classes per semester) in courses relating to Social Change and Social Movements; 25% devoted to research on social change to be conducted under the guidance of the director of the Honors Program. We seek outstanding candidates with a demonstrated commitment to supporting, empowering and retaining students from underrepresented groups. The ideal applicant will have a clear motivation to teach in a liberal arts environment. Interested individuals should apply at http://ithaca.peopleadmin.com/postings/9356.