| Title | : | Network problems and model interpretability in Social Cyber-Physical Systems |
| Speaker | : | Ramayya Krishnan (CMU) |
| Details | : | Fri, 6 Sep, 2019 4:00 PM @ AM Turing Hall |
| Abstract: | : | When people interact either online or in physical spaces which are digitally instrumented, traditional social systems are transformed into social cyber-physical systems. These systems support both human to human interactions as well as interactions between humans and algorithmic systems. The granular data about people and their decision-making behaviours enabled by these systems permit the study of a class of problems at a scale and granularity that was previously not possible. In this talk, I will discuss work on two problems. The first problem pertains to influence that propagates via network relationships that arise between human agents in social systems (e.g., digital social networks). Decision making is influenced via these network relationships. Two pathways that have been identified in the social science literature are peer influence and structural equivalence. However, quantitatively estimating the effects that each of these types of influence has on decision making on real, large scale networks requires a multi-disciplinary approach that combines ideas from statistics and operations research. I will provide an overview of the work we have done in estimating these types of influence and actionable insights it enables. The second problem relates to providing transparency reports that are designed to engender trust among human users interacting with a classifier (a type of algorithmic decision-making system). The ideas I will overview draw on ideas from cooperative game theory. Through a discussion of these two problems, I propose to demonstrate the value that arises in combining ideas from data science with work in decision science/operations research and social science to address important societal problems. Bio: Ramayya Krishnan is an alumnus of IIT Madras and the University of Texas at Austin. His work has addressed a number of problems related to people and their behaviours in digitally instrumented systems. He is Dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and is the founding director of the Block Center for Technology and Society (See https://www.cmu.edu/block-center/). Krishnan is current President of INFORMS and an INFORMS Fellow and was formerly a member of the Global Agenda Council on Data-Driven Development of the World Economic Forum, and president of the INFORMS Information Systems Society as well as the INFORMS Computing Society. He is the recipient of the prestigious Y. Nayuduamma award in 2015 for his contributions to telecommunications management and business technology, the Distinguished Alumnus award from the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), the Distinguished PhD Alumnus award from the University of Texas, and the Bright Internet Award (Jae Kyu Lee Award) from the Korea Society of Management Information Systems. This is the 9th Talk in the TCS-IITM Computer Science and Engineering Colloquium Series. |
