Fall 2013 Seminar Series

DATE: 11/7/2013
LOCATION: E51-335
TIME: 4:15pm
Reception immediately following

SPEAKER:
Sandy Pentland

TITLE
Social Physics

ABSTRACT
Fine grain data about human behavior, harvested from cell phones, social media, credit cards, and similar media, has given us the ability to quantify the network dynamics of social learning and decision making in real-world situations by use of heterogeneous stochastic network models. These models allow predictions of human behavior in domains ranging from financial decisions to health behaviors to consumer consumption. We can also develop network incentive mechanisms that strongly shape behavior, providing a new approach for addressing tragedy of the commons problems, and shape behaviors to increase productivity of organizations and perhaps even entire cities. Experiments at scales from hundreds to millions of people will be described.