Networks, Data, and Society (NERDS)

Roberta @ Leiden University
2019-12-12 - 2019-12-13 | CWTS, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
Roberta will be at Leiden University, visiting and giving talks at CWTS

Invited Talk: Matteo Magnani, Multilayer networks meet databases: from property graphs to online information networks
2019-12-05 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | ITU, 4A05
Abstract:
The analysis of complex online information requires the availability of rich data representation models and data analysis algorithms, for example multilayer networks and multilayer network clustering methods. At the same time, data analysis processes often require the ability to store raw data not yet prepared to perform a specific type of analysis, the possibility to enforce constraints guaranteeing some degree of data quality, and the capability to efficiently manipulate (or query) the raw data. This is for example important when performing interactive and visual data analysis, where several data dimensions, data subsets and aggregations have to be computed dynamically to explore different views over the data. In this work I present an extension of the multilayer network model providing database functionality on top of the idea of using the concept of layer to unify several types of graph-based models. This extension is based on the concepts of attributed vertex cube and attributed edge cube. I will conclude the presentation showing how to express a process to identify online conversations about specific topics in social media as a combination of cubes and cube operators.

Bio:
Matteo Magnani is an associate professor (“docent”) at Uppsala University, where he coordinates the Uppsala Information Laboratory (http://infolab.it.uu.se) and a new Master’s program in Data Science. Since 2011 he has developed and applied analysis methods for multilayer social networks in the context of national and European projects (FIRB and H2020 funding schemes). His results are described in his book “Multilayer Social Networks”, Cambridge University Press (2016), in several peer-reviewed publications, and implemented in the R multinet library (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=multinet). He is also the recipient of a STINT initiation grant with TokyoTech on the topic of clustering temporal networks and of a NOS-HS grant for the establishment of a Nordic network on online disinformation. He has received the title of “Excellent teacher” (2016) and the UTN pedagogical prize (2013).

Invited talk Anna Sapienza, Understanding human behaviors and engagement in mobile app usage
2019-11-28 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | ITU, 4A09
Abstract:
Recent years have seen an explosive growth in the use of mobile apps on smartphones and tablets. With over 2.7 billion smartphone users across the world checking their phones over 80 times a day, smartphone data offer a unique opportunity to understand main aspects of human behaviors, e.g., mobility, sleep patterns, and mobile app usage. Smartphones can be indeed a hugely productive tool. However, they interfere more and more with work, school, and relationships, sometimes leading engagement to become real addiction. It is indeed crucial to study how individuals interact with their phone and whether they are engaged and retained in the use of specific mobile apps. This talk will present the preliminary findings on user engagement in mobile apps, based on the study of an unprecedented dataset, including mobile app traces of thousands of users in time. I will show how users interact with smartphones over time with the aim of identifying the characteristics of users that are majorly engaged in mobile apps, the specific apps that are driving this engagement, and how usage patterns vary over time.

Bio:
Anna Sapienza is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at DTU. She holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and her research is focused on modelling human behavior in online social environments, e.g., online social networks, applications, and games, through the analysis of high-dimensional data. She collaborates with the Copenhagen Center of Social Data Science (SODAS), where she studies phone usage activity and user engagement. Her research interests stay at the intersection between computational social science, machine learning, and network analysis.

Talk Michael Szell at Funders Forum on Sustainable Cities
2019-10-16 08:00 - 2019-10-17 17:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | Turin, Turin, Italy

Invited talk Laura Alessandretti
2019-10-10 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | ITU, 3A08, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, København, 2300, Denmark

Invited talk Jonas S. Juul
2019-10-03 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Copenhagen)

Colloquium at SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati
2019-09-25 | SISSA, Trieste, Italy
Roberta will give a Colloquium at SISSA. Here the link to the event.

DataBeers Copenhagen
2019-09-23 18:30 - 21:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | H15, Halmtorvet 15, København, 1700, Denmark
NERDS members Roberta and Michael co-organize the second DataBeers event.

Invited talk Carlos Gershenson
2019-09-12 00:00 - 13:30 (Europe/Copenhagen) | ITU, 2A08, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, Copenhagen, 2300, Denmark
Prof. Carlos Gershenson from IINAS::UNAM will visit ITU on Sep 12th.
You’re invited to attend his lunchtime talk “Heterogeneity extends criticality”.

NERDS @ Techfest: The Future of Social Media Data Research
2019-09-07 13:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Copenhagen) | Rysensteen, Flæsketorvet 60, 1711 København, Flæsketorvet 60, , København, 1711, Denmark
We’re participating at Techfest 2019 a 3-day festival in Copenhagen with 200+ events on humans and technology.
We will coordinate a session about The Future of Social Media Data Research: Let’s Do It Right When it Comes to Data, Privacy and Public-Interest
Session presentation:
Social media has become a central data source for the study of individual as well as societal issues. The unprecedented scale and granularity of this type of data allow researchers to observe social dynamics as they unfold and hold high potential. Nevertheless, recent scandals and data-breaches such as in the case of Cambridge Analytica, and the social media platforms’ reaction, have shown the potential contradictions underlying this kind of research. Who holds the right to do public-interest research on this data? How to make it freely available for researchers? Who should be hold accountable?
This session will discuss these questions that will play a central role in shaping the future of research in many fields.

Roberta @ Metascience Conference 2019
2019-09-04 - 2019-09-08 | Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
Roberta will give an invited talk at the Metascience Conference 2019, hosted at Stanford University, in Palo Alto.

This is the topic of the conference:
During this decade, we have witnessed the emergence of a new discipline called metascience, metaresearch, or the science of science. Most exciting is the fact that this is emerging as a truly interdisciplinary enterprise with contributors from every domain of research. This symposium serves as a formative meeting for metascience as a discipline. The meeting will bring together leading scholars that are investigating questions related to themes such as:

How do scientists generate ideas?
How are our statistics, methods, and measurement practices affecting our capacity to identify robust findings?
Does the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory research matter?
What is replication and its impact and its value?
How do scientists interpret and treat evidence?
What are the cultures and norms of science?

Cambridge Network Day, University of Cambridge
2019-08-29 | Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Roberta gave an invited talk at Cambridge Network Day, the yearly conference of the Cambridge Networks Network, at the University of Cambridge.

Cambridge Networks Day 2019 is the sixth of our annual meetings on the topic of complex networks. It is an occasion for the research community to exchange ideas and expertise, intended to spark interdisciplinary collaborations. The day will include a diverse set of talks by invited speakers highlighting interest- ing new directions in the field of complex networks, as well as a poster session. We hope the day’s events will strengthen the interdisciplinary links between researchers and promote communication within the community.

ASONAM 2019 (4 Talks)
2019-08-27 - 2019-08-30
Presenting:
– Benchmarking API Systems for Social Media Data Collection
– Discovering Communities of Community Discovery
– The Impact of Projection and Backboning on Network Analysis
– Investigating Community Discovery Similarity Measures’ Behaviors

NERDS at Lipari Complex Networks workshop
2019-07-13 - 2019-07-19
NERDS Michele Coscia, Roberta Sinatra, and Michael Szell were invited to present their research at the workshop “Complex networks: from socio-economic systems to biology and brain” from the 13th to the 19th of July in Lipari.

Talk Michael Szell at Data Beers Copenhagen
2019-05-23 18:30 - 21:00 UTC | Byens Lys, Fabriksområdet 99, Copenhagen, 1440
The first edition of Data Beers Copenhagen will feature five talks, one of them given by NERDS member Michael Szell on “Understanding wasted mobility space with crowdsourced urban data”.

Luca Rossi public talk: @Demokratisk disruption 2018/2019
2019-05-21 | Bornholm
In the context of MandagMorgen’s talks series on the future of Democracy NERDS member Luca Rossi will give a keynote about Social Media echo-chambers and the risk for democracy. The event will be organized on the Danish island of Bornholm: more details here.

Invited talk Dominique Boullier
2019-05-16 12:00 - 14:00 UTC | ITU, 3A08, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, København, 2300, Denmark
Prof. Dominique Boullier from EPFL will visit ITU on May 16th.
You’re invited to attend his lunchtime talk “Digital Propagations and Memetics as a New Opportunity for Quantification in Social Sciences, with the Help of Data Science”

Roundtable talk Roberta Sinatra at Monte Carlo Prix Femme de l’année
2019-05-04 14:00 - 15:00 UTC
NERDS member Roberta Sinatra will give a keynote roundtable talk on May 4th in Monaco on her research on the Science of Success, at the Monte Carlo Prix Femme de l’année.
Attendants include Princess Charlene of Monaco.
