Appreciating and Understanding Network Phenomena CSC 194/294/574 (Let's call it all ``294.'') CRN: 69938/70250/70268 TR 11:05-12:20 CSB 632 Instructor: Joel Seiferas (joel@cs.rochester.edu) We examine and relate ``connectedness'' phenomena in a broad spectrum of social, economic, and technological settings, and look for and at elegant models that can lead to phenomena similar to those that are observed. Topics chosen from those in the new textbook by Easley and Kleinberg, such as the evolution of networks, small-world and rich-get-richer phenomena, diffusion and epidemics, game theory, random walks and eigenvalues, the wisdom of crowds and markets, voting and other information aggregation, Bayes' rule, spam filtering, and the world-wide web. Students will have an opportunity to influence the choice of topics, and even to participate in their presentation. Responsibilities will vary with registration level (194/294/574). No formal prerequisites. Text: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/ (June, 2010, free, color) http://www.amazon.com/Networks-Crowds-Markets-Reasoning-Connected/dp/0521195330 (July, 2010, $40, bw) (1 copy on reserve in Carlson) Coverage: Suggestions and requests part of ``participation''! Last fall's Cornell course: http://www.infosci.cornell.edu/courses/info2040/2011fa/NetworksPoster.pdf http://www.infosci.cornell.edu/courses/info2040/2011fa/ Prerequisites: None--let's work with what we bring. Class attendance and participation: Crucial Other responsibilities, commensurate with registration level: Presentations, especially sharing experience you may have Occasional other HW from or inspired by book or class suggestions Tests, perhaps: Midterm (Thursday, March 8) Final (Friday, May 11, 8:30 a.m.) Grading: Easy (but not unfounded) this first time Academic honesty policy: See www.rochester.edu/college/honesty and 1-slide summary. Completely general advice: Leave tracks--when in doubt, cite! Repository for extra materials: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~joel/294/?C=M;O=D