The world consists of many interesting things that move: people go to work, home, school, and shop in public transit buses and trains, or in cars and taxis; goods move on these networks and by trucks or by air each day; and food items travel a large distance to meet their eater. Thus, massive movement processes are underway in the world every day and it is critical to ensure their safe, timely and efficient operation. Towards this end, low-cost sensing…
How can we identify the most influential nodes in a network for initiating diffusion? Are people able to easily identify those people in their communities who are best at spreading information, and if so, how? Using theory and recent data, we examine these questions and see how the structure of social networks affects information transmission ranging from gossip to the diffusion of new products. In particular, a model of diffusion is used to define centrality and shown to nest other…
In the social sciences, there is a longstanding tension between data collection methods that facilitate quantification and those that are open to unanticipated information. Advances in technology now enable new, hybrid methods that can combine some of the benefits of both approaches. Drawing inspiration both from online information aggregation systems like Wikipedia and from traditional survey research, we propose a new class of research instruments called wiki surveys. Just as Wikipedia evolves over time based on contributions from participants, we…
Twenty years ago, randomized controlled trials testing social policies were essentially unheard of in developing countries, although there were prominent examples in developed economies. Today their number, scale and scope is much greater than could probably have been imagined. This talk will take stock of the role that randomized controlled trials have played to date, and can play in the future, in guiding policy. We will try to assess both successes and tribulations, challenges and promises.
This talk will aim to accessibly describe progress on a theory of network architecture relevant to neuroscience, biology, medicine, and technology, particularly SDN/NFV and cyberphysical systems. Key ideas are motivated by familiar examples from neuroscience, including live demos using audience brains, and compared with examples from technology and biology. Background material and additional details are in online videos (accessible from website cds.caltech.edu/~doyle) for which this talk can be viewed as a short trailer. More specifically, my research is aimed at…
With the emergence of smartphone based sensing for mobility as the main paradigm for sensing in the last decade, radically new information sets have become available for the driving public. This information enables commuters to make repeated decisions on a daily basis based on anticipated state of the network. This repeated decision-making process creates interesting patterns for the transportation network, in which users might (or might not) reach an equilibrium, depending on the information at their disposal (for example knowing…
Innovations for the 21st Century Grid
Cryptography rearranges power: it configures who can dowhat, from what. This makes cryptography an inherently political tool, and it confers on the field an intrinsically moral dimension. The Snowden revelations motivate a reassessment of the political and moral positioning of cryptography. They lead one to ask if our inability to effectively address mass surveillance constitutes a failure of our field. I believe that it does. I call for a community-wide effort to develop more effective means to resist mass surveillance.…
The last half century has seen the adoption of democratic institutions in much of the developing world. However, the conditions under which de jure democratization leads to the representation of historically disadvantaged groups remains debated as do the implications of descriptive representation for policy inclusion. Using detailed administrative and survey data from Nepal, we examine political selection in a new democracy, the implications for policy inclusion and the role of conflict in affecting political transformation. I situate these findings in the context…
*Please note: this event has been POSTPONED until Fall 2020* See MIT’s COVID-19 policies for more details. About the author: Prof. Guido Imbens’ primary field of interest is Econometrics. Research topics in which he is interested include: causality, program evaluation, identification, Bayesian methods, semi-parametric methods, instrumental variables. Guido Imbens does research in econometrics and statistics. His research focuses on developing methods for drawing causal inferences in observational studies, using matching, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity designs. Guido Imbens is Professor…
