Self-Identification: "Student" Versus "Researcher"

Here is a new comic from PhD Comics. For the punchline, click on the link and scroll to the bottom.

"Notes for a New Faculty Member"

This article is a worthwhile read for young faculty members, other young academics who are teaching some classes, and established faculty members as well.

(Tip of the cap to Association for Women in Mathematics.

"Null Models for Community Detection in Spatially Embedded, Temporal Networks"

Another one of my papers finally got its volume, issue, and page numbers last week. (It came out in advanced access in November 2015.) I finally got my own copy of the document today, so here are some details.

Title: Null Models for Community Detection in Spatially Embedded, Temporal Networks

Authors: Marta Sarzynska, Elizabeth A. Leicht, Gerardo Chowell, and Mason A. Porter

Abstract: In the study of networks, it is often insightful to use algorithms to determine mesoscale features such as 'community structure', in which densely connected sets of nodes constitute 'communities' that have sparse connections to other communities. The most popular way of detecting communities algorithmically is to maximize the quality function known as modularity. When maximizing modularity, one compares the actual connections in a (static or time-dependent) network to the connections obtained from a random-graph ensemble that acts as a null model. The communities are then the sets of nodes that are connected to each other densely relative to what is expected from the null model. Clearly, the process of community detection depends fundamentally on the choice of the null model, so it is important to develop and analyse novel null models that take into account appropriate features of the system under study. In this paper, we investigate the effects of using null models that incorporate spatial information, and we propose a novel null model based on the radiation model of population spread. We also develop novel synthetic spatial benchmark networks in which the connections between entities are based on the distance or flux between nodes, and we compare the performance of static and time-dependent versions of the radiation null model to the standard ('Newman–Girvan') null model for modularity optimization and to a recently proposed gravity null model. In our comparisons, we use both the above synthetic benchmarks and time-dependent correlation networks that we construct using countrywide dengue fever incidence data for Peru. Our findings illustrate the need to use appropriate generative models for the development of spatial null models for community detection.

RIP Sloan Annex

As John Preskill has tweeted (see the picture below), Sloan Annex has bitten the dust.

Good riddance. I spent 2.5 years in that rat maze. (Technically, 2 years and 4 months.) It was supposed to be demolished several decades ago.

The condensed-matter physics group was housed in that horrible building for many years. Amusingly, the theory postdocs were split into 'office of people with hair' and 'office of people without hair'. Well, those weren't the labels, but it was an equivalent partitioning.

Whoa, where did Sloan Annex go? #history @Caltech pic.twitter.com/0Y9tbvMM16

— John Preskill (@preskill) August 30, 2016

Granitas!

I want a granita!

(After getting a foot infection at the summer school last year and with my impending international move this month, I wasn't about to schlep over to Malfa this year, even with the promise of granitas. The peaches-and-cream one is named after me.)

Network science and granita with @tiagopeixoto @m_rosvall . Thinking about @masonporter and missing him #mscx2016 pic.twitter.com/LKgxEKoNuh

— Manlio De Domenico (@manlius84) August 30, 2016

RIP Gene Wilder (1933–2016)

Well, we have lost another epic talent: Gene Wilder (who I enjoyed in flicks like Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and other movies), has died. He was also in Willie Wonka the Chocolate Factory (which is a bloody creepy film, by the way), many films with Richard Pryor, and a lot more.

I can't write this blog entry without one particular word: FRONKENSTEEN!

(Tip of the cap to Bonnie Harland.)

"Los Angeles Airport Evacuation Sparked by Actor Dressed as Zorro 'Waving Plastic Sword'"

Well, this headline is pretty bizarre: "Los Angeles Airport Evacuation Sparked by Actor Dressed as Zorro 'Waving Plastic Sword'".

(Tip of the cap to John DesJardins‎.)

"What Are Essential Concepts About Networks?"

Our paper describing the process of how we created the networks literacy handbook finally has its volume, issue, and page numbers. (It was otherwise posted in final form late last year.) You can find it here, and here is some information about the paper's specs.

Title: What Are Essential Concepts About Networks?

Authors: Hiroki Sayama, Catherine Cramer, Mason A. Porter, Lori Sheetz, and Stephen Uzzo

Abstract: Networks have become increasingly relevant to everyday life as human society has become increasingly connected. Attaining a basic understanding of networks has thus become a necessary form of literacy for people (and for youths in particular). At the NetSci 2014 conference, we initiated a year-long process to develop an educational resource that concisely summarizes essential concepts about networks that can be used by anyone of school age or older. The process involved several brainstorming sessions on one key question: 'What should every person living in the 21st century know about networks by the time he/she finishes secondary education?' Different sessions reached diverse participants, which included professional researchers in network science, educators and high-school students. The generated ideas were connected by the students to construct a concept network. We examined community structure in the concept network to group ideas into a set of important themes, which we refined through discussion into seven essential concepts. The students played a major role in this development process by providing insights and perspectives that were often unrecognized by researchers and educators. The final result, 'Network Literacy: Essential Concepts and Core Ideas', is now available as a booklet in several different languages from http://tinyurl.com/networkliteracy.


Note (8/30/16): Clearly, I was tired when I wrote this blog entry, as I wrote the word "comments" instead of "concepts" in the paper title. I have now fixed this.

Cursing Sentiments About Programming Languages

In case you are wondering how people really feel (at least on Reddit) about certain programming languages, the picture in the Tweet below shows the frequencies of a few curse words in different programming languages.

Cursing per programming language in reddit comments (python is in 5th position ;)
From https://t.co/Lwu4kBg6yl pic.twitter.com/Pp2TtLoC8X

— Esteban Moro (@estebanmoro) August 27, 2016

You can take a look at more of the sentiment analysis on this page.

Cow Magnetization

Here is a cool video of what I will call cow magnetization. Maybe we should bring out the spin models after all? :)

(Tip of the cap to Erik Bollt.)

XKCD on Linear Correlations

Pretty much.

(Tip of the cap to Piotr Szymański.)

"Awesome" Old Board Games

Here is a list of some "awesome" (and, in many ways, justifiably forgotten) board games. I remember some of them!

Several of these are "awesome", and some of them (like number four...) go directly into the "What were they thinking?" category.

(And as some of you will remember, I saw a used copy of the "Where's the Beef?" game in Columbus a few months ago.)

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts for Duran Duran on Facebook.)

Integrating a Jellyfish Using the Midpoint Rule

Yes, really.

Cornell Video: Steve Strogatz on Mathematics, the Power of Abstraction, and Outreach

Here is a new press video from Cornell University with Steve Strogatz speaking about mathematics, finding patterns through the power of abstraction, and outreach. This video is short, and it does an excellent job of conveying the power of mathematics (as one would expect from an excellent communicator like Steve).

Tales from the ArXiv: Iterated Agony Edition

The last sentence of this paper is priceless: We analytically characterize the detectability threshold and we show that an iterated version of agony can partly overcome this resolution limit.

Mario and the Rio Olympics

Well, Mario came out of a giant pipe and made a stunning appearance at the closing ceremony of this year's Olympics. Naturally, this was to help "announce" the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Together, Mathematicians and Lepidopterologists Will Rule the World!

Follow me! Follow me to freedom!

Pictures from Costa Rica

I took some pictures in Costa Rica. (The album also includes some pictures that were taken by other people.)

It's a Small World After All: Part N

A very cool "small world" vignette from my current trip: One of the people who has attended many of my lectures at University of Costa Rica (10 hours in 3 days, and then 1 more hour today at a different campus) is a computer science professor whose sister is my Oxford mathematics colleague Xenia de la Ossa (with whom I have worked extensively for our recently-born masters program in mathematical and theoretical physics).

Academics are spread around the world and we get to travel to many interesting and diverse places, and it's simultaneously a small world. Both of these are great things.

Civilization VI: How University of Oxford was Actually Built

The video below from Civ VI shows how University of Oxford was actually built in real life. :)

Strangely, this version is missing both the Andrew Wiles Building and Somerville College.

Also: We built this University on Rock & Roll!