Gabriel BARINA, Public Dissertation of PhD Thesis

Thesis Title: " Computational Analysis of Emergent Behaviour in Collaboration Networks "

Author: Gabriel BARINA

PhD Board:

• Chair: Professor Habil. Dr. Eng. Marius MARCU (Politehnica University Timisoara)
• PhD Supervisor: Professor Dr. Eng. Mircea VLĂDUŢIU  (Politehnica University Timisoara)
• Scientific Referees:
  • Acad. Professor Dr. Eng.  Mircea PETRESCU (University Politehnica of Bucharest)
  • Professor Dr. Eng. Liviu Cristian MICLEA (Technical University of Cluj-Napoca )
  • Professor Dr. Eng. Nicolae BIBU (Vest University of Timisoara)

Thesis Summary:

The expanding domain of Network Science facilitates the understanding of existing patterns of connection in nature and our own society, both physical and social. Social Network Analysis, the application of the broader field of Network Science, has received an increase of interest from the scientific community, due to its relevance in analyzing the intricate nature of social dynamics, emergent human behaviour, collaboration and influence. The goal of this thesis is to use Computer Science as an underlying tool for simulating complex models in a dynamic fashion, as well as to uncover crucial aspects regarding social and economic collaboration and emergent behaviour.

The main objectives of this thesis are: 

• Create a state-of-the-art emergent and collaboration network - by using the analytical power of computers (e.g. data-mining, machine-learning, etc.), based on real-world data, in order to analyze and compare its fundamental properties to other, similar networks.
• Propose a new metric capable of quantifying the sociability of a node in regard to the social features.
• Create a simulator capable of simulating emergent relationships between (economic) agents and releasing it as a tool.
• Using the created simulator as a tool, simulate and analyze the share of total payoff, the distribution of payoff, as well as the ergodicity of economic networks.

Thesis structure includes an introductory chapter, a chapter pertaining theoretical foundations, and one describing the state-of-the-art of the chosen field. In the next two chapters, I present the two emergent collaborative networks analyzed (MuSeNet and TrEcSim), each with its own dedicated chapter. The thesis ends with a chapter dedicated to the conclusions, contributions, as well as to the research direction, references (219 titles consulted and cited) and an annex. This thesis extends itself over 122 pages and contains 62 figures and 15 tables.