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

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.

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.

Ray Duch is a Professor at Nuffield College University of Oxford. He has founded and directed the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS) at Nuffield College; and spearheaded and directed similar centers in Chile, China, and India. He co-directs the Candour Project and is a co-PI for the Nuffield Department of Population Health REAL Demand Centre. Ray Duch directs the Talking to Machine project that leverages advances in Large Language Models to enhance social science research including the design and implementation of experiments and how we conduct public-opinion research. His research focuses on the application of experimental methods to understanding individual decision making related to politics, finance, health, and economics. His publications have appeared in leading social science journals including, American Political Science Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, Applied Economics, Journal of Politics, and Nature Medicine. Ray Duch holds a visiting appointment at IAST-Toulouse School of Economics and has had visiting appointments at Stanford Graduate School of Business, WZB-Berlin, Université de Montréal, and Pompeo-Fabra University, Barcelona. His research is supported by leading social science funding agencies including the NSF, ESRC, FONDECYT, Swiss National Science Foundation, the Health Foundation and SSHRC. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of education institutions and funding bodies; he also frequently advises governments, international organizations, law firms and corporations.

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