CSS unites computer science, statistics, and social science to solve challenging real-world problems using digital data and platforms. Through mass collaboration with industry, government, and civil society, our research generates insights that advance basic science in the service of practical applications.
Computational Social Science Lab at Penn
CSS unites computer science, statistics, and social science to solve challenging real-world problems using novel theories. Through our mass collaboration with industry, government, and civil society, our path-breaking research generates solutions which are both innovative and practical.
News
From Seahawks Fan to 2022 NFL Big Data Bowl Finalist: How American Football Shaped Tai Nguyen’s Journey
2022 Big Data Bowl finalists Ryan Gross, Joseph Rudoler, Tai Nguyen, and Ryan Brill present “Optimal Run Path For Kick Returners.”There’s nothing...
The Data Will Save Us: An Interview with CSSLab Director Duncan Watts
The data will save us — Or at least, that’s the hope of Wharton professor Duncan Watts, whose new initiative, the Penn Media Accountability Project,...
Navigating the challenges of data-driven research
The CSSLab’s Research Data Engineer, Yingquan Li, offers his perspective on data-driven social science and the challenges facing the new field of...

Over the past 100 years, social science has generated a tremendous number of theories on the topics of individual and collective human behaviour. However, it has been much less successful at reconciling the innumerable inconsistencies and contradictions among these competing explanations.
—
Duncan Watts
CSSLab Founder

Over the past 100 years, social science has generated a tremendous number of theories on the topics of individual and collective human behaviour. However, it has been much less successful at reconciling the innumerable inconsistencies and contradictions among these competing explanations.
—
Duncan Watts
CSS Lab Founder