Presenter
Jie Wang
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts
Lowell, MA 01854
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~wang
Time
3:00 PM Sep 16, 2008
Location
Olsen 311
Title
Large-Scale Network Dynamics: A New Frontier
Abstract
Early studies on large-scale networks have revealed the small-world and scale-free phenomena in human social networks, online social networks, computer networks, and other common networks. Small-world is believed by some researchers to be a reasonable model for studying brain networks. Most early results were obtained on static, random, or hybrid models, without considering location-time dynamics. The underlying problems involve networks of millions to billions of nodes with dynamically formed and evolved network topologies and node relations determined by various contingent parameters on each node and each edge. How these networks would change from one moment to the next and how individual actions would aggregate to collective behavior cannot be answered by deterministic or probabilistic methods alone, for network dynamics is not completely ordered nor completely random. How to model network dynamics with the space-time dimensions and obtain meaningful results for large-scale networks is a grand challenge.
In this talk we will discuss some of these challenges in modeling mobile social networks and infectious disease spread. We will then describe some of the recent results our research group has obtained on location-based mobile social networks and computer network forensics for tracing dynamic anonymous wireless criminals using computational, mathematical, and engineering methods. In particular, we will demonstrate how to predict which pairs of users will likely become friends on Brightkite over time and how to use 3D antennas to locate mobile WIFI users. We will also provide a few interesting statistical results we recently obtained on MySpace.
(Major members in the research group: G. Chen, X. Fu, B. Liu, and PhD students.)
Brief Bio
Dr. Jie Wang is Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is also Director of the Center for Network
and Information Security. His first name "Jie" in Mandarin is pronounced similar to "Jed". He received Ph.D. in Computer Science from Boston University in 1991, MS in Computer Science from Zhongshan University in 1985, and BS in Computational Mathematics from Zhongshan University in 1982.
Dr. Wang's research interests include computational complexity theory, combinatorial optimization algorithms, computational medicine, and network security. He has worked as a security consultant in financial industry. His recent research focus is on wireless sensor networks and network dynamic applications. His work has been funded by the NSF since 1991. IBM, Intel, and the Natural Science Foundation of China have also funded his work.
Dr. Wang has published over 110 research papers in some of the most prestigious journals and conference proceedings. He has authored and co-authored three books; edited and co-edited four books. He is active in professional service, including chairing conference program committees, serving as journal editors, and organizing conferences and workshops.
