Doctoral Students
- Nick LaBerge (PhD Computer Science, co-advised with Prof. Dan Larremore)
As a former physicist, I am drawn to understand the underlying rules that govern real world systems, and I’m interested in using and developing analytical methods to study them. My current research in the science of science aims to better understand the academic ecosystem. In this research I am particularly motivated to examine how academia can become a more equitable environment for all. - Katie Spoon
(PhD Computer Science, co-advised with Prof. Dan Larremore, and a NSF Graduate Research Fellow)
My past experiences in computer science, specifically in deep learning, caused me to hesitate at the speed in which deep neural networks are deployed and the amount of trust people have in their fairness and accuracy. This is especially concerning when those networks are used in healthcare, policing, education, and other areas that have a direct impact on people’s lives. I decided to pivot to computational social science to focus on explanation rather than prediction. Specifically, I’m interested in studying structural inequality in social systems. - Ian Van Buskirk (PhD Computer Science, co-advised with Prof. Dan Larremore)
I’m here because I still don’t know what a complex system is. My favorite account? A complex system is a collection of agents that interact to manipulate a causal narrative. This suggests that analysis of such systems must bridge many divides, central among them the divide between an agent and the narrative it (often indirectly) attempts to manipulate. I seek to help build such bridges and hope my work shapes how we interact with complex systems for the better. - Lucy Van Kleunen (PhD Computer Science, co-advised with Prof. Laura Dee)
I'm interested in working at the intersection of network science and ecology. My research explores how the interactions between species are structured and predicts how these networks will react to shocks such as the introduction of nonnative species by humans. This work can suggest strategies for conserving and managing the natural systems to which humans are fundamentally connected. - Sam Zhang (PhD Applied Mathematics, and a NSF Graduate Research Fellow)
As a programmer turned mathematician, I enjoy working at the boundary between pure mathematics and computational science. I am particularly interested in complex societal problems with rich geometric and network structure. Currently I am studying large-scale patterns in the ecosystem of science production and higher education.
Affiliated Doctoral Students
- Upasana Dutta (PhD Computer and Information Science)
I'm a PhD student at Penn, co-advised by Duncan Watts and Aaron. My research interests are primarily in computational social science, network science, and complex systems. Broadly, I am interested in developing network methods and computational models to understand what governs human behavior in social systems, and what leads to collective behavior such as the spread of information, beliefs, norms, diseases, production and consumption of news, team and opinion dynamics, etc.
Masters Students
- Behzod Mirpochoev (BS/MS Computer Science)
I'm primarily motivated by taking a closer look at how the world which governs our biological variation falls at an intersection with the one which we create through computation. Taking knowledge from the natural world and applying it towards medical amelioration is a monumental collaboration between disciplines. My current research lies with genomic structural variants; specifically, leveraging methodologies in data science with dynamics in our biological systems for the goal of classification. - Bisman Singh (MS Computer Science)
Coming from a statistics and math background, I was always interested in making sense of data. My curiosity grew as I saw there is a huge application of statistical and computational methods in social sciences. My areas of interest are network analysis, machine learning and time series analysis. - Dennis Windham (MS Computer Science)
As an undergrad, I double majored in Computer Science and Mathematics, and even found room for a minor in Philosophy. I took Philosophy for the soul, and Mathematics for my grandmother, as she is also a mathematician. My real passion, however, lies in programming, and finding clever and elegant ways to explore diverse computational problems through code.
Undergraduate Students
- None at this time. Interested students should take CSCI 3352 Biological Networks with me.
Past Group Members
Postdoctoral Fellows- Dr. Kate Wootton (funded by AFOSR, 2021-2022, then research scientist in New Zealand)
- Dr. Eun Lee (funded by AFOSR, 2020-2022, now faculty at Pukyong National University, Korea)
- Dr. Andrea E. Berardi (funded by NSF, 2015-2016, then postdoc at University of Bern, Switzerland)
- Dr. Daniel B. Larremore (funded by NIH, 2012-2015, now faculty at University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
- Dr. Leto Peel (funded by DARPA, 2013-2015, now faculty at Maastricht University, Netherlands)
- Dr. Andrew J. Kavran
(Biochemistry, 2016-2021, then postdoc at Bristol Myers Squibb)
- Dr. Allison C. Morgan
(Computer Science, 2016-2021, then data scientist at Twitter)
- Dr. Anna Broido
(Applied Mathematics, 2015-2019, then machine learning engineer at Apple)
- Dr. Amir Ghasemian
(Computer Science, 2014-2018, then postdoctoral fellow at Temple, and then Yale)
- Dr. Nora Connor
(Computer Science, 2011-2018, NSF GRF, then data scientist at Tuple Health)
- Dr. Samuel F. Way
(Computer Science, 2014-2017, now research scientist at Spotify Research)
- Dr. Abigail Z. Jacobs
(Computer Science, 2011-2017, NSF GRF, now faculty in Complex Systems and Information Science at Michigan)
- Dr. Lauren G. Shoemaker
(Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2011-2017, NSF GRF, now faculty in Botany at Wyoming)
- Dr. Sears Merritt
(Computer Science, 2011-2013, then data scientist at Mass. Mutual)
- Upasana Dutta (Computer Science, 2019-2022, then pursuing PhD in Computer Science at University of Pennsylvania)
- Trevor DiMartino (Computer Science, 2016-2017, then machine learning developer at Workday)
- Kansuke Ikehara (Computer Science, 2015-2016, then developer at LingK)
- Christopher Aicher (Applied Math, 2012-2014, then pursuing PhD in Statistics at University of Washington)
- Pooneh Mortazavi (Computer Science, 2012-2013, then developer at Microsoft)
- Yogesh Virkar (Computer Science, 2011-2012, then PhD in Computer Science at Colorado)
- Chris Schenk (Computer Science, 2010-2011)
- Skylar Martin (Computer Science, 2020-2021, then staff scientist at Harvard School of Public Health)
- Nicholas Cordaro (Biochemistry, 2019-2020, then computational biologist at Arpeggio Bio)
- Christoph Uhl (Computer Science, 2018-2020, then software engineer at Oracle)
- Alexander Ray (Computer Science, 2017-2019, then developer at Amazon)
- McKenzie Weller (Computer Science, 2017-2019, then developer at Google)
- Tetsumichi (Telly) Umada (Computer Science, 2017-2018, then system engineer at NEC)
- Ellen Tucker (Mathematics, 2015-2016, then pursuing PhD in Computer Science at Northwestern University)
- Matthias Sainz (Computer Science, 2014-2016, then software developer at FullContact)
- Nico Tonozzi (Computer Science, 2014-2015)
- Andrew Zizzi (Aerospace Engineering, 2011-2012)
- Ken Sheedlo (Computer Science, 2011-2012)