Seminars Winter Semester 2023/2024

MWiWi-Seminar: Exploring human behaviour through play: A field experiment in practice

This seminar is aimed at Master's and Bachelor's students of economics and business administration.
Professor: Prof. W. Bönte
PhD Student: Andrés Zambrano Curcio

Content:

In the upcoming winter semester, a field experiment will be carried out in cooperation with the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus - Senftenberg, the City Arkaden Wuppertal and the Blechen Carré Cottbus, in which we will investigate through games with the participants whether people like and seek competition and how they perceive competition and behave in it. In addition to exploring people and competition, we will investigate whether the results of our game-based investigation can be replicated in different shopping centres (Cottbus versus Wuppertal). In this seminar, data collection for a joint project will be planned and carried out, and the data will be analysed using simple procedures. The emphasis is on practical data collection and experiential learning. From formulating the research question, to planning and carrying out the data collection and analysis, to presenting and discussing the results, the lecturers will give introductory sessions and provide practical guidance and background knowledge.

Learning objectives:

After participating in the module, students will be able to carry out their own small-scale empirical economic research projects, starting with the planning and implementation of data collection and its transparent documentation, proper data preparation and simple statistical data analysis, up to the interpretation, classification and discussion of the results.

The link to the Moodle course will be published here: https://moodle.uni-wuppertal.de/course/view.php?id=31098

Please note that this seminar will be conducted in English if required.

MWiWi 6.2.6 Seminar: From Words to Knowledge: Applying web scraping and text analytics in modern research

This seminar is aimed at Masters students in Economics.
Professor: Prof. W. Bönte
Research assistants: Adrian Eckstein and Markus Thomanek
Registration is possible until the first meeting in October 2023. Please email Sek-LS-Boente@wiwi.uni-wuppertal.de to register.

Content:

The amount of linguistic data in the form of text, audio and video is growing rapidly. New methods for analysing and using this data are enabling companies and researchers to draw conclusions that were previously concealed. Not surprisingly, data scientists are more in demand than ever on the job market - especially those who can analyse natural language.

In this seminar we will examine and discuss the recent developments in in the field, present important research projects, and give you the tools to extract and/or analyse such data yourself. Programming skills are not required, although some Python experience is useful for automated web scraping. The course can be successfully completed without any programming.

Learning objectives:

After attending the seminar, students will be able to assess the relevance of natural language data sources and make links to other economic factors. Students will also be able to independently carry out small projects to extract and/or analyse such language data.

Timeline (can be adjusted in consultation):

25.10.2023 (Introduction), 12-16 p.m., room M.13.05 - CIP 1 (Computerroom)
08.11.2023 (Introduction to practical application of Natural Language Processing), 12-16 p.m., room M.13.05 - CIP 1 (Computerroom)
13.11. - 24.11.2023 (Determination of topics in individual sessions, individual appointments)
04.12. - 18.12.2023 (discussion of the current status in individual sessions, individual appointments)
End of January 2024 (presentation of preliminary results, group appointments)
End of March 2024 (submission of the seminar paper)

To participate, please enroll in the Moodle course: https://moodle.uni-wuppertal.de/course/view.php?id=31971