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The Structure of Networks. with emphasis on information and social networks. RU T-214-SINE Summer 2011 Ýmir Vigfússon. Logistics (1/2). The course will be taught in English Weekdays 16:35-18:10 from 4/7-12/8 Fridays reserved to be recitation sections
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The Structure of Networks with emphasis on information and social networks RU T-214-SINE Summer 2011 Ýmir Vigfússon
Logistics (1/2) • The course will be taught in English • Weekdays 16:35-18:10 from 4/7-12/8 • Fridays reserved to be recitation sections • Office hours: Monday 12:00-13:00, V.3.06 • Or by appointment (e-mail me) • Prerequisites • Discrete Mathematics (or comparable background) • Inherent curiosity, thirst for knowledge and challenges
Logistics (2/2) • Course material • Networks, Crowds and Markets (Easley, Kleinberg 2010).Also available online! • Supplementary slides/documents/demos on MySchool • Lectures will be recorded and posted online. • Collaboration advised and encouraged! • Final exam closed book • You are expected to maintain academic integrity according to RU regulations
Evaluation • Homework assignments (50%) • Two problem sets (10%, 15%) • Mostly questions from the book • Fully understand and critically evaluate a real scientific paper • Large group project (25%) • Evaluate a real data set, try to advance the state of the art! • Progress report required and a final presentation • Final exam (40%) • 90 minute closed-book in-class exam on 12/8. • In-class participation (10%) • You should be asking questions and making the experience interactive. • Remote students should participate via threads (or Skype)
Food for thought • The book is awesome • We will read most of it • That‘s a lot of pages, be sure to read as you go! • You can push the envelope • Do you have access to cool network data? Why not turning that into a project? • The field is young and emerging • Tons of opportunities for high impact projects • I am always looking for talented students – let‘s talk if you have interesting ideas! • Exciting group projects could be further developed to become publications!
Networks are everywhere • Modern society is “connected“ in different ways • Global communication • The Internet • Social networks • Financial systems • News and media • Network science • “The study of phenomena that take place within complex social, economic and technological systems.“
Network science – examples • 34 person Karate club • Nodes are people, edges are friendship
Network science - examples • E-mail communication patterns within HP • Superimposed on the company hierarchy • 436 employees
Network science - examples • Loans among financial institutions • Which institutions are powerful?
Questions we will explore • What are the structural features of networks? • Hard to eyeball features of large networks • Can we reason about behavior and interaction in networks? • Strategic incentives, cause-and-effect relationships • What are the dynamics of aggregate behavior? • Why are YouTube and Facebook so popular? • How do things go viral?
Our plan of attack (1/2) • Week 1:4/7-8/7 [ch 1-3,5] • Intro. Basic graph theory. Theory of weak ties. • 4/7: PS1 (done in pairs) out. • Week 2: 11/7-15/7 [ch 6-8,9] • Structural balance. Game theory. (Auctions) • 11/7: Group project out (teams of 4) • 15/7: PS1 due • Week 3:18/7-22/7 [ch 13-15] • The Web. PageRank. Sponsorsed search markets. • 18/7: PS2 (done in different pairs) out.
Our plan of attack (2/2) • Week 4: 25/7-29/7[ch 16-18] • Cascades. Network effects. Power laws. • 27/7: PS2 due. • 27/7-1/8: Ýmir away (more info later) • Week 5:1/8-5/8[ch 19-21] • Network cascades. Small world effect. Epidemics. • 2/8: Group progress report due (1 page) • Week 6: 8/8-12/8 [ch 22,23,24] • Voting theory. (Markets). • 10/8: Group project presentations (20 min) • 12/8: Final exam in-class (individual).
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon • A movie to tantalize your taste buds • Gives an idea about the types of problems network scientists work on • Key concepts • Six degrees of separation • Degree distributions • Power laws • Epidemics over networks