Network Science Institute

Looking for something ✨network-y ✨ to do the Sunday before NetSci 2026 starts? How about 𝗔 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿-𝗢𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻? We'll explore the Bluesky starter pack dataset from 𝘼 𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 (doi.org/10.3886/ICPS...).
🚨Fill out this form by March 13🚨 tinyurl.com/26warr3n

tinyurl.com/ytzfhc74

We'll explore this rich dataset using higher-order network analysis techniques to learn more about multiway user interactions on social media. This will be a fun, collaborative event with brief ⚡lightning talks ⚡ explaining the dataset & introducing higher-order network analysis methods.

A Higher-Order Hackathon @ NetSci Interest Form This is the official interest form for A Higher-Order Hackathon: Leveraging the A Blue Start starter pack dataset for fun and the advancement of network science @ NetSci 2026. Please fill out this f...

If you are interested in:
✨ learning more about higher-order network analysis
✨ meeting cool people
✨ hacking on an interesting research question with said cool people
Then fill out our interest form by March 13th! This event will take place at Northeastern on Sunday, May 31st.
tinyurl.com/26warr3n

Join our visiting speakers for talks diving into career adaptability, urban mobility, and AI. tinyurl.com/mpr87m6t

The speaker lineup keeps getting better! ✨
Meet our next speaker, 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗮 𝗝𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻. A Professor of Physics at IIT Indore, her work spans nonlinear dynamics, complex systems & network science, revealing how network structure shapes collective behavior. Welcome!
#Speakers 👉 www.netsci2026.com/speakers

🥁 We’re thrilled to announce our next NetSci Conference Keynote Speaker!
✨ 2x ERC grant winner
✨ Director, Covid Crisis Lab
✨ COVID-19 advisor to the Italian government
✨ Pioneer in infectious-disease modeling
Please join us in welcoming @alemelegaro.bsky.social!

www.netsci2026.com/speakers

[New paper!] Mobility data are incredibly powerful, but also come with a long list of well-known biases (sampling, coverage, demographics, behavioral, etc.). In the paper, we survey them all and then zoom in on one that has been surprisingly underexplored: temporal bias.

arxiv.org/abs/2601.22330

Our new paper (w. @foucaultwelles.bsky.social ) shows how Asians online created new vocabularies for subversive humor and "everyday activism" that defy both Western propaganda and Asian hypernationalism.

Link: doi.org/10.1080/1071...

How do battles for hearts and minds shape our information world? 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 explores patterns in information competition, the ecosystems they occur in, and how understanding them can help reduce escalating conflict.
Join the 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 at NetSI on Feb 4: tinyurl.com/mry49whc

Another fantastic Invited Speaker joining NetSci 2026 💫
𝗔𝘀𝘂 𝗢𝘇𝗱𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗿 (MIT), MathWorks Professor and Head of EECS. Her work spans optimization, machine learning, economics, and networks, focusing on incentives and algorithms for data-driven human-machine systems. Welcome!
tinyurl.com/4t5p46yr

Join 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂 at the Network Science Institute on Jan. 30!
Explore 3D knitted fabric formworks and how computational fabrication, geometry, and structural principles enable more sustainable construction and new architectural expression.
🔗 tinyurl.com/3uwuf8cd

A new study in 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘺, co-authored by #NetSI 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻, reveals the true economic burden of #dengue in Puerto Rico. Costs reach $63M in a median year & soar to $1.1B during epidemics, highlighting the need for stronger prevention & policy action.
tinyurl.com/4dj4a3tx

Please join us in welcoming 𝗞𝗶𝗺 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗵𝘁 as the next School Speaker at NetSci 2026 ✨
A data & media artist and information designer, Kim explores how data and computational systems shape visibility in contemporary culture.
Speakers 🔗 www.netsci2026.com/speakers

📣 Announcing 𝗗𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗼 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶 as Invited Speaker at NetSci Conference 2026!
Professor at the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca & at Leiden University’s Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, his research combines statistical physics, information theory, & random-graph modeling.

We’re thrilled to welcome 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗿 as a School Speaker at NetSci Conference 2026! An Assistant Professor at Harvard, she leads the Geometric Machine Learning Group, developing efficient, theory-backed ML methods.
Meet her & all the speakers 👉 www.netsci2026.com/speakers

Chapter 2: Duncan Watts & @davidlazer.bsky.social reflect on how the field has evolved from early simulation models to today’s large-scale data and experiments, and ask how can computational social science move from producing insights to having real societal impact? @nunetsi.bsky.social

🚨 New pop-up talk! Join 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗪𝗼𝗹𝗳𝗲 this Wed, Jan. 21 at the Network Science Institute as he explores hierarchical single linkage clustering for community detection with HDBSCAN, tackling outliers and flexible community structures. 🔗 www.networkscienceinstitute.org/talks/ryan-d...

Join us this week for a series of exciting talks at our #London and #Boston campuses! 🔗 tinyurl.com/mpr87m6t

@rocher.lc
@hitanshupandit.bsky.social
@angelinawang.bsky.social

He’s been knighted by Italy, and now has another feather in his cap Applying physics to the spread of disease has yielded important information about getting ahead of pandemics.

A spotlight by #NGN on @alexvespi.bsky.social, Director of the Network Science Institute, awarded the EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division Prize for "unveiling the universal principles governing epidemic spreading and information diffusion". 🎉
news.northeastern.edu/2026/01/15/c...

‪🎉 Big news! Giovanni Petri has been selected for the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 at the Museum of Science. He’ll join 40+ fellows to advance the impact of science through digital storytelling. 👏
tinyurl.com/68skdhdy

@lordgrilo.bsky.social, @museumofscience.bsky.social

Scientists break down the tape to predict players’ next moves The NetSI Sport research group uses network science to treat sports analytics like conversations. Its grammar can predict what's said next.

New 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙎𝙄 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 group at Northeastern uses network science to study sports dynamics. Treating play like a language, they reveal team “signatures” and launch a new sports analytics course (🔗 tinyurl.com/bddkc8vf).

@alexvespi.bsky.social @jkbren.bsky.social

news.northeastern.edu/2026/01/13/s...

Want to get better at using ChatGPT? Try empathy, research finds New research from Northeastern reveals that social skills like empathy are extremely valuable when collaborating with AI.

A new @nuglobalnews.bsky.social article spotlights research by #NetSI Christoph Riedl, & Ben Weidmann: the key to effective AI collaboration isn’t just technical skill, but also soft skills like it’s empathy and perspective-taking.

news.northeastern.edu/2026/01/12/h...

@kyriakikalimeri.bsky.social & Elisa Omodei come together for a rare joint session at NetSci Conference 2026. Their research draws on real-world data, exploring how network and computational social science can address societal issues.
tinyurl.com/4t5p46yr

Join us at the Network Science Institute for our first 2026 visiting speaker!
📅 Jan 16, 2 PM EST
💻 www.networkscienceinstitute.org/talks/serena...

Serena Wang explores how AI and platform evaluators face “unknown unknowns” and when agents have incentives to reveal metric observability.

New paper in 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 introduces a new way to govern multi-agent networks by decoupling interaction from information. Using RL to adapt information flows, the method boosts cooperation without rewiring networks.
Paper: tinyurl.com/37ywp9b6
@babak-heydari.bsky.social,

We're picking up the pace with speaker announcements for #NetSci2026! Stay tuned for more 👀

...and get those abstracts submitted! Portal closes in <24 hours www.netsci2026.com/call-for-abs...

**The deadline will not be extended again** @netsciconf.bsky.social

Another joint keynote at NetSci 2026 is official! 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁-𝗟𝗮́𝘀𝘇𝗹𝗼́ 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗮́𝘀𝗶 and 𝗥𝗲́𝗸𝗮 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 reunite on stage for a one-of-a-kind talk. Their discovery of scale-free networks and the Barabási–Albert model reshaped network science. We can’t wait to welcome you!
@barabasi.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/4t5p46yr

Continuing our exciting NetSci 2026 speaker lineup, we’re happy to welcome Eric Kolaczyk as a School Speaker!
A McGill University Professor, his work advances statistical and ML foundations for network data & related data objects in computing-enabled and engineered systems.
tinyurl.com/4t5p46yr

Thrilled to announce Petra Vertes as an Invited Speaker at NetSci 2026! A Cambridge University Professor, she leads the Systems Neuroscience Lab, using computational modeling & network science to uncover principles of brain organization, function, & neurodevelopmental disorders.
tinyurl.com/4t5p46yr

How string theory helped solve a mystery of the brain’s architecture Using the same math deployed in string theory, network scientists have solved a standing mystery about the brain’s architecture.

In an interview with Northeastern Global News, #NetSI Csaba Both and @barabasi.bsky.social discuss their 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 study on physical networks and whether 1940s minimization principles explain neural growth.
news.northeastern.edu/2026/01/07/s...