Social Networks and Big Data Methods (Summer 2026)

Overview

Room: -1.101 (PC Pool), IFI, Goldschmidtstr. 7

Time: Wednesdays 14:00-16:00 weekly, starting 15.04.2026

Lecturers: Huilian Sophie Qiu, Xiaoming Fu

Module: M.Inf.1129

ECTS: 5

Format

Each class consists of a 1h lecture and a 1h student presentation.

Evaluation will be based on attendance (10%), class participation (10%), presentation (30%), and final project (50%).

Schedule (Tentative)

Date	Topic	Slides
15.04.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Introduction; Intro to graph theory
22.04.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Random networks; Edges vs social ties
29.04.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Triads and structural balance; From social processes to graphs
06.05.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Homophily and degree correlation (parts 1 & 2)
13.05.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Power and centrality in social networks; social exchange
20.05.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Detecting communities; Structural equivalence
27.05.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Affiliations and overlapping subgroups
03.06.2026 (14:00-16:00)	TBD
10.06.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Network Analysis of Open Source Software; Visualization
17.06.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Scale-free networks; Network inequality
24.06.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Small-world networks; Social Capital (part 1)
01.07.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Social Capital (part 2); Diffusion and contagion
08.07.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Ethical issues; Exemplary studies
15.07.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Guest lecture
22.07.2026 (14:00-16:00)	Final Project Presentations
TBA	Written Report