Lecture: Alessandro Vespignani

You are invited to the following Networks and Complex Systems Talk.

September 14
6:00 p.m.
Wells Library 001

"Predicting the behavior of techno-social systems: Planning for pandemic outbreaks in real time" will be presented by Alessandro Vespignani, Professor of Informatics, Adjunct Professor of Physics and Statistics, Indiana University.

Abstract:
We live in an increasingly interconnected world where infrastructures composed by different technological layers are interoperating with the social component that drives their use and development. Examples are provided by the Internet, the social Web, the new WiFi communication technologies and transportation and mobility infrastructures. The multi-scale nature and complexity of these networks are crucial features in the understanding of techno-social systems and the dynamical processes occurring on top of them. I will review the recent advances and challenge in this area and how we can look forward to new forecasting infrastructures in the context of techno-social systems. As a foremost example I will review the recent development and the major roadblocks in the computational approach to the prediction and control of emerging diseases. In particular I will discuss the global epidemic and mobility (GLEaM) computational platform and its use in the early stages of the recent H1N1 outbreak to provide real-time projections and scenarios on the unfolding of the epidemic.