Nan Du

It is a great opportunity to join the summer school and I am happy to make friends with everyone here. I am in the second year of my Ph.D. study in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and I am going to be an exchanging student in the Department of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Aug. My research interests include modeling of complex networks and systems, social network analysis, community detection and evolution, data mining for customer lifetime value, and distributed computing. I am especially interested in using network theories and tools to solve the interesting problems in the field of sociology, economics, and biology. I expect to do real exciting and interdisciplinary projects in CSSS 2008, and I look forward to meeting all of you.

1. What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them? My expertise is in the field of social network analysis, community detection and evolution, and a variety of issues about large graph data mining. I can also try to help people with programming questions using C++ and Java, and with some Visualization Analysis questions.

2. What do you want to learn at the CSSS 2008 ? I expect to have some familiarity with a variety of theories and techniques to analyze and model the essential interacting mechanism of social, economic, and biological systems.

3. Do you have any projects or research interests that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach? Yes, all my research is about interdisciplinary work, and will definitely benefit from this summer school.

4. Do you have any ideas for what sort of project you would like to do work on with other CSSS students this summer? I am interested in modeling and describing the possible impact of the community structures on the information diffusion, and the cascading phenomena in complex networks. Another interesting topic is about economics of networks. Networks arise out of our decisions to form links, and in forming links, we compare the costs and benefits of links. These costs and benefits are in turn related to the linking decisions of others. As a result, the network formation can be regarded as a game and strategic activity. I want to explore how this activity can be applied to the filed of economic and biological systems.

5. Suppose you could travel one-hundred years in the future and ask researchers any three questions. What would those questions be? (1) The origin of the universe and life. (2) What are their opinions towards today’s global climate problem? (3) Can genetic technologies really help to extend people’s lives ?