Understanding Complex Networks
Understanding Complex Networks
-Jason Kornwitz, News @ Northeastern
A recent National Science Foundation grant awarded to Northeastern professors David Lazer and Alessandra Vespignani could provide valuable insight into the degrees of interdependence between various natural, social, and technological networks. Their primary goal is to track the passage of information, for example how knowledge of an issue spreads throughout the nation and use this information to develop mitigation strategies with the intention of keeping people safe. “Knowledge of these dynamical processes would allow us to anticipate and possibly minimize systemic risk in a variety of contexts that affect our daily life”, explains Vespignani. In particular, they will look at the velocities of information transfer; with the hope to increase it’s robustness to ensure that “catastrophic reverberations across networks” will not occur. Many people have recently noted the role that social networks play in information transfer following natural disasters. Older networks such as the one in figure 1 show how complex these networks were even before the addition of the massive amounts of information transfer on social networking sites. This could easily be a case study used to gain valuable information regarding exactly how quickly and to whom information is transferred. In addition to safety concerns, the study will additionally be valuable for companies who produce any product dependent on network effect. For example, those producing smart phones which have features unique to only their phone, and social networking sites. It will provide them more accurate information regarding the reservation prices of various fractions of the consumer base. Along with the research component of the grant, part of the funding has been allocated towards an educational component consisting of museum exhibits about network science and programs with children in the Boston Public schools.
Figure 1. Social Network Map of the Emergency Services of the Fire Department of New York City
The topic of this future research is very relevant to general network analysis topics such as network exchange and decision-making in networks. Information collected will provide more accurate data on reservation prices, and more importantly tipping points and information exchange. This will provide companies more detailed information of what the consumer base consumes and why, increasing the possibility of success. As for decision-making, it will provide more precise data for each consumer group on the payoffs of accepting or rejecting a decision. From this, companies will be able to calculate the probabilities their product will be a success, and better optimize their production schemes to maximize profits.
http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2011/10/lazervespignani.html
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