The mood was festive as President Joseph E. Aoun, network science luminaries, deans, students, and friends gathered on Wednesday evening on the 11th floor of 117 Huntington Ave. to celebrate the launch of Northeastern’sNetwork Science Institute, home of the nation’s first doctoral program in network science.
The Network Science Institute brings together an interdisciplinary team of renowned scholars from across the university to discover and inspire new ways to measure, model, and predict meaningful interactions in social, physical, biological, and technological systems. Its theme, “Solving Problems in an Interconnected World,” speaks to its commitment to develop intervention strategies that will improve the health and security of people around the world.
The “poster slam” following the ribbon-cutting ceremony displayed the breadth of research already underway. Topics included a quantification of the “science of success,” construction of a “Twitter barometer” of public opinion assessing issues such as the 2016 presidential race, and modeling the spread of the Ebola epidemic.
Addressing the enthusiastic crowd of more than 150 in the open glass-walled space were President Aoun;Alessandro Vespignani, the institute’s director and the Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor;Albert-László Barabási, director of the Center for Complex Network Research and Distinguished University Professor of Physics; and Stephen W. Director, senior advisor to the president and former provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
