CCSS Workshop on Computational Social Science: Simulation + Data Science + Networks

Report on the CCSS Workshop on Computational Social Science:
Simulation + Data Science + Networks

CCSS Workshop on Computational Social Science: Simulation + Data Science + Networks was held on December 20, 2025 at UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney Australia. This workshop, organized by the Center for Computational Social Science at Kobe University, was developed in collaboration with faculty members from the UTS Business School, University of Technology, the Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo, and the Research School of Economics, Australian National University, as part of the Center's international academic collaboration initiatives.

The workshop was held as a one-day program, in which a total of eight presenters, including faculty members and a Ph.D. candidate from these universities, presented their research on simulation, data science, and networks. Several faculty members and Ph.D. candidates from other universities in Australia also participated as attendees, and the questions and discussions following each presentation were highly engaging, contributing to a highly productive and intellectually stimulating workshop.

The workshop opened with an introduction to CCSS by Professor Masahiko Shibamoto, who presented his own work in macroeconomics and emphasized the importance of international collaborative research networks for the Center's future development.

Following the introduction, seven experts presented their research from both theoretical and applied perspectives, covering a wide range of fields including macroeconomics, game theory, simulation-based and behavioral modeling (such as "Contingent Rationality"), network and influence mechanisms (such as "False Leaders and Other Disruptions to a Leader's Influence"), and computational theory and methods on dynamic systems and dynamic programming (including topics like "Semiconjugate Equilibria" and "Dynamic Programming: From Local Optimality to Global Optimality"). In addition, several talks focused on big data analysis, such as topological data analysis of Japanese stock market time series, granular data analysis of human mobility and retail performance, and large-scale analysis of Wikipedia data to quantify cross-language and cross-genre structures of knowledge.

From the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration at Kobe University, Prof. Kondo presented "Assessing the Impact of Human Mobility on Retail Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Japan," and from CCSS, Prof. Matsui presented "Global Patterns of Knowledge: Language, Genre, and the Geography of Knowledge." Throughout the workshop, discussions frequently centered on practical and technical issues, including how empirical and simulation results were validated, how to interpret complex quantitative measures, and how to scale computations while maintaining transparency and reproducibility, leading to lively Q&A sessions and a highly productive workshop atmosphere.