Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Prerequisites

Before registering for 1.022, students should complete the following courses or obtain permission from the instructor:

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to complex networks and their structure and function, with examples from engineering, applied mathematics, and social sciences. Topics include spectral graph theory, notions of centrality, random graph models, contagion phenomena, cascades and diffusion, and opinion dynamics.

Course Textbook

Easley, David, and Jon Kleinberg. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780521195331. [Preview with Google Books]

An online version is freely available on Jon Kleinberg's homepage on Cornell University's Department of Computer Science website.

Occasionally we may also use a few additional book chapters and research papers. These can be found in the Readings section.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Homework (Problem Sets) 30%
Midterm 30%
Final Project 40%

For more information on the activities above, see the Assignments and Final Project sections. 

Collaboration Policy

We encourage working together whenever possible: in the tutorials, problem sets, and general discussion of the material and assignments.

Keep in mind, however, that for the problem sets the solutions you hand in should reflect your own understanding of the class material and should be written solely by you. It is not acceptable to copy a solution that somebody else has written.