Current Workshops

2nd “Text-as-Data in Economics” Workshop 15th & 16th May

The proposed workshop, titled 2nd Text as Data in Economics Workshop, will explore the intersection of computational linguistics and economics. It aims to investigate how natural language processing (NLP) methods are being applied across various fields of economics and identify opportunities for methodological advancements.

The workshop will facilitate discussions on how NLP researchers can collaborate with economists to adapt and develop methods better suited to economics research and economic policy work.

This event is expected to be of significant interest to not only computational linguists in the School of Computing and Communications, whose expertise in NLP methods aligns with the workshop’s objectives, but also social scientists in general, who work or are interested in working with text data.

Sign up for this workshop here with Eventbrite

This conference will take place at Lancaster Castle. It will be free for Lancaster Staff and Students.

Programme

May 15 (0930 to 1800)

0930 - 1000 Registration / morning coffee

1000 - 1100 Papers Session #1

Chair: Marit Hinnosaar (University of Nottingham)

1000 – 1020 Aggregate Shocks, News and Economic Activity

Nicolás Forteza (Banco de España)

1020 - 1040 The End of the Iberian Exception: Populists and the Economy

Agustina Martínez (University of Leicester)

1040 – 1100 Social Media and Local Support for National Policies: Evidence from Italian Municipalities during Covid-19 Pandemic”

Eleonora Alabrese (University of Bath)

1100 – 1130 Coffee Break

1130 – 12h30 Keynote Session #1

Arianna Ornaghi (Hertie School)

1230 – 1400 Lunch

14h00 - 15h00 Papers Session #2

Chair: Jacopo Bregolin (University of Liverpool)

14h00 – 14h20 Emotional Appeal: Why Do Charities Use Negative Framing?

Derrick Xu (University of Bristol)

1420 - 1440 Diffusion of Protest through Social Media: Evidence from Nahel Protest in France

Annalí Casanueva-Artís (Ifo Institute)

1440 – 1500 The Blue Bird Chirps on Political Polarization: Evidence from the Black Lives Matter Movement

Victor Westergren (CEBRIG, Université Libre de Bruxelles)

1500 – 1530 Coffee Break

1530 – 1630 Keynote Session #2

Andreas Hoefele (Ofcom)

1630 – 1700 Break / change of venue

1700 – 1800 Roundtable session with Arianna Ornaghi (Hertie School), Andreas Hoefele (Ofcom) and Carlo Schwarz (Bocconi University) at The Storey

Chair: Giuseppe de Feo (University of Liverpool)

1800 End of Day

1930 Dinner at Toll House Inn (by invitation)

May 16 (0930 to 1330)

0930 - 1000 Morning coffee

1000 - 1100 Papers Session #3

Chair: Jaime Marques Pereira (Lancaster University)

1000 – 1020 Blameocracy

Giacomo Manferdini (Bocconi University)

1020 - 1040 Black by Popular Demand: Media, Competition and the Evolution of a Social Norm

Michael McRae (Trinity College Dublin)

1040 - 1100 Vertical Information Transmission in Organizations: Evidence from the Enron Corporation

Jacopo Bregolin (University of Liverpool)

1100 – 1130 Coffee Break

1130 – 12h30 Keynote Session #3

Carlo Schwarz (Bocconi University)

1230 – 1330 Lunch

1330 End of Workshop

Lancaster Castle gatehouse

Mathematics, Ai and Data Science for Material Innovations (MADSMIN) 9th - 13th June

The purpose of the workshop is to discuss the latest methods of rigidity theory, geometric data science and artificial intelligence for real objects such as, but not limited to, solid 3D materials (periodic crystals or polymers) and molecular graphs including proteins, and more complex 3D genome structures.

Organised by Vitaliy Kurlin (Computer Science, Liverpool), Anthony Nixon (Mathematical Sciences, Lancaster) and Abbie Trewin (Chemistry, Lancaster) and jointly funded by Lancaster's Data Science Institute and Mathematics for AI and Real-world Systems project.

Confirmed speakers:

  • Murad Banaji (Oxford)
  • William Jeffcott (Liverpool)
  • Matthias Himmelman (TU Braunschweig)
  • Jonathan McManus (Liverpool)
  • Catherine Mollart (Birmingham)
  • Therese Malliavin (Lorraine)
  • Henry Moss (Lancaster)
  • Lilja Metsalampi (Aalto)
  • Michael Peach (Lancaster)
  • Bernd Schulze (Lancaster)
  • Ellena Sherrett (Lancaster)
  • Jack Trainer (Lancaster)
  • Daniel Widdowson (Liverpool)
  • Andrea Fusiello (Universita' degli Studi di Udine)
  • Jiayi Li (Max Planck Institute)
  • Louis Theran (St Andrews)

Sign up via Eventbrite - Ai and Data Science for Material Innovations

This conference will take place at Lancaster University in Fylde Lecture Theatre 1. It will be free for Lancaster Staff and Students.

Drone footage of the campus

How can AI help people to generate adaptation strategies to manage environmental risks? 16th - 17th June

How can AI support real-world adaptive strategies to manage environmental risks? We will be hosting discussions and a networking dinner to explore this question. Join us at Lancaster Castle on 16–17 June 2025 for a two-day workshop to define a new research agenda at the intersection of AI, decision science, and environment.

Environmental resilience involves decisions taken in the face of deep uncertainty with complex trade-offs. Examples arise in water management, flood and coastal risk management, land use and conservation, amongst other applications. Could AI help to generate, evaluate, and communicate adaptive strategies that are robust in the face of future uncertainty? What are the issues and opportunities that we can foresee as people start to use LLMs and other deep learning models for this purpose? This workshop will bring together colleagues from across disciplines to map out the key challenges, identify research priorities, and shape future collaborations.

This workshop is funded by Mathematics for AI and Real-world Systems project.

Sign up for this Interdisciplinary Workshop.

This conference will take place at Lancaster Castle. It will be free for Lancaster Staff and Students.

Drone footage of the campus

FACTOR Summer School - Mon 28th Jul to Wed 30th Jul 2025 �� Theme: Fraud & the (Mis)use of AI

In 2024, a Hong Kong employee of Arup joined a video call with their Global CFO and other executives. During the call, they were ordered to make a series of bank transfers totalling £20 million. The catch? The only real person on the call was the employee. The rest were AI-generated deepfakes.Countless frauds and scams are being perpetrated all around us right now, and AI has made it easier than ever. From fake voicenotes pleading for bail money to heartbreakingly convincing romantic messages, the landscape of crime is changing, and it's in everyone's interest that we all keep up.With that in mind, the world-leading FACTOR team is running a three-day summer school that will take you through the cutting-edge worlds of forensic linguistics, forensic speech science, and the ever-growing challenges that we now all face - the (mis) use of AI. We'll talk about how easy it is to clone someone's voice, whether we have telltale linguistic habits, and how good ordinary people are at distinguishing human language from AI. On the last day, you'll have the chance to turn detective with your own high-profile fraud case to crack.

Whether you're an industry professional interested in the risks posed by AI, a teacher looking to inspire students about the real-world applications of English language and linguistics, or simply someone fascinated by language and crime, this summer school could be the one for you.

✅ No prior experience needed
✅ Gentle pace for absolute beginners
✅ Interactive and hands-on
✅ Learn from world-leading experts, including Georgina Brown, Justin Lo, Isobelle Clarke, and Claire Hardaker

🎟️ Tickets: £30 each (includes sessions, materials, refreshments, and a packed lunch). Note that spaces are limited, and demand for our summer schools is always high

👉 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eGBEruQh

👉 Book your ticket here: Sign up for only £30 - Summer School enrolment

We hope you'll leave not only with new insights, but also better prepared for the future of AI fraud.

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