The course provides a bridge between statistics, computer science and the social sciences. By the end of the course students gain a basic knowledge of the main multivariate statistical methods used in the field of Big Data and the knowledge to carry them out for addressing critical research questions in the social science field. Real-world problem concerning social phenomena will be presented and analyzed through updated statistical methods and tools using R.

By the end of the course the student acquires the fundamental notions of theory of probability and statistical inference. In particular, the student is able to investigate the properties of random variables, including transformations and convergence, and to solve estimation problems and hypothesis testing by classical parametric inference in an effective and coherent way.