Docentship lecture - Davide Vega D’Aurelio: "Roles and Positions in Networks: uncovering the organisational structure of complex systems"

• Chairperson: professor Di Yuan
• Representative of the Docentship Committee: professor Nataša Sladoje

Abstract: Networks are powerful representations of complex systems – from social interactions and biological processes to communication infrastructures. One central scientific question in network science is how to identify the underlying structure that organises these systems. While community detection and clustering methods find groups of strongly connected nodes, a complementary and equally powerful approach is positional or role analysis, which groups actors by structural function rather than direct connection. This talk will introduce the theoretical foundations, methods, and applications of role/positional analysis in network science, and demonstrate how these approaches provide insight into the mesoscale organisation of the network and enable comparison across different networks and domains.

The lecture is an obligatory teaching test for those applying for admittance as docent and it should be possible for students and others with basic academic education in the relevant field to follow it.

The lecture lasts 40-45 minutes with subsequent discussion. The lecture will be given in English. Welcome!