A collection of post-mortems
Table of Contents
Published on: December 3, 2025
We’ve just completed the 2025 Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science. The purpose of the Summer Institutes is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. The Summer Institutes are for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived). This summer we had a mixture of in-person institutes and virtual institutes across the world. In addition to various partner locations run by SICSS alumni, we continue to grow our network of computational social science researchers.
These post-mortems describe, for each site, a) how the Institute was run, b) what each site thinks worked well, and c) what each site will do differently next time. We hope that this will be useful to others organizing similar Summer Institutes or future organizers of SICSS sites. If you are interested in hosting a partner location of SICSS 2026 at your university, company, NGO, or governmental organization, please read our information for potential partner locations.
This page includes post-mortem reports from all locations in order to facilitate comparisons, as well as an overview of key themes and takeaways. As you will see, different sites did things differently, and we think that this kind of customization was an important part of how we were successful.
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Our organizing team consisted of five members: the head of the host department, his administrative assistant, and three PhD students. The three students were responsible for communicating with guest lecturers, selecting participants, and organizing the day-to-day activities during the summer school.
The outreach and application process was overall smooth and effective. We received 35 applications for 20 places. The three student organizers independently reviewed the CVs and cover letters, scored each candidate based on the relevance of their research interests and skills, and discussed their comments on each application. Out of 20 selected participants, four cancelled their applications, and 16 participants completed the program. To help applicants make informed decisions, we published a tentative schedule early, allowing prospective participants to gain a clear idea of the program structure before applying. We also included preparatory reading materials for some of the lectures, when suggested by the lectures. However, participants later indicated that providing such materials for all sessions would have been beneficial.
The first week was dedicated to lectures, tutorials, and keynote sessions delivered by leading experts in computational social science and related fields. Highlights included Savvas Zannettou’s lecture on multimodal analysis with CLIP, Emilio Zagheni’s session on biases in digital trace data, Abhisek Dash’s case study on content moderation in decentralized platforms, and Bernie Hogan’s introduction to Network Canvas and network analysis methods. Participants also gained practical experience through hands-on activities with tools such as LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Gephi, and NetworkX. Complementing the technical training, keynote speakers such as Uwe Albrecht and Georg Wenzelburger addressed pressing societal issues, from extremism to the democratic implications of AI. To close the week, participants engaged in a lively research speed dating activity, which allowed them to connect around shared research interests and form groups for the upcoming collaborative projects in the second week. Regarding the schedule, participants mentioned that the first week felt somewhat overwhelming, as there were lectures: hands-on activities, and keynotes almost every day. For future editions, we plan to reduce the number of keynotes and shift some to week two to ensure a more balanced load.
On Saturday, we promoted a social event with a cultural visit to the Völklinger Hütte, a UNESCO World Heritage site, followed by a communal dinner that reinforced the collaborative spirit of the event. Having multiple social events throughout the two weeks allowed participants to interact with one another and the organizers, which contributed to a friendly and easy-going atmosphere.
The second week transitioned from structured training to independent group projects, where participants applied the knowledge and methods acquired during the first week to their own research questions. The week began with lectures by Daniela Braun, Rosa Navarrete, Giuseppe Carteny, and Alexander Hartland on computational approaches to political science, as well as a keynote by Ridhi Kashyap on gender inequalities in the digital world. Participants then worked intensively in small teams (2-4 people), developing and refining projects that combined innovative data collection and analysis strategies with substantive social science questions. We encouraged participants to brainstorm and share their own ideas before presenting the ideas proposed by the lecturers. This encouraged active engagement, and all groups ultimately worked on their own projects and data collection rather than relying on the pre-provided ideas and datasets. Additional keynotes by Kevin Baum on ethical reasoning in AI and Ingmar Weber on the use of satellite imagery in social science research provided further inspiration. On the final day, five project teams presented their results, showcasing the creativity, technical expertise, and interdisciplinary collaboration that had been fostered throughout the program. The event concluded with a farewell gathering at the Ausländer Café on the Saarland University Campus.
To evaluate the success of SICSS Saarbrücken 2025 and gather input for future editions, we distributed a feedback form to all participants at the conclusion of the program. The form combined quantitative questions (e.g., overall satisfaction, usefulness of lectures and tutorials, logistics, and organization) with open-ended questions (e.g., most valuable aspects, areas for improvement, and suggestions for future topics). The results showed very high levels of satisfaction with both the academic content and the organization of the summer school. Participants especially valued the balance between lectures, hands-on tutorials, and group project work, as well as the diversity of speakers and their interdisciplinary perspectives. The participants also highlighted areas for improvement, including a desire for more involvement from professors during the group project phase and final presentations.
The organizing team met to review the feedback received in detail and agreed to incorporate these insights into the planning of future editions. Based on both participants’ feedback and logistical considerations, the decision was also made to host SICSS Saarbrücken as a biennial event, ensuring high-quality programming while reducing the risk of low quorum.