Networks and Recommender Systems
Data Skeptic
Kyle reveals the next season's topic will be "Recommender Systems". Asaf shares insights on how network science contributes to the recommender system field.
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Network of Past Guests Collaborations
Data Skeptic
Kyle and Asaf discuss a project in which we link former guests of the podcast based on their co-authorship of academic papers.
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The Network Diversion Problem
Data Skeptic
In this episode, Professor Pål Grønås Drange from the University of Bergen, introduces the field of Parameterized Complexity - a powerful framework for tackling hard computational problems by focusing on specific structural aspects of the input. This framework allows researchers to solve NP-complete problems more efficiently when certain parameters, like the structure of the graph, are "well-behaved". At the center of the discussion is the network diversion problem, where the goal isn’t to block all routes between two points in a network, but to force flow - such as traffic, electricity,...
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Complex Dynamic in Networks
Data Skeptic
In this episode, we learn why simply analyzing the structure of a network is not enough, and how the dynamics - the actual mechanisms of interaction between components - can drastically change how information or influence spreads. Our guest, Professor Baruch Barzel of Bar-Ilan University, is a leading researcher in network dynamics and complex systems ranging from biology to infrastructure and beyond. Paper in focus:
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Github Network Analysis
Data Skeptic
In this episode we'll discuss how to use Github data as a network to extract insights about teamwork. Our guest, Gabriel Ramirez, manager of the notifications team at GitHub, will show how to apply network analysis to better understand and improve collaboration within his engineering team by analyzing GitHub metadata - such as pull requests, issues, and discussions - as a bipartite graph of people and projects. Some insights we'll discuss are how network centrality measures (like eigenvector and betweenness centrality) reveal organizational dynamics, how vacation patterns influence team...
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Networks and Complexity
Data Skeptic
In this episode, Kyle does an overview of the intersection of graph theory and computational complexity theory. In complexity theory, we are about the runtime of an algorithm based on its input size. For many graph problems, the interesting questions we want to ask take longer and longer to answer! This episode provides the fundamental vocabulary and signposts along the path of exploring the intersection of graph theory and computational complexity theory.
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Graphs for Causal AI
Data Skeptic
How to build artificial intelligence systems that understand cause and effect, moving beyond simple correlations? As we all know, correlation is not causation. "Spurious correlations" can show, for example, how rising ice cream sales might statistically link to more drownings, not because one causes the other, but due to an unobserved common cause like warm weather. Our guest, Utkarshani Jaimini, a researcher from the University of South Carolina's Artificial Intelligence Institute, tries to tackle this problem by using knowledge graphs that incorporate domain expertise. Knowledge graphs...
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Power Networks
Data Skeptic
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Unveiling Graph Datasets
Data Skeptic
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Network Manipulation
Data Skeptic
In this episode we talk with Manita Pote, a PhD student at Indiana University Bloomington, specializing in online trust and safety, with a focus on detecting coordinated manipulation campaigns on social media. Key insights include how coordinated reply attacks target influential figures like journalists and politicians, how machine learning models can detect these inauthentic campaigns using structural and behavioral features, and how deletion patterns reveal efforts to evade moderation or manipulate engagement metrics. Follow our guest Papers in focus
info_outlineIn this episode, the data scientist Wentao Su shares his experience in AB testing on social media platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.
We talk about how network science can enhance AB testing by accounting for complex social interactions, especially in environments where users are both viewers and content creators. These interactions might cause a "spillover effect" meaning a possible influence across experimental groups, which can distort results.
To mitigate this effect, our guest presents heuristics and algorithms they developed ("one-degree label propagation”) to allow for good results on big data with minimal running time and so optimize user experience and advertiser performance in social media platforms.