Course

 title:    
Introduction  to  Networks    
Instructor:    
Moses  Boudourides  
 
Course  description:  
Today  the  ubiquity  of  networks  is  all-­‐obvious:  networks  of  friends,  communication,  
biological  and  chemical  networks,  transportation,  networks  of  computers,  the  Web,  
networks  in  social  media  etc.  etc.  The  aim  of  this  course  is  to  explore  the  study  of  
networks  and  how  they  help  us  understand  the  complex  patterns  of  relationships  
that  shape  our  lives.  Although  this  is  an  introductory  course  on  Network  Science  and  
no  prerequisites  nor  any  mathematical  or  physical  or  technical  skills  are  required,  
the  course  intends  also  to  discuss  certain  important  aspects  of  the  Computational  
Network  Science.  For  this  purpose,  the  programming  language  Python  will  be  used  
as  a  tool  for  the  implementation  of  network  computations  in  the  course.  Students  do  
not  need  to  know  Python  or  to  possess  major  skills  with  computing.  They  would  only  
have  to  install  the  application  of  Jupyter  Notebook  on  their  computers  so  that  they  
might  be  able  to  use  all  the  computations  for  the  course,  which  will  be  already  coded  
and  provided  by  the  instructor.  In  the  first  two  weeks  of  the  course,  students  will  be  
guided  how  to  make  the  required  installation  in  their  own  computers,  how  to  access  
(through  Github)  and  how  to  use  the  course  material  in  the  form  of  Jupyter  
Notebooks.  
 
Prerequisites:  
None  
 
Learning  outcomes:  
By  the  end  of  this  course,  students  will  have:  
• Become  familiar  with  a  number  of  import  issues  about  the  network  
entanglements  that  are  almost  ubiquitous  in  our  everyday  lives  and  about  a  
large  range  of  network  applications  in  STEM  (mostly  on  Mathematics,  
Biology,  Medicine,  Computer  Science,  Engineering,  Technology  etc.)  but  also  

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 in  Social  Sciences  (Economics  Sociology,  Anthropology,  Management,  Policy  
Studies  etc.)  and  in  Humanities  (Literature,  History,  the  Arts  etc.).  
• Understood  the  various  typologies  of  networks  and  the  structural  
characteristic  that  they  are  displaying.  
• Comprehended  how  networks  expand  or  shrink,  foster  or  suppress,  become  
resilient  or  immune  or  vulnerable  to  attacks  or  to  the  spread  of  viral  effects.  
• Learned  how  to  use  various  computational  tools  in  order  to  measure,  
analyze,  interpret  and  even  predict  possible  trends  in  the  evolution  of  
networks.  
 
Teaching  and  learning  methods:  
. Each  week  will  be  divided  in  two  parts.  During  the  first  part,  the  instructor  will  be  
delivering  lectures  and  engaged  in  discussions  with  students  answering  questions  or  
suggesting  further  literature  to  those  interested  in  going  in  those  directions.  Every  
week’s  lecture  will  also  include  a  demonstration  of  various  computations,  
visualizations,  simulations  and  experiments  illustrating  from  a  practical  point  of  view  
the  topics  discussed  in  that  week.  During  the  first  part,  students  will  be  prompted  to  
develop  a  critical  discussion  debating  on  the  topics  of  that  week  and  also  they  will  be  
encouraged  to  practice  the  taught  computational  methodologies  by  running  
examples  of  these  computations  on  their  own  laptops  (or  possibly  at  a  computer  
lab).  The  students  will  also  be  required  to  work  on  a  team  project  during  the  
semester  and  to  present  it  in  front  of  the  class  the  last  day  of  the  course.  They  would  
also  be  asked  to  submit  a  written  report  of  their  project  so  that  they  might  be  able  
to  achieve  a  deeper  understanding  of  the  course’s  main  topics  and  to  improve  their  
writing  and  presentation  skills.      
 
Course  materials:  
The  required  textbook  can  be  one  of  the  following  two  (unless  students  want  to  
purchase  them  both):  
• Jackson,  M.O.,  The  Human  Network:  How  Your  Social  Position  Determines  
Your  Power,  Beliefs,  and  Behaviors,  Pantheon,  2019.  

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 • Menczer,  F.,  Fortunato,  S.,  &  Davis,  C.A.,  A  First  Course  in  Network  Science,  
Cambridge  University  Press  (this  is  a  forthcoming  book  expected  to  come  out  
in  late  2019  or  2020).  
In  case  the  latter  has  not  come  out  by  the  beginning  of  the  course,  it  will  be  replaced  
by  the  following:  
• Newman,  M.,  Networks,  Oxford  University  Press,  2nd  Edition,  2018.  
 
Suggested  reading  (for  the  class  discussions):  
• Scott,  J.,  Social  Network  Analysis,  SAGE,  4th  Edition,  2017.  
• Wasserman,  S.,  &  Faust,  K.,  Social  Network  Analysis:  Methods  and  
Applications,  Cambridge  University  Press,  1994.  
• Zinoviev,  D.,  Complex  Network  Analysis  in  Python:  Recognize  –  Construct  –  
Visualize  –  Analyze  –  Interpret,  Pragmatic,  2018.  
 
Tentative  course  schedule:  
 
Week  1:  Basic  Concepts  of  Networks    
Week  2:  Network  Construction  and  Plotting  in  Python  
Week  3:  Network  Patterns  (Subgraphs,  Cycles,  Cliques,  Ego-­‐Nets)  
Week  4:  Network  Centralities  
Week  5:  Network  Communities  
Week  6:  Random  Networks,  Small  Worlds  and  Preferential  Attachment  
Week  7:  Network  Homophily-­‐Assortativity-­‐Mixing    
Week  8:  Dynamics  and  Temporal  Networks  
Week  9:  Diffusion  and  Contagion  in  Networks  
Week  10:  Network  Influence  
Week  11:  Networks  from  Scientometrics  
Week  12:  Networks  from  Social  Media  
Week  13:  Financial  Networks  
Week  14:  Critical  Issues  on  Networks  
 

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