Indice

Social Network Analysis

News

2015 Schedule

Goals

Over the past decade there has been a growing public fascination with the complex “connectedness” of modern society. This connectedness is found in many contexts: in the rapid growth of the Internet and the Web, in the ease with which global communication now takes place, and in the ability of news and information as well as epidemics and financial crises to spread around the world with surprising speed and intensity. These are phenomena that involve networks and the aggregate behavior of groups of people; they are based on the links that connect us and the ways in which each of our decisions can have subtle consequences for the outcomes of everyone else.

This short course is an introduction to the analysis of complex networks, with a special focus on social networks and the Web - its structure and function, and how it can be exploited to search for information. Drawing on ideas from computing and information science, applied mathematics, economics and sociology, the course describes the emerging field of study that is growing at the interface of all these areas, addressing fundamental questions about how the social, economic, and technological worlds are connected.

Syllabus

1) Graph theory and social networks

2) The World Wide Web

3) Network dynamics

Textbooks and materials

Reading:

Course on Network Science held by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi at Northeastern University, Boston, MA: link

MidTerm Project

Software:

Data Collection:

Final Project

Calendar

Date Topic Learning material Homework
1. Monday, 23.02.2015 Introduction to Complex Network Analysis. slides Reading: Chapter 1, 2 of Kleinberg's book and Chapter 1 of Barabasi's book.
2. Monday, 02.03.2015 Basic network measures: degree, distance, clustering Reading: Chapter 1, 2 of Barabasi's book.
3. Thursday, 05.03.2015 Basic network measures: degree, distance, clustering slides
4. Monday, 09.03.2015 Random graphs and real networks slides Random Networks - Barabasi Reading: Chapter 3 of Barabasi's book
5. Thursday, 12.03.2015 Random graphs and real networks Random Networks - Barabasi
6. Monday, 16.03.2015 Scale free networks Scale free networks - Barabasi Reading: Chapter 4 of Barabasi's book
7. Thursday, 19.03.2015 Scale free networks slides
8. Monday, 23.03.2015 Small world, Strength of weak ties slides Reading: Chapter 3 of Kleinberg's book, Milgram's small world experiment, Watts' email experiment, Leskovec's IM experiment, Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties theory, Onnela et al.'s Strength of Weak Ties experiment
9. Thursday, 26.03.2015 Centrality measures slides
10. Monday, 30.03.2015 Network analytics tools (Cytoscape, Gephi, NetworkX) Guest lecturer: Giulio Rossetti
11. Monday, 20.04.2015 Network models: Small World model and Barabasi-Albert model (Preferential attachment) slides Small World Model slides Barabasi Albert Model Read Chapters 4 and 5 of Barabasi's book. Read original papers of Watts-Strogatz model and Barabasi-Albert model
12. Thursday, 23.04.2015 Network robustness to failures and attacks Reading: Chapter 8 of Barabasi's book
13. Monday, 27.04.2015 Community discovery slides Guest lecturer: Giulio Rossetti
14. Thursday, 30.04.2015 Link prediction Guest lecturer: Luca Pappalardo
15. Monday, 04.05.2015 Student Q&A for Mid Term Project
16. Thursday, 07.05.2015 Diffusion, Spreading & Epidemics: introduction slides Reading: Chapter 16 of Kleinberg's book
Monday, 11.05.2015 BI Seminar: Marketing plan in 7 steps Lecturer: Maurizio Fionda (Aula Seminari Est)
17. Thursday, 14.05.2015 Diffusion, Spreading & Epidemics: Decision Models slides Reading: Chapter 19 of Kleinberg's book. Bryce Ryan and Neal C. Gross. The diffusion of hybrid seed corn in two Iowa communities
18. Monday, 18.05.2015 Diffusion, Spreading & Epidemics: Decision Models Lezione cancellata per motivi di salute del docente
19. Thursday, 21.05.2015 Diffusion, Spreading & Epidemics: SIS, SIR models and networks
20. Monday, 25.05.2015 Network effects: Schelling's segregation model
21. Thursday, 28.05.2015 Student Q&A for Final Project. PhD students presentations

Link alle edizioni precedenti