NetSE: Medium: Robust Socio-Technological Networks: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Theoretical Foundation and Experimentation

网络是我们社会的中心，包括虚拟在线空间中的社交网络和通信设备中的技术网络。使社会技术网络变得强大正成为国家安全、救灾和经济稳定的首要问题。该项目汇集了一个真正的跨学科团队，以开发基础研究方法，并为实现这一目标进行大规模的人类受试者实验。智力优势：（1）为强大的网络开发基础工具。我们借鉴了一套数学和统计工具的两个驱动应用程序：（一）鲁棒性对冲击，从社会结构的角度，政策的影响，和通信恢复，和（ii）拓扑结构的影响，对信息的价值和传播。(2)跨越学科界限的互动。该团队由来自三个部门的四名教师组成：电气工程，社会学和政治学。总体而言，研究人员借鉴了从大规模的基于社交网络的人类行为研究到异构通信设备的随机优化等专业知识。 (3)弥合理论与实践的差距。 社交网络研究的一个主要瓶颈是缺乏既涉及创新研究议程又涉及人类受试者的实验测试平台。该团队开发了两套独特的实验平台：在线游戏社区和共享集市。更广泛的影响。除了在三个部门的课程开发创新，这个团队还积极接触到各种社区，从非政府组织到高中生和在线游戏玩家，从通信网络部门的主要公司到对社会科学和工程之间的交叉感兴趣的本科生。

Networks stand at the center of our society, including social networks in virtual online space and technology networks among communication devices. Making socio-technological networks robust is becoming a paramount concern for national security, disaster relief, and economic stability. This project brings together a truly inter-disciplinary team to develop the fundamental research methodologies and perform large-scale human subject experimentations towards this goal. Intellectual Merit: (1) Developing Foundational Tools for Robust Networking. We draw from a suite of mathematical and statistical tools on two driving applications: (i) robustness against shocks, from the angles of social structures, policy influence, and communication recovery, and (ii) topology's impact on information value and propagation. (2) Interacting Across Disciplinary Boundaries. This team consists of four faculty members from three departments: Electrical Engineering, Sociology, and Political Science. Collectively the researchers draw upon expertise ranging from large-scale, social-network-based human behavior study to stochastic optimization over heterogeneous communication devices. (3) Bridging Theory-Practice Gap. A major bottleneck to social network study is the lack of an experimental testbed involving both innovative research agenda and human subjects. There are two sets of unique experimental platforms developed by the team: Online Gaming Community and Sharing Mart. Broader Impacts. In addition to innovations in curriculum development across three departments, this team also actively reaches out to a variety of communities, from Non-Government-Organizations to high school students and online gamers, from major companies in the communication networking sector to undergraduates interested in the intersection between social sciences and engineering.