BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//planitpurple.northwestern.edu//iCalendar Event//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
CLASS:PUBLIC
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Chicago
TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/Chicago
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Chicago
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:CDT
DTSTART:19700308T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
TZNAME:CST
DTSTART:19701101T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
SEQUENCE:0
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261020T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261020T140000
DTSTAMP:20260906T022629Z
SUMMARY:PS 490: Statistical Computing Workshop - Professor Ali Sanaei (UChicago)\, Simulating Realistic Focus Group Discussions Using Large Language Models
UID:645518@northwestern.edu
TZID:America/Chicago
DESCRIPTION:Please join the Statistical Computing Workshop as they host Ali Sanaei\, Associate Instructional Professor of Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago\, for a presentation titled\, "Simulating Realistic Focus Group Discussions Using Large Language Models"  Abstract We introduce the FocusGroup package in R for simulating moderated focus groups with large language models. The package allows constructing participants with rich personas from survey data\, contains several speaker-selection rules\, and experimentation facilities. The package can be used for two primary purposes: to pilot actual focus-groups\, and to study LLM behavior. We present five experiments. First\, we compare results from simulations based on minimal personas and personas enriched using ANES 2024 data and show that enriched personas yield more varied language\, more interpersonal friction\, and more personal grounding. Other experiments are concerned with LLM behavior regarding moral dilemmas and have the benefit of having agents interact experimentally\, as opposed to the typical manipulations of one-off prompts.  Bio Ali Sanaei is Associate Instructional Professor of Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago. His research is on quantitative and computational methods of social science research. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Michigan in 2015 and taught at the University of California\, Berkeley\, and Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran\, Iran\, before joining the University of Chicago in 2023.\n\nWebcast Link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/mCP107BrR72Cv1MiE4O3sA\n\nRegister: https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/mCP107BrR72Cv1MiE4O3sA
LOCATION:Online
TRANSP:OPAQUE
URL:https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/645518
CREATED:20260902T050000Z
STATUS:CONFIRMED
LAST-MODIFIED:20260902T050000Z
PRIORITY:0
BEGIN:VALARM
TRIGGER:-PT10M
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:Reminder
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR