Press release: Social networks and big data

Nr. 299/2015 - 02.12.2015

Universities of Göttingen and Nanjing form Sino-German Institute of Social Computing

(pug) Interdisciplinary research on social networks and big data lies at the heart of a new joint institute of the Universities of Göttingen in Germany and Nanjing in China. With the objective of advancing research in the field and combining it with academic exchange and graduate training, the two long-time partner universities have now formed the Sino-German Institute of Social Computing (SGISC). Social computing is concerned with exploring and understanding social behavior, network analysis, interaction, cooperation and evolution among human beings as well as other types of entities in physical and cyber worlds with the aid of pervasive information and communication technologies.

Since 2010, researchers from Göttingen University’s Institute of Computer Science have been working with colleagues at Nanjing University as well as within the Göttingen Campus – stemming from the fields of computer science, sociology, psychology, biology, physics, economics and medical science – on modeling social networks, social structure and behavior analysis, social influence, information diffusion and public health. Joint events such as workshops, seminars and invited talks took place every year. “While German scientists are familiar with models and analytic techniques in related disciplines, the Chinese scientists have rich experience in understanding user interaction on various social media platforms,” explains Prof. Dr. Xiaoming Fu, director of SGISC at Göttingen University.

The Universities of Göttingen and Nanjing have been working together closely for more than 30 years. In 1989, they formed the joint Sino-German Institute for Legal Studies, in 2005 the joint German-Chinese Institute for Intercultural German Studies and Cultural Comparison. That same year, they signed a university-wide cooperation treaty. For further information on the SGISC, go to www.sgisc.uni-goettingen.de
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Contact:
Prof. Dr. Xiaoming Fu
University of Göttingen
Email: fu@cs.uni-goettingen.de

Prof. Dr. Sanglu Lu
Nanjing University
Email: sanglu@nju.edu.cn