Tutorials, Webinars & Sharezone

Free online tutorials, recorded webinars, and session materials

Welcome to QuantLab

QuantLab is a network bringing together social scientists at the University of Melbourne and beyond to share insights in quantitative methods and research.

Co-founded by Seraphine F. Maerz (Political Science) and Irma Mooi-Reci (Sociology), QuantLab is an inclusive network that welcomes everyone — from students to established researchers — interested in learning about quantitative methods and computational techniques.

News: QuantLab is transitioning into a Tier 2 research group at the Faculty of Arts, with Michael Falk (Digital Studies) joining as stream leader and René Rejón (Faculty of Arts) as Outreach and Impact Lead. Our work is organised into three research streams:

Political Communication and Discourse Analysis — led by Seraphine F. Maerz
Computational Approaches to Workforce Mobility and Inequality — led by Irma Mooi-Reci
Computational Literary Studies — led by Michael Falk

We offer hands-on seminars where you can learn cutting-edge methods, together with free online tutorials and session materials in our Sharezone — step-by-step guides on data management, reproducible research, and ready-to-use scripts in R, Stata, and Python. Most importantly, we provide a space to connect with fellow students and researchers, share ideas as well as knowledge, and collaborate.

Events in 2026

AI in Research – Brown Bag Workshop Series

A new collaboration between the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform (MDAP), QuantLab, and the Community of AI in Research (CAIR). These monthly lunchtime workshops offer a relaxed, hands-on space to build confidence with AI in research — each session runs from 12–1pm at Melbourne Connect, with an optional drop-in until 1.30pm. Bring your lunch, your laptop, and your curiosity. Open to researchers at all levels and across all disciplines.

Register and find full details via the MDAP announcement — see also the series flyer.

Date	Topic	Presenter
10/08/26	Getting started with AI assistance for research: A hands-on introduction to using AI confidently in your research workflow. Manhari Room, Melbourne Connect — slides now available	Dr. Mel Mistica (MDAP), Dr. Seraphine F. Maerz (SSPS)
14/09/26	Equipping AI agents with tools: A practical walkthrough of giving AI agents the tools they need to get research work done. Manhari Room, Melbourne Connect	Dr. Daniel Russo-Batterham (MDAP)
12/10/26	Working with synthetic data: Generating and using synthetic data for research — when it helps, when it hurts, and how to do it well. Room M13, Melbourne Connect	Prof. Irma Mooi-Reci (SSPS)
09/11/26	How to build your own RAG: Build a retrieval-augmented generation pipeline from scratch and plug it into your own research materials. Room M01, Melbourne Connect	Taylor Ey (Melbourne Institute)
14/12/26	Analysing historical data with AI: Applying AI methods to historical sources — practical techniques and pitfalls. Manhari Room, Melbourne Connect	Dr. David Goodman (SHPS)

Other 2026 events

Date	Topic	Presenter
31/03/26	Analysing Qualitative Data with Large Language Models (LLMs): From small, exploratory coding to large-scale yet in-depth qualitative analysis, with replicable workflows	Dr. Seraphine F. Maerz, SSPS

More events will be added for 2027, stay tuned!

Schedule 2025

We meet in Linkway, 4th floor John Medley Building.

Date	Time	Topic	Presenter
03/02/25	14:00-15:00	Intro to Causal Inference and Treatment Effects	Dr. Chuck Huber, StataCorp LLC
11/02/25	03:00-09:00	Using AI for Text Analysis: An Introduction (online)	Dr. Seraphine F. Maerz
18/02/25	10:00-16:00	Using AI for Text Analysis: Advanced Applications (online)	Dr. Seraphine F. Maerz
03/03/25	12:00-13:00	Introduction to Version Control with Git	Prof. Michael Zyphur, Dr. Mar Quiroga
20/03/25	09:30-12:30	Partner Event: Get Started with R	MDAP
31/03/25	12:00-13:00	Regression Discontinuity Design	Dr. Amrita Mitra
14/04/25	12:00-13:00	Shut Up and Git	Dr. Tomasz Woźniak
12/05/25	12:00-13:00	Quantitative Text Analysis for Social Sciences	Dr. Maxim Ananyev
26/05/25	12:00-13:00	Python for Social Science Research	Dr. Daniel Russo-Batterham
28/07/25	12:00-13:00	Structural Modelling Using R (bsvars & bsvarSIGNs)	Dr. Tomasz Woźniak
11/08/25	12:00-13:00	Building Your Own RAG Pipeline from Scratch!	Taylor Ey

Schedule 2024

We met in Arts West Research Lounge. Lunch was kindly sponsored by the School of Social and Political Science.

Date	Time	Topic	Presenter
05/08/24	11:30-13:00	Launch of QuantLab Intro to R and Quarto	Seraphine F. Maerz, Irma Mooi-Reci
26/08/24	12:00-13:00	Using Stata for Panel Data	Irma Mooi-Reci
09/09/24	12:00-13:00	Spatial Econometrics: An Introduction	Ed Goldring
10/09/24	10:00-11:30	Introduction to Computational Social Science (online, Social Science Week)	Jason Thompson, MCDS
07/10/24	10:00-16:00	Quarto in RStudio (online)	Seraphine F. Maerz
14/10/24	12:00-13:00	Quantitative Text Analysis in R	Seraphine F. Maerz
28/10/24	12:00-13:00	Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in Stata	Harry Ganzeboom
26/11/24	10:00-16:00	Using AI for Text Analysis in R (online)	Seraphine F. Maerz

Browse our free online tutorials and recorded webinars on quantitative methods and computational techniques for social scientists — and download slides, code, and materials from our QuantLunch sessions.

Free online tutorials & webinars

Step-by-step guides on data management, reproducible research, and quantitative methods — plus recorded webinars. We warmly invite you to contribute — please contact us if you would like to share your tutorials, tips, or suggestions.