It is safe to say that nearly everyone uses the Internet on a daily basis. But, most people probably do not think about how the websites they visit are constructed, and how connected they actually are to people all around the world.

Pawel Pralat, assistant professor of mathematics at West Virginia University, is working on developing models and analyzing algorithms to further the understanding of activity on the Internet. This will allow companies and organizations to monitor data and link hosts, pages and user, and links to deep theoretical questions of how complex systems operate.

On May 27-29 in Atlanta, Ga., the eighth annual Workshop on Algorithms and Models for the Web Graph will be held to foster this research collaboration. Pralat is a member of the organizing committee. Adam Henry, an assistant professor of public administration WVU, is also on the program committee and will attend the workshop with four WVU students. Pralat and Henry will present their research on how network models may be applied to better understand the characteristics of people who use the internet, or who are embedded in any type of social network.

Much like the entire WAW conference, their work is focused on bridging research traditions to enhance understanding of how complex systems operate. The National Science Foundation, Google, Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, Telefonica Research and WVU are sponsoring this event.

The conference is to help researchers, as well as companies from a private sector, to further understand the web of connections within online social networks, phone call networks, collaboration and citation networks, biological networks and many other types of complex systems.

“If we can investigate how networks grow and behave, then we can move towards theories that help us to more efficiently use networks to solve problems and predict behaviors,” Pralat said.

For more information about the conference and research, please visit www.waw2011.math.wvu.edu.

-WVU-
jh4/06/11

CONTACT: Rebecca Herod, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
304-293-7405, ext. 5251, Rebecca.Herod@mail.wvu.edu