Madhav Marathe, University of Virginia

Abstract

The spread of transmitted phenomena referred to as contagion (e.g. opinions, attitudes, beliefs, worms) in social and communication networks any actual or virtual contagion transmitted in biological, social, organizational, computing and communication networks is a well-known complex problem. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the cascading failures in national and global financial sectors serve as excellent examples. Social and communication networks such as X, Meta and Instagram are emerging classes of networks over which diverse contagion spreads. Here, we will discuss methods for simulation, control and optimization of contagions over complex networks.Practical usefulness of these methods will be described via well chosen case studies. We will end the series with a number of challenges and open questions for future research.

Speaker Bio:

Madhav Marathe is distinguished professor in Biocomplexity, a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Executive Director of the Biocomplexity Institute, at the University of Virginia (UVA). His research interests are in network science, national security, sustainability, epidemiology, social and economic science, artificial intelligence, foundations of computing and high-performance computing. During his 30 year professional career, he has established and led a number to transdisciplinary team science groups. During this period, he and his colleagues have developed scalable computational methods to study a number of societal complex systems problems, such as urban transport planning, pandemic science, integrated energy systems. Recently, his group has supported federal and state authorities in their effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Before joining UVA, he held positions at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He is a fellow of the SIAM, ACM, AAAS, IEEE. He has published more than 500 articles in peer reviewed journals, conferences and workshops.