Talk by Laetitia Gauvin at SISSA om Friday 18 November, 2:00pm

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

Dear all,
I am pleased to announce a talk by Laetitia Gauvin ( Data Science 
Laboratory, ISI Foundation, Turin) to be held at SISSA on Friday 18 
November at 2:00pm in Room 5

Title: "Tensor decomposition for the analysis of temporal networks"

Abstract:
In this talk I will describe machine learning techniques based on tensor 
factorization to study temporal networks such as contact networks. 
Temporal networks are highly relevant in many fields of science, as they 
can be used to represent a great variety of systems in nature such as 
communication, social, infrastructural or neural networks. Considering 
the temporal dimension of these networks allows us to understand better 
and predict complex phenomena, by taking into account both the fact that 
the network edges are not continuously active and the potential relation 
between the spatial and temporal dimensions. A fundamental challenge in 
this area is the definition of mathematical models and tools apt to 
capture topological and dynamical characteristics and to reproduce 
properties observed on the real dynamics of networks.
I will here present techniques we have developed based on tensor 
factorization, that detect groups of links in networks that have 
correlated activities. I will first focus on the analysis of the 
topological structures that characterize time-varying networks, such as 
network communities (densely connected group of nodes). In particular, I 
will show how we can use tensor factorization to detect anomalies in 
temporal networks. I will then present a study on the interplay between 
the structures of time-varying networks and the dynamic processes 
unfolding over them, using the specific case of disease spreading. I 
will finally extend the framework of standard tensor factorization to 
infer missing data from a partial dataset and show how it enables us to 
reproduce the output of a dynamical process on the full temporal network.

Erica Sarnataro
Group Secretary
Quantitative Life Sciences
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Trieste,  Italy
Tel. +39-040-2240623
e-mail: qls at ictp.it