Data Analytics in Social Science
Hong Kong’s first big data infrastructure to support social science research
The “Big Data in Social Science Research Cluster - Infrastructure Building” programme will establish a robust big data infrastructure to support strategic interdisciplinary research at the university level. Our goal in creating this rich data repository is to foster a collaborative, data-driven research environment that will support future social research projects from EdUHK and collaborating institutions.
Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. The research team contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Our team is engaged in several projects, including forecasting job demand in Hong Kong to support youth career development and workforce planning and creating synthetic populations that reflect the key characteristics of the Hong Kong population. Our goal is to develop advanced ML/AL models for accurate quartely job vacancy forecasting by leveraging high-frequency online job postings. Concurrently, we are advancing synthetic data generation techniques to create realistic population datasets that capture nuanced demographic and socioeconomic patterns. We are also developing an Internet Panel for Adults and Youths (iPAY) to facilitate effective online surveys, the first large-scale effort to establish a big data infrastructure for social science research, website: https://ipay.eduhk.hk/. This will be a long-term platform for high-quality, impactful projects at EdUHK. Representing a large population-based cohort aged 18 years or above, including a stable and representative subsample aged 16-34, iPAY will provide a valuable resource for research projects from a range of institutions and organizations through sponsored consultancy services and research collaboration.
There is currently no existing big data infrastructure in Hong Kong to support social science research. Through strategic research collaborations, this infrastructure will become a vital asset for the Social Science Research Cluster, encouraging high-quality research collaborations within EdUHK and with other universities and organizations, which will in turn contribute to impactful and sustainable policy studies and implementation. For more details, please contact Professor Wai-Kai Hou at wkhou@eduhk.hk.
