The Taub Faculty of Computer Science Events and Talks

The mathematical study of social and information networks has historically centered around generative models for such networks (preferential attachment, the Chung-Lu random graph model, Kronecker graphs, etc.). This talk proposes distribution-free models of social and information networks - novel classes of graphs that capture all plausible such networks. Our models are motivated by triadic closure, the property that vertices with one or more mutual neighbors tend to also be neighbors; this is one of the most universal signatures of social networks. We prove structural results on the clustering properties of such graphs, and give algorithmic applications to clustering and clique-finding problems. Includes joint work with Jacob Fox, Rishi Gupta, C. Seshadhri, Fan Wei, and Nicole Wein. Short Bio: ============ Tim Roughgarden is a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. Prior to joining Columbia, he spent 15 years on the Computer Science Faculty at Stanford, following a PhD at Cornell and a postdoc at UC Berkeley. His research interests include the many connections between computer science and economics, as well as the design, analysis, applications, and limitations of algorithms. For his research, he has been awarded the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Kalai Prize in Computer Science and Game Theory, the Social Choice and Welfare Prize, the Mathematical Programming Society's Tucker Prize, and the EATCS-SIGACT Goedel Prize. He was an invited speaker at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians, the Shapley Lecturer at the 2008 World Congress of the Game Theory Society, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2017. His books include Twenty Lectures on Algorithmic Game Theory (2016) and the Algorithms Illuminated book series (2017-2019). ======================================= Refreshments will be served from 14:15 Lecture starts at 14:30