Social Science Computing Hub at the Whitaker Institute, NUI Galway

Mission

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To establish NUI Galway at the forefront of global Business and Social Science research with scientific rigor to inform public policy.

Challenges

One of the major impediments to multidisciplinary research is that more often we think about research problems in a structured way informed by our own disciplines. Even when we are aware of the wider context of a particular problem we tend to abstract from those potential difficulties for the sake of tractability. This trade-off between tractability and complexity forms one kind of barrier that discourages us from doing multidisciplinary research. One of the aims of the Social Sciences Computing Hub (The Hub) is to create the capacity to explore the interstitial spaces that exist between disciplines from the point of view of tractability by promoting dialogue across the domains of knowledge.

The Hub is unique in that it creates both the technological and methodological capacity for researchers in the Business, Social Sciences, and Humanities domain to engage with the Natural, Biological, Medical, and Mathematical Sciences. The Hub will act as a pivot to engage and derive existing and potential synergies between various doma
ins across the University, both between research institutes in various Colleges and between the smaller academic units in various Schools/Colleges, and will propel NUIG as one of the world leaders in path breaking and novel multidisciplinary research.

Goals

To create a unique and inclusive data repository and computing infrastructure for business and social sciences analytics.
To connect academics across the five priority Research Areas in NUI Galway for public policy research.
To establish regional, national and international academic and industry collaborations to deepen the multidisciplinary research agenda to inform public policy.
To facilitate academic colleagues to advance their interdisciplinary research programs through insight and advanced analytics.
To engage and challenge undergraduate and post-graduate students to enrich their educational experience at NUI Galway.

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Uniqueness

The Hub seeks to provide an integrated data repository, computing infrastructure, cluster computing power, application and server hosting, and complimentary on-site computer labs.
The Hub will also offer wide ranging cross disciplinary workshops to generate a multidisciplinary perspective in addressing global and regional Public Policy issues.
Integration of advanced scientific computational approaches in Business Analytics and Social Science research utilising and adapting the frontier research methodologies from Natural & Physical Sciences.

First Phase of the Hub

The Advanced Business Analytics Laboratory (ABAL) was launched in the first phase of the Hub. The ABAL will integrate advanced scientific techniques from physical and mathematical sciences in the field of big data analytics.

ABAL will develop and integrate advanced scientific techniques in the analysis of big data emerging from both Business and Social domains.