Center for Network Science (CNS)
The Center for Network Science at Central European University provides an organizational platform for research in network science, with a special forcus on applications to practical social problems.
Network science, as a maturing field, offers a unique perspective to tackle complex problems, impenetrable to linear-proportional thinking. The concept of networks has come to pervade modern society – in our everyday experience we routinely use online social network services, we hear reports on the operation of terrorist networks, and we speculate on the six degrees of separation to celebrities and presidents. The science of networks is emerging as a scientific discipline that examines exactly these kinds of interconnections. It aims at explaining complex phenomena at larger scales emerging from simple principles of making network links.
Five-year ERC grant funds research into social network effects on economic activity
As announced in CEU news recently, Professor Adam Szeidl of CEU’s Economics Department won a five-year "Networks" grant from the European Research Council.
CNS Network Memory Game for the Holidays
We wish you a happy holidays season for 2011 with this networks-themed memory game:
http://www.socnet.se/cns_xmas/
Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Albert Laszlo Barabasi joins CEU CNS as part time faculty
Albert Laszlo Barabasi joins the CEU Center for Network Science as part time faculty. His appointment starts 2011 May 1st, and he will visit CNS regularly during the process of building substantive research capacities towards network science at CEU. His engagement at CEU CNS includes overseeing the development of a network science research strategy at CEU, help CNS secure research funding, and teaching one course on the fundamentals of network science.
Our findings show the fragmentation of European network science
There is a general sense of fragmentation when one compares European science to the American one. We set out to test the extent of fragmentation in the European network science field. We found that European netowrk science is highly fragmented, wih many small components arranged mostlty along country lines and disciplinary boundaries. Based on our analysis of citaiton performanve, it seems that the larger the component the higher the citation score.
Using network science at the U.S. Army
A recent article on NPR reports the use of network science in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: "The U.S. military's biggest success so far in the use of network analysis was the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003. He was found after soldiers diagrammed the social networks of his chauffeurs and others close to him.
Do you know your network?
A part of the PhD course "Understanding Networks" we map the personal network of each participant, using the ties recorded in our Facebook account. The way your friends are connected to each other reveals intersting reflections: Are there distinct subgroups? From which aspect of your personal history do they come from?
The geography of scientific collaboration
A recent article of Loet Leydesdorff & Olle Persson charts the geography of scientific collaboration. Maps and the software to make such maps is made available by the authors.
http://users.fmg.uva.nl/lleydesdorff/maps/Geography_of_Science.pdf
