MS&E 135: Networks (Winter 2017)

Lecture hours: Tu/Th, 10:30am-11:50pm
Lecture room: 200-203 (Building 200, Rm 203)

Instructor: Johan Ugander, Assistant Professor, MS&E
Email: jugander [at] stanford
Office location: Huang 357
Office hours: Tu 4-5pm

TAs: Stephen Ragain, Anilesh Krishnaswamy
Email: sragain, anilesh [at] stanford
Office hours location: Huang B008
Office hours: Tues 3-6pm and Weds 2-5pm

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to how networks underly our social, technological, and natural worlds, with an emphasis on developing intuitions for broadly applicable concepts in network analysis. The course will include: an introduction to graph theory and graph concepts; social networks; information networks; the aggregate behavior of markets and crowds; network dynamics; information diffusion; the implications of popular concepts such as "six degrees of separation", the "friendship paradox", and the "wisdom of crowds".

Most important links:

Lectures

Week Date Topic Reading Assignments
1 1/10 Course overview; Introduction to graph theory Ch. 1, 2.1-2.3 Visit Canvas, request blog account
1/12 Strong and weak ties Ch. 3.1-3.3 PS1 Out
2 1/17 Homophily, Affiliation; Friendship paradox Ch. 4.1-4.3, Friendship paradox
1/19 Structural Balance Ch. 5.1-5.4 PS1 Due, PS2 Out
3 1/24 Game Theory Ch. 6.1-6.9
1/26 Congestion, Auctions Ch. 8.1-8.2, 9.1-9.2
4 1/31 Matching Markets Ch 9.3-9.6, 10.1-10.4
2/2 Bargaining & Power Ch. 12.1-12.3, 12.5-12.8 PS2 Due, PS3 Out
5 2/7 The Web as a Network Ch 13.1-13.5
2/9 Link Analysis Ch. 14.1-14.3
6 2/14 Web Search Ch. 14.4-14.5
2/16 Sponsored Search as a Market Ch 15.1-15.5 PS3 Due, PS4 Out
7 2/21 Information Cascades Ch. 16.1-16.7
2/23 Network Effects, Cascading Behavior Ch. 17.1-17.3, 19.1-19.4
8 2/28 Rich-get-richer Ch 18.1-18.6
3/2 Small Worlds Ch. 20.1-20.6, FB calculator PS4 Due, PS5 Out
9 3/7 Guest Lecture: Sean Taylor, Facebook Data Science
3/9 Epidemics Ch 21.1-21.4, 21.6
10 3/14 Couse review
3/16 Review practice exam PS5 Due, 10:30am


Problem Sets

Problem sets are posted on Canvas, solutions will be posted to Canvas soon after the submission deadline. See the syllabus details (below) for detailed information about grading, late, and collaboration policy.

Writing blog posts

All students will be required to write three short blog posts during the quarter, posted to a course blog and taking the form of a miniature reaction paper.

Format:

Each post should be centered around an recent news article, academic paper, online essay, new company or organization, and contain at least one web link on that subject. The goal is to provide commentary that gives context around the subject, targeted at your peers in the course (or similarly informed outsiders). Why do you think it interesting or relevant? The post should be at least two paragraphs.

One of the purposes of these writing assignments is to practice communicating your thoughts in a public forum (albeit anonymously, see the privacy discussion below). Your audience is each other, not just the course staff. Engage each other! Posts that dialogue with earlier posts from the course are encouraged, though should add significantly to the previous points made (in part by referencing a new news article/paper/essay).

You should keep in mind, as you write your posts, that if you refer to a company, organization, or research project in the outside world, the people you’re talking about may well end up reading what you write. Finally, adding inappropriate, rude, or disruptive content to the blog will result in a 0 for this part of the course grade, and (depending on the nature of the content) potentially stronger actions. Plagiarism is also not acceptable; the Honor Code applies.

Grading:

Posts will be graded based on their relevance to the class, novelty, and quality of the insights and writing. Outstanding posts will be mentioned and discussed in lectures. You are encouraged but not required to read the posts by your classmates.

Account creation and privacy:

Please see Canvas for instructions on how to create a blog account pseudonym. No student will be required to make their true identity public as part of these assignments.

The course staff will keep a private record of the user names and the corresponding real names for purposes of grading. Nothing prevents you from including your real names in the text of a post, if you choose to do so, but please do not mention other students by name as a blanket policy. You are free to mention the instructor or TAs (e.g.: "Professor Ugander mentioned on Thursday that...").

If you join the class late, please email the TA to obtain an account.

Scheduling: To space out the post traffic, students are assigned "deadline weeks" based on the first letter of their last name. You are responsible for submitting a blog post before Friday 5pm of the weeks you are assigned. If your name is Ada Lovelace, you would be required to submit your first blog post by January 27th, your second blog post by February 17th, and your third by March 10th. You may of course submit your blog posts before the week they are due.

First letter of last name Weeks Deadlines
A-K 2, 5, 8 January 20, February 10, March 3
L-N 3, 6, 9 January 27, February 17, March 10
O-Z 4, 7, 10 February 3, February 24, March 17

Inspiration:

Feel free to browse the Spring 2016 course blog for inspiration, though the central stories for your commentaries should not come from this blog or any other similar course blog.

Syllabus Details

Learning goals

Prerequisites

Material

Problem Set Rules Final exam Evaluation Students with Documented Disabilities
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. For more information: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae