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TRSM Research Seminar by Dr. Ravi Vatrapu

Date
September 22, 2021
Time
11:00 AM EDT - 12:00 PM EDT
Contact
mpaidi@torontomu.ca

Title: Social Set Analysis: Principles of a Set-Theoretical Approach to Big Data Analytics and Applications to Digital Enterprises

Decsripton: Current analytical approaches in computational social science can be characterized by four dominant paradigms: text analytics (information retrieval and classification), social network analysis (graph theory), social complexity analysis (complex systems science), and social simulations (cellular automata and agent-based modelling). However, when it comes to organizational and societal units of analysis, there exists no approach to conceptualize, describe, explain, model, and predict social media interactions as individuals' associations with ideas, values, identities, aspirations, and such. To address this limitation, based on the enactive approach to the philosophy of mind, phenomenological approach to sociology, and the mathematics of set theory, this talk presents a novel approach to big data analytics called Social Set Analysis (SSA). SSA consists of a generative framework for the philosophy of computational social science, a theory of social data, conceptual and formal models of social data, and an analytical framework for combining big social data with organizational and societal datasets for generating meaningful facts, actionable insights, valuable insights, and sustainable impacts. Several empirical studies in big data analytics are presented to demonstrate real-world applications of SSA for digital enterprises in terms of (a) community detection, (b) demand prediction, (c) reputational risk management, (d) process monitoring, and (e) maturity models. Implications for big data analytics, applications to digital enterprises, current limitations of the set-theoretical approach, and future directions are outlined.  

Presenter Bio: Ravi Vatrapu is director of the Centre for Digital Enterprise Analytics and Leadership (DEAL), Loretta Rogers Research Chair in Digital Enterprise, professor of computational social science at the School of Information Technology Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. He was formerly a professor of computational social science at the Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School; professor of applied computing at the Kristiania University College; and the founding director of the Centre for Business Data Analytics (http://bda.cbs.dk (external link) ). Prof. Vatrapu’s current research focus is on big social data analytics to design, develop and evaluate a novel set-theoretical approach to computational social science, Social Set Analytics. Prof. Vatrapu holds a PhD in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (U.S.), a Graduate Certificate in International Cultural Studies from East-West Centre (U.S.), a Master of Science in Computer Science and Applications from Virginia Tech (U.S.), and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Systems Engineering from GITAM affiliated to Andhra University (India).