FUTURE Seminar by Ali Rana Atılgan

To be a part of a network or not to be

Ali Rana Atılgan

Which network structures favor the rapid spread of new ideas, behaviour, or technologies? Under what circumstances can a minority of individuals influence an exceptional number of their peers? Our technological and financial-economical systems have become dependent on networks of considerable complexity. This has made the behaviour of these systems difficult to reason and hence made them susceptible to disruptions that transform localized events into cascading failures. The emergence of pervasive data on human mobility, migration and communication has ferreted out patterns that may answer such questions and that constitute thorough understanding via simple models. In this seminar, we will set the stage with examples/phenomena. Then with qualitative thought experiments and quantitative simple models, we will crystallize our thinking. Consequently, by interpreting the results of these models, we attempt to answer the questions posed at the beginning.