The Computational Methods Research Group at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is an interdisciplinary community of graduate students interested in computational methods and its use in social science research.

Our core interest is the application of computational methods to answer complex and important questions about how people and algorithmic actors communicate with one another. We have two goals: (1) to perform cutting-edge computational social science research and (2) to build a community for scholars to teach scholars about new tools, programs, datasets, and resources.

The Computational Methods Research Group began as the “Machine Learning Workshop” in the Spring 2015 semester by charter lead Junghwan Yang. Josephine Lukito, Chuan Liu and other student leads have taken the baton to serve this community. Our members have spanned a wide range of academic disciplines, including Computer Engineering, Informatics, Journalism & Mass Communication, Statistics, Library Services, Political Science, and Communication Arts.

We are a sister taxon of the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication‘s Social Media and Democracy Research Group. We are also affiliated with the Mass Communication Research Center.