SUMMARY OF THE WEEK'S ACTIVITIES
Monday Jan 19th
Network Science Tutorial for non-specialists, Part 1 (Basic concepts and Computational Tools): Ernesto Estrada and Alan Taylor. (presentation 1, presentation 2)
Open lecture by Des Higham and Ernesto Estrada, Network Science: Joining the Dots
Tuesday Jan 20th:
Network Science Tutorial for non-specialists, Part 2 (Modern Concepts, Algorithms and Applications): Ernesto Estrada and Des Higham. (presentation 1, presentation 2)
Open lecture by Phil Knight, Google Maths
Wednesday Jan 21st:
Peter Gill, How the Romanov Family Remains Were Identified by DNA Profiling
Thursday Jan 22nd:
Keith Bell, Complexity in Power Networks: How Come the Lights Don't Go Out More Often?
Friday Jan 23rd:
Marc Roper, Complex Networks in Software Systems - A Challenge to Complexity Scientists?
Abstracts for the Open lectures
Ernesto Estrada and Des Higham, Network Science: Joining the Dots
Connections are important. In studying nature, technology, commerce and the social sciences it often makes sense to focus on the pattern of interactions between individual components. As the open lectures this week will show, large, complex networks arise in many disciplines, for example,
- in the cell: connecting genes or proteins,
- in the brain: connecting neural regions,
- in the Internet Movie Database: connecting actors,
- in the power grid: connecting electricity generators or users,
- in telecommunications: connecting people or devices,
- in computer science: connecting hardware or software units,
- in social groups: connecting friends or colleagues.
Improvements in computing power have allowed us to store and analyze these massive data sets, and a new discipline, Network Science, has emerged. In this opening leceture, we will focus on contributions that mathematicians and other scientists have made towards understanding how large networks evolve, discovering universal properties and developing tools to pick out interesting details.
Phil Knight, Google Maths
Search engines have developed rapidly since the WWW emerged. This is testament not only to the increased power of computers, but also to the work of a large number of mathematicians who have shaped the path of the evolution of search engines. After a brief history of search engines we look at what makes Google and its competitors so successful. In particular we look at how they find relevant information and how this is then sorted. Without assuming too much background knowledge in mathematics, we will concentrate on link analysis, which draws on several mathematicial ideas such as graph theory and probability. We give examples to show how successful this can be but we also show how malicious users attempt to use mathematics to subvert the results. We finish by speculating on the features of a perfect search engine and how mathematicians can contribute to its genesis.
Peter Gill, How the Romanov family remains were identified by DNA profiling
In 1991 skeletons found in a shallow grave in Yekaterinburg, Russia, were tentatively identified as being the remains of the Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra and three of their five children. In 1993-94 Dr Gill led the team which performed extensive DNA-based testing from bone samples. He confirmed the identity of the remains as the Romanov family by comparing DNA sequences with HRH Prince Philip (Duke of Edinburgh, a direct descendant of the Tsarina Alexandra). He also led the subsequent investigation which disproved the claim of Anna Anderson to be the Duchess Anastasia (using tissue preserved in a paraffin wax block for several decades). This was the first example in the world of the solving of an historical mystery that involved the analysis of very degraded and aged material. Subsequently, Dr. Gill was closely involved with the identification of remains found at a second grave site, which has now been shown to be those of prince Alexei and one of the princesses. This means that the entire Romanov family have now been accounted for. Unfortunately, none escaped the Bolshevik execution squad on July 17, 1918.
Keith Bell, Complexity in power networks: how come the lights don't go out more often?
Electric power networks are large, complex and dynamic. As will be shown by brief descriptions of some major recent power outage events, it sometimes seems as if they are on the brink of collapsing. However, they have been designed to be quite robust and the relative rarity of large blackouts suggests that the designs have generally been successful. This talk will address some key aspects of power network design and operation and point towards some of the challenges now facing researchers and society in general if we want to meet climate change targets and still have the reliable supply of electricity that we've been used to.
Marc Roper, Complex Networks in Software Systems - A Challenge to Complexity
Scientists?
Graphs are used extensively within computer science and software engineering to represent a wide range of network relationships - from internal data and control dependencies within a program, to workflow and process dependencies within the development lifecycle. One common factor in complex software engineering projects is the sheer scale of such network graphs, potentially consisting as they do of millions of nodes and edges. The aim of this talk is to review the uses of network graphs within different aspects of software engineering and outline some of the approaches we have taken in trying to manage such large and complex entities in a range of different contexts. It also raises the question of whether any of the techniques employed by complexity scientists can be used to address the problems presented by complex software systems.
Organisers of the workshops: