Talking to Machines

Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne.

Email: akshayarun.moorthy@unil.ch

Website: https://www.akshaymoorthy.net

Mr. Chandru Swaminathan, President of CVA Analytics, is a visionary analytics leader with a proven track record of leveraging advanced methodologies to solve complex business challenges. His expertise spans AI, machine learning, econometric forecasting, market analytics, data warehousing, and large-scale data analysis.

Email: chandru@cvaanalytics.com

Website: https://www.cvaanalytics.com

With over 20 years of experience in architecture in Switzerland and abroad, she blends project and administrative management with a creative background in design, 3D modeling, and visual communication. Passionate about information design and infographics, she supports the team by connecting people and helping things run smoothly.

Gonzalo is a Political Science Ph.D. candidate at Rice University specializing in gender and politics, with a focus on party behavior and mass political behavior in Western democracies.

His dissertation offers novel insights into the political economy of gender inequality by positioning political parties and their behavior as a major driver of the gender voting gap. Methodologically, his research articulates a wide array of quantitative tools, including observational data, historical data, quasi-experimental, and experimental designs.

His dissertation has been supported by Rice University’s Social Science Research Institute and the American Political Science Association’s Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs.  His work has been published at the British Journal of Political Science and Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Email: gad4@rice.edu

Hui Zhang is a PhD student in economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne. Hui received an MA in Economics from the University of Zürich. Her research interests cover experimental economics, the evolution of social norms, social networks, and machine learning

Email: hui.zhang@unil.ch

Prior to this role, Raymond served as a data science team lead, driving digital transformation in Singapore’s government services through the delivery of various data science and machine learning projects. Before that, he worked as an algorithm engineer at Southeast Asia’s leading E-commerce company, focusing on optimizing autocomplete and ranking systems for the company’s internal map search service.

Raymond holds a PhD in Engineering Systems and Design from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He also holds AWS certifications in Solution Architect Associate and Machine Learning Specialty.

His research interests span a wide range of topics, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), full-stack web development, Large Language Models (LLMs), and Generative AI.

Martina is a DPhil student in Social Policy at the University of Oxford, affiliated with the Department of Social Policy and Intervention and Nuffield College. Taking a sociological perspective, her dissertation examines the relationship between intergenerational class mobility and socio-economic inequality in the European context, with a focus on the mechanisms underpinning this association. In 2024, her work was recognised with the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy award.

Throughout her DPhil, Martina has developed a broad range of research interests at the intersection of sociology and economics, including social stratification, educational and labour market inequalities, and redistributive policies. She is also currently involved in projects investigating global trends in intergenerational educational mobility and equality of opportunity.

Martina holds a joint MSc degree in Economics and Social Science from Bocconi University, the Université Catholique de Louvain, and the Université de Namur, and a BSc in International Economics and Management from Bocconi University. She has also gained professional experience through internships at the European Commission and SMEunited.

Piotr is a post-doctoral researcher in Data Science, working with Professor Ray Duch on the Oxford REAL Demand Center, CANDOUR and IPA research projects.

Piotr holds a PhD degree with distinction in Business Economics from the University of Liechtenstein and he received his Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance and Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics and Social Sciences from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

He previously worked at the European Central Bank, Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

His research interests cover Econometrics, Statistics, Machine Learning, Experimental Methods and Political Science.

Raymond Duch is a leading figure in experimental social science whose career blends cutting-edge research with global practical impact. As co-director of the “Talking to Machines” project, he integrates artificial intelligence into the design of social experiments, reflecting his commitment to innovative methodologies. He founded and directed Oxford’s Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS), establishing labs on multiple continents to advance rigorous experimental research. He also co-founded the European Political Science Association (EPSA) and the International Meeting of Experimental and Behavioral Social Science (IMEBESS), demonstrating field-wide leadership. Duch’s work is deeply collaborative and policy-oriented: he has advised the UK Cabinet Office on running evidence-based policy trials, guided the Financial Conduct Authority on how to combat misinformation in consumer finance, and partnered with international health teams on randomized trials to boost COVID-19 vaccination uptake. His recent findings appear in top journals like Nature Medicine and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscoring both scholarly excellence and real-world impact.

Contact: raymond.duch@rduch

Dr. Roberto Cerina is an Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he is affiliated with the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and the Department of Media Studies. A computational social scientist, Dr. Cerina develops methods for drawing inferences from non-representative samples, often leveraging social media data. His work focuses on designing hierarchical Bayesian models to approximate unconventional data-generating processes and has been applied to a broad range of topics, including terrorism, elections, and public health concerns such as disease and toxic metal exposure. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of Oxford in November 2020.

Sonja is an associate professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne. She uses lab and field experiments to examine the social and psychological mechanisms practitioners can use to tackle societal and environmental challenges related to public health, education, climate change, and land degradation. Much of her research is in collaboration with UN agencies and local NGOs in Sudan, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, India, and Armenia.

Sonja is affiliated with Nuffield College and the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences at the University of Oxford, as well as the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern.

Sonja has published in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Human Behavior, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, and disciplinary journals in Psychology, Economics, and Biology.

Contact: sonja.vogt@unil.ch