Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research

Professor Vespignani

Alessandro Vespignani, Professor of Informatics, Associate Director of the Pervasive Technology Institute Digital Science Center and Director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS) will give a talk on how physics and computers are working together to fight global pandemics like the H1N1 flu virus at the Indiana University Open House to be held on Saturday, October 31st by the IU Departments of Physics and Astronomy. His talk titled “Planning for the H1N1 flu – How physics and computers help to fight off global pandemics” will commence at 12.30 p.m. The event, set from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. taking place at Swain Hall West, 727 E. Third St., will also include guided tours of the IU Cyclotron Facility (IUCF) and the Kirkwood Observatory, along with designed-for-the-public lectures from astronomy Professor Emeritus Martin Burkhead and School of Informatics Professor Alessandro Vespignani. The attendance for this exciting event is free for all ages. More…

I gave four invited talks in Spain, Italy, and Switzerland this summer:

• June 18: Social similarity at Yahoo! Labs Barcelona (host: Ricardo Baeza-Yates) — this is where I got the idea of a foosball table in the lab…
• June 19: Dynamics of Online Popularity at the University of Barcelona’s Department of Fundamental Physics (host: Marian Boguna)
• June 25: Social similarity at DEI, Politecnico di Milano (host: Stefano Ceri)
• June 26: Modeling text generation at the Faculty of Informatics, University of Lugano (host: Fabio Crestani)

Thanks to my wonderful hosts and their groups for engaging discussions and delightful  hospitality!

Back to NaN

Hover mouse over thumbnails to see titles of talks, click for video or slides.

This sabbatical is providing wonderful opportunities for me to present our work and establish/strengthen collaborations with several groups in Italy. Recently I have given invited seminars on social search at the Department of Informatics at the University of Torino (hosts Matteo Sereno and Mino Anglano) and on Web traffic at the Department of Math at the University of Padova (host Massimo Marchiori). In the next few weeks I will give a talk on social search at the Department of Informatics and Information Science at the University of Genova (host Marina Ribaudo) and one on search engine bias and Web modeling at my old stomping ground, the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council in Rome (host my undergraduate advisor and mentor Domenico Parisi).

Mark Meiss presented our work on Web click traffic analysis at the First International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM 2008) on the beautiful Stanford campus. His talk was very well received, as reported in Greg Linden’s blog. The quality of the conference itself was very good, with several excellent presentations. Those I found most interesting were Qiaozhu Mei’s talk on search log entropy, Nick Craswell on click position bias, Carlos Castillo on social media, and Paul Heymann on social bookmarks. I think future WSDM conferences should have an award for the best-delivered talk. This year I would have voted for Carlos Castillo. The next WSDM will be in Barcelona.

I was in Rome to give a talk at the Interdepartmental Seminar on Algorithmics of the Departments of Computer and System Sciences (DIS) and Computer Science (DI) of the Sapienza University of Rome, and also to visit Guido Caldarelli in the Department of Physics. It was a bit strange to walk through the campus and buildings where I studied 20 years ago (and got my “laurea” in Physics in 1990). Even more strange was to be there at a time when the University and the Physics Department in particular were at the center of the national controversy surrounding the canceled visit by the Pope. I signed the letter (English) to the Italian President and the Sapienza Rector expressing solidarity to my former professors, under moral lynching for having expressed their opinion against an inappropriate, insensitive, and offensive invitation.

The Workshop on Theoretical Aspects and Models of Large, Complex and Open Information Networks just ended at ISI. There were lots of interesting talks. I presented Mark’s work on the Web click network, and Ben talked about GiveALink. Thanks to the organizers, especially Alain Barrat, as well as the ISI staff for a smooth and fun program!

I just got back from a visit to Yahoo! Research Silicon Valley. I gave two talks presenting our work on social search and web traffic analysis, and met lots of interesting people. They have an amazing group and of course mountains of data to lust after. Hopefully this will lead to collaborations in the future, given the many intersecting research interests.

I will give a talk on social search at the Workshop on Social Data Mining and Knowledge Building, part III of the Mathematics of Knowledge and Search Engines program. The workshop, organized by IPAM, will be held 5–9 November 2007 at UCLA. Joining me as speakers are Luis Rocha and Stan Wasserman from IU and Santo Fortunato and Jose Ramasco from ISI/CNLL. Should be fun!