Introduction To Network Analysis

AY2024/2025 Semester 2

Network science is a fast-growing interdisciplinary field of research that focuses on the representation, analysis, and modeling of complex and dynamic systems, providing a new way of viewing the world. This course introduces the basic concepts and methods of network analysis and their applications to a wide range of real-world problems: How do rumor, gossips, and even viruses spread among people? How do people start, maintain, and break up their romantic relationships? How does Google Search work so fast and accurately? What is the algorithm behind YouTube's recommendation system? Can everyone in the world really reach Donald Trump in six steps? Why do people neither wear necklaces on NTU-logo T-shirts nor eat popcorn with ketchup? Who will be killed in the next season of a TV series? This course also emphasizes the development of practical skills for data analysis, offering an opportunity for students to learn programming languages, such as R and Python. A series of tutorials will cover from the basic to intermediate level coding skills for network analysis and visualization. No prior knowledge of programming is expected.