Jonathan Slapin is Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex and Director of the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis. He joined Essex in 2015, having previously held faculty positions at the University of Houston, Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His main research and teaching interests are in quantitative comparative politics, political institutions, and social science research methodology. His research employs quantitative methods to explore legislative behaviour, political parties, and democratic representation. His most recent book, co-authored with Sven-Oliver Proksch, is entitled “The Politics of Parliamentary Debate: Parties, Rebels and Representation”.

Professor David Harding is Interim Faculty Director of the D-Lab. He studies poverty and inequality, urban neighborhoods, education, incarceration, and prisoner reentry. He uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. He is the author of ''Living the Drama: Community, Conflict, and Culture Among Inner-City Boys'' (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and co-author of ''Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings'' (Basic Books, 2004).

Dr. Claudia von Vacano is the Executive Director of the D-Lab and the Digital Humanities at University of California Berkeley, and is on the board of the Social Science Matrix. She received a Master’s degree from Stanford University in Learning, Design, and Technology. Her doctorate is in Policy, Organizations, Measurement, and Evaluation from UC Berkeley. The Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, and the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, among others, have recognized her scholarly work and service contributions.

Dr. Rob Mastrodomenico obtained a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics and PhD in Statistics at the University of Reading. He has spent his career working as a data scientist in the sports sector, building predictive models for sporting events. In 2011 he set up Global Sports Statistics which provides consultancy and modelling services to clients in the sport sector. Aside from statistics, Rob’s other interest is in programing. He has years of experience in many different languages but has become an advocate for Python and all that it can do to support all aspects of dealing with and modelling data.

University of California, Irvine, Division of Continuing Education offers over 60 convenient certificates and specialized studies programs on campus and online, designed for individuals seeking career advancement and personal enrichment.  As an integral part of UC Irvine, the Division of Continuing Education seeks to support UCI’s reputation for innovation by providing educational resources to students all over the world. Today it maintains over 30,000 enrollments from students worldwide each year, and offer hundreds of exciting courses and programs to local, regional, and global constituencies.

The University of California, Berkeley, Social Science Data Lab (D-Lab) provides researchers access to the cutting edge of the data revolution. Operating as a hub for broad-ranging and multidisciplinary data-intensive social sciences, it advances research excellence by helping the community integrate the latest software, technology, and methods into their research practices.

The Royal Statistical Society is a charity which promotes statistics, data, and evidence for the public good; it is one of the world’s leading learned societies and the only UK professional body for all statisticians and data scientists. Its vision is ‘A world where data are at the heart of understanding and decision-making.’

The Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis at the University of Essex provides a world class education in statistics, data analysis, and research methods. The Summer School consists of three sessions. Each session offers a variety of postgraduate-level courses, which typically run for two weeks. Courses cover quantitative and qualitative research methods, research design, techniques for data collection and measurement, as well as mathematics.