Social and Information Networks, Spring 2021
This webpage will be populated with brief descriptions of actual material covered in lectures in reverse chronological order. It will also contain lecture slides and links to recordings (accessible via UTORid). This webpage will be frequently updated. Initially, I am using lecture slides from the Spring 2020 version of the course. I will be updating the material and developing some new material for some additional topics. Please point out any typos to the instructor.
| Date | Description of Lecture |
|---|---|
| Week 12, April 5-9 |
Monday finished last week's material on Braess Paradox and Kidney exchange. Friday is a fun review exercise. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: [Link removed after Final Exam] Friday Recording: MSStream Link Week 12 Jeopardy & Bingo & Additional Topics. Note that the numbers in the slides in brackets are links, so you can click them to jump to the corresponding question. Tutorial this week will be covering the practice question solutions. |
| Week 11, March 29 - April 2 |
Finish covering week 10 material on properties of FPDA and MPDA. Congestion games and network traffic. Braess paradox, kidney exchanges, recap of course. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: [Link removed after Final Exam] Friday Recording: N/A, Statutory holiday Final Week 11 slides. Tutorial this week will be covering the A2 solutions. |
| Week 10, March 22-26 |
Finish covering week 9 material on bargaining. The stable marriange (matching) problem. Gale Shapley algorithm(s): FPDA and MPDA. Properties of FPDA and MPDA algorithms. Other considerations regarding
stable matching. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 10 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 9, March 15-19 |
Finish covering the Week 8 material on common vs. local knowledge, and competitive influence spread. Finish chapter 21 with the discussion of genetic inheritance and
``Mitochondrial Eve''. Bargaining in a Network Exchange Model. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 9 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 8, March 8-12 |
Choosing an initial set of adopters. Common knowledge vs local knowledge. Competitive influence spread. Contact networks and the spread of infection. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 8 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 7, March 1-5 |
Finish looking at the role of link structure in Web ranking. Influence spread in a social network. A threshold model for influence spread. Determining the thresholds from the relative rewards.
Complete cascades vs tightly knit blocking communities. Choosing an initial set of initial adopters. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #1 Recording: [Link removed after Final Exam] Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: [Link removed after Final Exam] Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 7 slides. Tutorial will not have the usual participation quiz, it will only be a review of A1 solutions. |
| Week 6, February 22-26 |
We consider the observed power laws for a number of social and information networks. Power law distributions vs a normal distributions. Power law distribution for the number of in-links to a Web page. To provide some plausible explanation of this phenomena, we consider the Kumar et al preferential attachment model for network dynamics. The sensitivity to randomness in the initial stages of a random dynamic process. The Saganik et al music downloading experiment. We then switch to chapter 14 and the role of link structure in Web search and ranking. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #1 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 6 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 5, February 8-12 |
Finished looking at the signed Laplacian matrix to find balanced subgraphs. The small worlds (6 degrees of separation) phenomena. The Watts-Strogatz model. Kleinberg's analysis lead to rank based distribution of friends. Real world geographical data supporting the power law that probability of a friend at rank r is ~1/r. The Liben-Nowell and Backstrom et al studies. Social distance. Adamic and Adar study. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #1 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 5 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 4, February 1-5 |
Chapter 5 and social networks with positive and negative signs. Balanced triangles and strongly balanced networks. The strong balance theorem. Weak structural balance. Using the Signed Laplacian matrix to find balanced subgraphs. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #1 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 4 slides. Final Tutorial slides |
| Week 3, January 25-29 |
The Rosenshtein et al follup of Sintos and Tsaparas. The role of approximation algorithms. More on communities. Homophily. The Schelling segregation model.
The selection vs influence question. Social-affiliation networks. Three types of closures. Calculating the probability of new link creation. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #1 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #2 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 3 slides. Final Tutorial slides and Anderson Slides. |
| Week 2, January 18-22 |
What can be learned from network structure. Strong and weak ties. Clustering coefficient. Triadic closure. Weak ties, overlap, communities. The Sintos and Tsaparas study. Slides covered on Monday: Monday 18th slides. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #2 Recording: MSStream Link Wed Tut Sec #3 Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Final Week 2 slides. Final Sec 3 Tutorial slides. Sec 2 Tutorial slides. |
| Week 1, January 11-15 |
Course administration. Motivation for the course: networks everywhere and of growing importance. Examples of networks and discussion of basic graph theory concepts and facts using examples. Slides covered on Monday: Monday 11th slides. Monday Recording: MSStream Link Slides covered on Wed.: Wed 13th slides. Wed Recording: MSStream Link Friday Recording: MSStream Link Full Week 1 Slides: Week 1 slides. |
| Week No. | Dates | Tentative Schedule of Topics | Suggested Readings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Jan 11-15 | Intro | Course Contents |
| 1 | Jan 11-15 | Networks, graph concepts | EK Ch 1 and 2 |
| 2 | Jan 18-22 | Strong and weak ties | EK Ch 3 |
| 3 | Jan 25-29 | Homophily and Influence | EK Ch 4 |
| 4 | Feb 1-5 | Structural balance | EK Ch 5 |
| 5 | Feb 8-12 | Small worlds | EK Ch 20 |
| 5+ | Feb 15-19 | Reading week | |
| 6 | Feb 22-26 | Power laws, Web link analysis | EK Ch 18,14 |
| 7 | March 1-5 | Rumour spread, influence maximization | EK Ch 19 |
| 8 | March 8-12 | Influence models, disease spread | EK Ch 19,21 |
| 9 | March 15-19 | Mitochondrial Eve, Bargaining power | EK Ch 21,12 |
| 10 | March 22-26 | Stable marriage, Network traffic | EK Ch 8 |
| 11 | March 29- April 2 | Braess' paradox, kidney exchange. | EK Ch 8 |
| 12 | April 5-9 | Additional topics and course review. | |
| Exam Period | April 13-23 |