When:
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: Chambers Hall, Lower Level, 600 Foster St, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Nancy McLaughlin
(847) 491-2527
Group: Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Category: Lectures & Meetings
Network Imputation in Research Collaboration Networks
Wednesdays@NICO Seminar | 12:00-1:00 PM, February 18, 2015 | Chambers Hall, Lower Level
Abstract
Network imputation, which includes the problems of link prediction and missing link detection, has become an important foundation for expert recommendation and network validation in data mining, social network analysis, biology, and physics. This project applies p* models (also called Exponential Random Graph Models) to study the formation of grant collaboration networks among scientific researchers. Using Linked Open Data, we construct a data set with 1,308 researchers and their demographic and bibliographic information. Researchers’ attributes such as gender, seniority and experience, and co-authorship among them are used to predict their grant collaboration. We perform an experiment to examine the prediction power of the p* method and compare against three prediction techniques traditionally used in the literature: node-wise similarity, the Katz method, and Relational Bayesian Networks. The results show that p* acts as an ensemble approach and outperforms the existing methods. The goal of this project is to integrate social science theories and data mining techniques and develop a better theoretical and statistical foundation for more effective recommendation tools.
Bio
Yun Huang is a research associate in the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) research group in the department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University. His research explores the dynamic and evolution of individual behavior and interactions in digital-enabled environments such as scientific collaboration, virtual communities, and online games using data mining, social network analysis, and economics approaches. He holds a doctorate in management science and information systems from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Tsinghua University.