Causal Inference
Instructors: William Lowe
Abstract
This course covers contemporary methods for causal inference with a focus on applications to public policy topics and connections to data science and machine learning techniques.
Find out moreThis course covers contemporary methods for causal inference with a focus on applications to public policy topics and connections to data science and machine learning techniques.
Find out moreThis course provides a comprehensive introduction to the basics of computers, data structures, and algorithms. The first half of the course explores the core principles of computer logic and various data types and structures. Building on this foundation, the second half covers essential algorithms and their real-world applications, particularly within the field of public policy. Theoretical concepts are reinforced through practical implementation in Python, following industry-standard software development practices and paradigms to enhance understanding.
Find out moreAs the fastest growing subfield of machine learning, deep learning is the technology behind facial recognition, machine translation, AlphaGo, and many other well-known applications. As policy makers are beginning to regulate machine learning, technical understanding of deep learning in public policy is invaluable. In policy research and analysis, deep learning has only recently started to be applied. In this course, students will learn the main theoretical concepts of (deep) neural networks, and get introduced to applications in computer vision, natural language processing and other areas. Students will gain hands-on experience by training and testing their own models in policy-relevant applications. The main objective of this course is to enable students to scope out new meaningful and robust deep learning applications, and to advise decision makers on strengths and limitations of the technology.
Find out moreThis course will introduce you to the modern data science workflow with R. In recent years, data analysis skills have become essential for those pursuing careers in policy advocacy and evaluation, business consulting and management, or academic research in the fields of education, health, and social science. We will cover topics like version control (Git) and project management; data collection, wrangling, storage, and visualization; model fitting; advanced workflow issues, debugging, automation; and data science ethics.
Find out moreThis course provides an introduction to the world of machine learning. By the end of this course students will have a sound understanding of the key concepts of machine learning, analyze data using some of its main methods, and a solid foundation for more advanced or more specialized study. The course covers standard topics in supervised and unsupervised learning, including the most common learning algorithms for regression, classification and clustering, but also touches on advanced topics in machine learning particularly important for public policy, such as uncertainty quantification. Students will learn the fundamental concepts underlying machine learning algorithms as well as the practical use of machine learning algorithms using open-source frameworks.
Find out moreThis course aims to deliver a compact and tailored introduction to the core mathematical concepts of data science. Linear algebra, probability theory, statistics, and optimisation are mathematical pillars underlying the practice of data science. The course covers foundational mathematical concepts such as statistical estimation, norms, matrix algebra, Lagrange Multipliers and many more in theory and practice. Upon completing the course, students will have a broad knowledge of linear algebra, probability theory, statistics, and optimisation necessary to understand the theoretical underpinnings of modern statistics and machine learning methods.
Find out moreIn this course you will learn how to manage a crisis and how to prepare for such an event. Only a few elements will be of a theoretical nature; most of the course is highly practical and requires your active participation throughout. Learnings will be equally applicable to the private and public sectors.
On day 1, we will discuss a case study on the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the effect it had on BP’s reputation. We will deep dive into all events of the spill and additionally determine what BP should have done after the end of the immediate crisis, when a new CEO took charge.
On day 2, almost the entire time is dedicated to a simulation exercise in which each and every student will play a very active role. You will experience what it means to be in the midst of a crisis and to have to make decisions amid high pressure and uncertainty.
Find out moreThis workshop teaches decision-making in government. The learning will be gained through a hypothetical simulation involving either the scenario of a) unrest at the border between Russia and Finland or b) the US government no longer supporting Ukraine militarily.
The learning objective is to better understand decision-making processes and structures in government, such as hierarchies, processes and deadlines and recogniae the perspectives of different national and international actors involved, such as foreign policy or heath security aspects. At the same time, the course will highlight external constraints and pressures on the decision-making, such as the influence of public opinion.
Overall, this is a very “hands-on” exercise meant to prepare students for real life decision-making in complex and demanding environments. Furthermore, this is also a team-building exercise as the goal of the exercise is to find an adequate balance between all the different competing interests involved. Students will also have an opportunity to get an introduction to decision-making in government, feedback on the different decisions taken and insight into what happened in a similar situation in government.
In summary the learning outcome will be about:
This course is divided into three parts:
The first part will be an overview of how web pages work (html, css and javascript). Students will then be introduced to the client-server model along with a speedy review of python basics.
The second part will be a practical notebook session. Students will interact with a set of Jupyter Notebooks, allowing them to get hands-on experience with how to query web server APIs or plain html pages.
Finally, students will be asked to choose an API or website of their choice and develop a bot/scraper. They will be invited to explain to the group what they developed, which blocking points they encountered and what could be improved in the future regarding it. It will be followed with a live scraper development session to consolidate students’ learning.
Find out moreThis course teaches and trains students in basic negotiation and debating, as well as in critical and analytical skills and techniques. It does so while dealing with a critically important emerging policy issue: Governance in the Arctic region. The goal is to make participants fit for negotiations, debates and high-level discussions in their future professional environments. We adopt a dynamic, participant-focused approach by combining workshops with practical exercises under the umbrella of an EU governance simulation.
The first part of the course provides an overview of the EU’s apparatus (for example will will look at the roles and powers of the main institutions, the limitations and challenges of the EU) and includes workshops on a challenging emerging crisis: Climate change and its growing impact on governance in the Arctic region. The second part of the course is a pedagogical exercise which provides an opportunity for students to experience the highest level of crisis management from the perspective of the main EU institutions: The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. Participants will get to experience multiple roles at a European level, on a rotational basis. At the beginning of the simulation, participants will act as Commissioners operating under a given Directorate-General. Following that, participants will act as Foreign Ministers of an EU member state, having to design crisis management plans from the standpoint of their respective EU member state. In the final phase of the simulation, participants will assume the roles of MEPs and they will engage in meaningful debates on the Arctic region.
Examining a topic from different perspectives via simulation methodology provides a dynamic learning experience which enables participants to hone their analytical skills. In this simulation, participants will:
This course is primarily designed to be taught in-person. However, depending on current COVID-19 sanitary conditions, it can be modified to be taught online.
Find out moreConflict is a natural part of social experience. In the workplace, conflicts are particularly frequent as many people of varying responsibilities and personalities must work together. You can find conflict between groups, individual employees and even between members of management.
The cost of conflicts is very high and underestimated by organisations: research has shown that managers spend 20-40% addressing conflicts; a 2008 study (by CCP) showed than US employees spend an average of 2,8 hours a week dealing with conflict! Appropriately managing conflict is therefore a key professional skill.
Conflict management skills are abilities that help you manage how conflict affects you, those you work with and the workplace as a whole. Knowing that conflict is inevitable, conflict management aims to make conflict a productive part of the workplace, and if you have the skills to do so, you can contribute to an environment where conflict is accepted, managed and used positively.
Unfortunately, few people come naturally equipped with good conflict management skills. This course wants to start remedying that. The course will:
At the end of the training participants will:
For many, “Brussels” is a black box that has become an intransparent factory of legislation and regulation. It may sound like a herculean task, but there are ways to cut through the complexity. You could consult official sources of information like the EU Official Journal, follow live-streamed meetings or collect what you can find on the websites of the Commission, Council and EP. Or you could look at unofficial sources (free), like general newsletters and bulletins, subject-specific sources, think tank studies or social media.
This course helps students to develop three essential intelligence gathering skills and applies them, through individual and group assignments, to current case studies:
To develop these skills, each student will build a portfolio for a dossier assigned to her/him containing:
Armed with this comprehensive set of information, students will develop an approach and provide advice to a particular stakeholder on how to engage with key players in Brussels.
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