University of Maryland

News & Events


Stephanie Eckman, Ph.D. Principal Research Scientist, Amazon

December 16, 2025 SoDa Symposium: Human-Centered Data Collection for Quality AI: Lessons from Survey Research

SoDa Symposium: Human-Centered Data Collection for Quality AI: Lessons from Survey Research A Presentation with Q&A presented on Tuesday, December 16, 2025 12 pm – 1 pm (Online)   REGISTER HERE   Abstract: Machine learning model performance depends critically on training data quality, yet many researchers lack systematic approaches to human data collection. This presentation…

October 21, 2025 SoDa Symposium | Seed Grant Series: Data Preprocessing Strategies to Enhance Fairness in Machine Learning

SoDa Symposium | Seed Grant Series: Data Preprocessing Strategies to Enhance Fairness in Machine Learning A presentation with Q&A presented on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 12 pm – 1 pm (Online) WATCH VIDEO Abstract: Data science methods are increasingly being applied to large-scale educational data, but there has been less attention on the possibility of…

Yamil Velez photo

May 6, 2025 SoDa Symposium: Crowdsourced Adaptive Surveys

SoDa Symposium: Crowdsourced Adaptive Surveys A Presentation with Q&A presented on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 12 pm – 1 pm (Online)   WATCH VIDEO   Abstract: Public opinion surveys are vital for informing democratic decision-making, but responding to rapidly changing information environments and measuring beliefs within hard-to-reach communities can be challenging for traditional survey methods….

Claire Kelley, Child Trends presenter and Trent Buskirk, Old Dominion, discussant

April 1, 2025 SoDa Symposium: Prompt Engineering to Support AI Enabled Research

SoDa Symposium: Prompt Engineering to Support AI Enabled Research A webinar presentation and discussant followed by Q&A presented on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 12 pm – 1 pm (Online)   WATCH VIDEO!   Abstract: Generative AI tools are an increasingly integral part of the social science research process. AI tools can be used to support…

Prof. Rochelle Tractenberg and Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal

Jan 28, 2025 SoDa | ASA Symposium: In Celebration of Privacy Week with Prof. Rochelle E. Tractenberg and Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal

A SoDa | ASA Symposium: In Celebration of Privacy Week, a conversation with Prof. Rochelle E. Tractenberg and Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal Co-Sponsored by the American Statistical Association and the UMD Social Data Science Center Two Talks with Q&A presented on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 From Dialogue to Data: How Statisticians Can Safeguard Privacy and…

New Directions: Bridging Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Survey Research at SurvAI-Day

This past event took place on October 7, 2024.Please click the link below to view archived information and materials from the event. https://socialdatascience.umd.edu/survai-workshop/

Image of computer keyboard and graphs on screen

September 4 – October 30, 2024 Executive Certificate in Data Literacy & Evidence Building

Fall Executive Certificate in Data Literacy & Evidence Building The Executive Certificate in Data Literacy and Evidence Building at the University of Maryland’s Social Data Science Center in conjunction with the Coleridge Initiative and the Kentucky Center for Statistics is a not-for-credit certificate program that trains participants in valuable data literacy skills and how to…

Seed Grant Series Image

May 7 – SoDa Seed Grant Series: Do County Demographics Shape Exposure to Cyber Harm? Exploring Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Integrated Attack Surface Size and Vulnerability

Date: May 7, 2024 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Zoom WATCH VIDEO! Project Title: Correlating Population Demographics with Maryland’s County-Level Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities Abstract: Local government-controlled critical infrastructure relies on computer systems and is increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks that can disrupt its operation impacting citizens’ daily lives. While some research has looked at user characteristics…

Seed Grant Series Image

April 25 – SoDa Seed Grant Series: How Can Large Language Models Help Us Identify and Use Constructs that We Can Trust?

Date: Thursday, April 25, 2024 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Zoom WATCH VIDEO Abstract: The idea of a construct is central in the psychological and social sciences: constructs are abstract categories like empathy, misinformation, or benefits of social interaction that are operationalized in order to make them measurable. Social scientists spend an enormous amount of…

Datafest

DC DataFest 2024 A Virtual 48-hour data competition for teams of undergraduate students

Event Dates: April 12-14, 2024 Location: Virtual REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Registration deadline is April 5! About DataFest The 2024 DC DataFest is a 48-hour competition where teams of undergraduate students from U.S. colleges and universities compete virtually to analyze rich, complex data sets from a major organization. Students are allowed just two slides to convince…


Stay Connected