Jiliang Tang receives the NSF CAREER award

Jiliang Tang, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, receives the NSF CAREER award. Here is the abstract of his project:

CAREER: Signed Networks: Modeling, Measuring, and Mining

Most existing network analysis research has focused on unsigned networks that only have positive links (e.g., friends, followers, and trust). However, in many real-world social systems, in addition to positive links, relations between people can be negative (e.g., foes, blocked and unfriended users, and distrust). These relations can be represented as networks with both positive and negative links (or signed networks).  Signed networks have substantially different properties and principles from unsigned ones, which poses tremendous challenges to traditional network analysis and requires dedicated efforts.  Recent years have witnessed increasing attention on signed networks; as a consequence, some research directions have already been developed. However, there are numerous directions from foundations to applications with only initial development or even untouched; thus a systematical and comprehensive investigation on signed networks is desired.  In this CAREER project, I will comprehensively investigate the primary directions of signed networks from modeling and measuring to mining.  Each direction will dramatically extend the frontier through not only developing innovative solutions, but also studying original problems.  The core intellectual merit lies in the fact that the project offers the first systematical investigation on this emerging research area and the designed advanced methodologies and novel tasks will deepen our understanding of how negative links can be synergized to advance the field of network analysis; improve our knowledge of real-world networks; and contribute to real-world applications.

(Date Posted: 2019-03-20)