WAW 2013

Plenary Speakers

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract: We discuss some models of real world networks that incorporate some geometric notions. In particular we will discuss (i) a geometric preferential attachment mode, (ii) the SPA model, (iii) random Apollonium networks, (iv) a model related to the SPA model (due to Ravi Kannan) and (v) Geometric Protean Graphs.

Bio: Professor in the Mathematical Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests lie in Combinatorics, Discrete Optimization and Theoretical Computer Science, focusing on the probabilistic aspects of these areas. In 1991, he received the Fulkerson Prize in Discrete Mathematics awarded by the Americam Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Programming Society. In 1997, he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2000, he received the IBM Faculty Partnership Award. In 2006, he jointly received (with Michael Krivelevich) the Professor Pazy Memorial Research Award from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation. In 2011, he was selected as a SIAM Fellow and in 2013 he was selected as an AMS Fellow. He has published more than 300 research papers (cited more than 6000 times by more than 5000 authors, see more details).

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University

Title: Combining big data and small models to study networked social systems

Abstract: The ubiquity and sophistication of digital sensors and online platforms provide unprecedented opportunities to observe and instrument human behavior. We can now relatively easily collect data on individual-level behaviors and on interactions involving many individuals. I will talk about our work that has been driven by the availability of these types of empirical datasets, and how they have enabled us to develop simple models that help bridge individual behavior and collective outcomes.

Bio: JP Onnela is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is interested in a broad range of theoretical and applied problems in network science. His current research focuses on statistical and mathematical analysis and modeling of social and biological networks and their connection to human health; development of metrics and methods for network analysis; and online social systems and social media. Before joining Biostatistics, he spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School and before that one year as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School. He held a Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford University from 2006 to 2008 after obtaining his doctorate at the Helsinki University of Technology in 2006.