Kang Zhao

Kang

I am currently a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate at the College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, USA. I also hold an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering.

Look forward to meeting you all at Santa Fe!

• Personal Website;
• Email
• I created a Facebook group for CSSS 2010. Join the group and keep in touch after the program!

Research Interests

My research focuses on computational analysis of complex networks, including social, organizational, supply-chain and information networks.

My current research focuses on two areas:

• The analysis of multi-dimensional networks. I am interested in the interaction between different dimensions of a network and how one dimension affects another. For example, I used agent-based simulations to study how structural changes to the communication network among humanitarian organizations affects the structure of their collaboration network.

• The design of supply chain networks that are resilient against disruptions. I worked on resilience metrics that reflect heterogeneous roles of nodes in a supply chain network. I also developed network models that generate supply chain networks with interesting resilience properties.

Expertise

• Agent-based simulation
• Network analysis
• Optimization
• Web programming (PHP, MySQL, …)
• Some data mining techniques

What I hope to get out of the CSSS

I hope to improve my understanding of complex systems, especially from a mathematical perspective.

I believe the multi-disciplinary program will bring in diverse research and knowledge from a wide range of areas. Hopefully, we can kick off some exciting collaborative research.

I am also eager to learn from outstanding researchers, and to interact with brilliant fellow students from all over the world.

Possible projects in mind

I am open to projects that involve complex networks or simulations:)

In particular, there are two projects I would like to work on.

First, I want to study how information diffuses through social or communication networks, especially in web-based social media. Can we build an inter-personal diffusion or influence model using data retrieved from the Web (say Twitter)?

Second, I hope to extend my work on supply chain network resilience. I am interested in exploring the dynamic behaviors of nodes in the network when disruptions happen. I am also thinking about incorporate transportation networks into the study of supply chain network resilience. A transportation network may include different means of transportation, travel distance, cost, etc, and serves as the underlying infrastructure network for a supply chain network.

Hobbies

• I love traveling. I have been to 20 states in the US (New Mexico will be the 21st) and 14 countries (excluding China and US).
• I enjoy watching sports (football, soccer, basketball,…) and movies. It's so bad games for the World Cup will be aired during the day time...
• I also play soccer, badminton and Ping-Pong.