Network Science: CS 7280

Lesson 1....................................................................................................................................... 2
L1: Network Science................................................................................................................2
L1: Complex Systems..............................................................................................................2
L1: Trivial Networks vs Complex Networks..............................................................................2
L1: Example: The Brain of the C.elegans Worm..................................................................... 3
L1: The Main Premise..............................................................................................................3
L1: Network Centrality............................................................................................................. 4
L1: Communities (Modules) in Networks................................................................................. 5
L1: Dynamics of Networks....................................................................................................... 5
L1: Influence and Cascade Phenomena..................................................................................5
L1: The History of Network Science........................................................................................ 6
L1: The Birth of Network Science............................................................................................ 6
Lesson 1: Network Science

● Network Science, also known as NetSci, focuses on the network representation of

interconnected system components.
● Complex Systems:
■ Have many and heterogeneous components.
■ Involve components that interact through a non-linear network.
■ Exhibit non-linear interactions between components.
● Trivial Networks vs Complex Networks:
■ Regular networks have the same interconnection pattern at all nodes.
■ Random networks have connections between nodes determined
randomly.
■ Real-world systems have highly specific architectures with variable
interconnection patterns.
● Network Science vs Graph Theory:
■ Network science is an applied data-science discipline dealing with
complex networks in real-world systems.
■ Graph theory focuses mainly on regular and random graphs.
● Example: The Brain of the C.elegans Worm:
■ Network science maps the complex neural system of the C.elegans worm
into a graph representation.
■ The graph abstraction allows for mathematical and computational
analysis.
● The Main Premise:
■ The network architecture of a system provides valuable information about
its function, capabilities, resilience, and evolution.
■ Knowing the interconnection map of system components is sufficient to
answer important questions about the system.
■ Network representation is crucial for designing new systems.
● Network Architecture Options:
■ Ring architecture provides two disjoint paths between every pair of nodes.
■ Line, Tree, and Star architectures require fewer links but are vulnerable to
node or edge failures.
■ Fully Connected architecture requires the highest number of links but
offers direct and resilient communication.
■ Mesh architecture provides a trade-off between the previous properties.
● Network Centrality:
■ Centrality metrics quantify the importance of nodes and edges in a
network.
■ PageRank measures node centrality based on incoming links and their
importance.
■ Betweenness centrality measures the number of shortest paths that
traverse a node.
● Communities (Modules) in Networks:
 ■ Communities are clusters of highly interconnected nodes within a
network.
■ Connections within communities are denser than connections between
different communities.
● Dynamics of Networks:
■ Network Science focuses on Dynamic Networks that change over time
due to evolution, growth, or rewiring processes.
■ Dynamic Processes on Networks involve the unfolding of processes on a
fixed network structure.
● Influence and Cascade Phenomena:
■ Ideas, opinions, and social trends can spread through networks, including
online social networks.
● The History of Network Science:
■ Graph theory, statistical mechanics, nonlinear dynamics, graph
algorithms, statistics, machine learning, and theory of complex systems
all contribute to Network Science.
■ Network Science focuses on real-world networks and provides a general
framework for studying complex networks.
● The Birth of Network Science:
■ Watts and Strogatz discovered the Small-World property, indicating most
node-pairs are close within a small number of hops.
■ Barabási and Albert introduced the concept of Scale-Free networks,
where most nodes have few connections but a few nodes (hubs) have
many connections.
■ Scale-Free networks follow a power-law distribution due to preferential
attachment, where new nodes connect to well-connected existing nodes.