CSCC46: Social and Information Networks
Fall 2025
Lecture hours: Monday 3-5pm in HW 214
Tutorial 1 hours: Monday 12-1pm in IA 3050
Tutorial 2 hours: Monday 1-2pm in IA 2160
Instructor: Ashton Anderson, Associate Professor
Email: ashton@cs.toronto.edu
Office hours: Monday 2-3pm
TA: Kai Xie, ky.xie@mail.utoronto.ca
Course News
- Monday, Sept 22: First tutorials. See you there!
Course Description
A course on how networks underlie the social, technological, and natural worlds, with an emphasis on developing
intuitions for broadly applicable concepts in network analysis. Topics include: introductions to graph theory,
network concepts, and game theory; social networks; information networks; the aggregate behaviour of markets and
crowds; network dynamics; information diffusion; popular concepts such as "six degrees of separation", the
"friendship paradox", and the "wisdom of crowds".
Important links:
Lectures
-
All readings are taken from Easley and Kleinberg, "Networks, Crowds, and Markets". The complete textbook is available online as a PDF.
| Week |
Date |
Topic |
Reading |
Assignments |
Materials |
| 1 |
9/8 |
Course overview; Introduction to graph theory; The Web as a Network |
Ch. 1, 2.1-2.4 |
Sign up for MarkUs, Quercus, Discord |
[Slides] |
| 2 |
9/15 |
Network Representations; Gnp |
Ch. 4.1-4.3, 13.1-13.4 |
|
[Slides] |
| 3 |
9/22 |
Strong and Weak Ties; Community Detection; Homophily |
Ch. 3.1-3.4, 3.6 |
A1 out |
[Slides] |
| 4 |
9/29 |
Signed Networks; Structural Balance |
Ch. 5.1-5.5 |
|
[Slides][Video] |
| 5 |
10/6 |
Six Degrees; Decentralized Search |
Ch. 20.1-20.7 |
A1 due |
[Slides] |
| 6 |
10/20 |
Midterm |
|
|
|
| 7 |
11/3 |
Link Analysis; PageRank |
Ch. 14.1-14.6 |
|
|
| 8 |
11/10 |
Game Theory |
Ch. 6.1-6.8 |
|
|
| 9 |
11/17 |
Congestion; Decision Cascades |
Ch. 8.1-8.3, 19.1-19.7 |
|
|
| 10 |
11/24 |
Information Cascades |
Ch. 16.1-16.7 |
|
|
| 11 |
12/1 |
Contagion; Epidemics |
Ch. 21.1-8 |
|
|
Assignments
Assignments are posted on Quercus. Assignment submissions are through MarkUs.
See the syllabus details (below) for detailed information about grading, late assignments, and the collaboration
policy.
Syllabus Details
Prerequisites
- CSCB63H3
- STAB52H3
- MATA22H3 or MATA23H3
- a CGPA of 3.0 or enrolment in a CSC Subject POSt
Material
- Easley and Kleinberg, Networks, Crowds, and Markets, Cambridge University Press, 2010
The complete textbook is available online
as a free PDF, and as a hardcover book.
Assignment Rules
- All assignments are to be submitted electronically (in PDF format) by 5pm on Thursdays.
- Collaboration policy:
The assignments must be done individually.
- Late Policy: You are allowed 3 flex days for the entire semester to use as late days however you see
fit. After you have used 3 late days, no late assignments will be accepted. A late day is 24-hour period after
the submission date. No more than two late days per assignment.
Final exam
Details about the final exam will be provided later in the term.
Evaluation
- Assignments (25%: 8% A1, 8% A2, 9% A3)
- Term test (20%)
- Collegiality (5%)
- Final (50%)
Acknowledgments
This course is based on similar offerings by Jure Leskovec, Jon Kleinberg, and Johan Ugander. Many thanks to them
for their help.