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Everything you always wanted to know about higher-order interactions^ (^but were afraid to ask)

Call open for submissions

Our Multilayer modeling of adoption dynamics in energy demand management is now published

Our paper on the brokerage role of small states in corporate networks is now published

Selected Publications

The complexity of many biological, social and technological systems stems from the richness of the interactions among their units. Over the past decades, a great variety of complex systems has been successfully described as networks whose interacting pairs of nodes are connected by links. Yet, in face-to-face human communication, chemical reactions and ecological systems, interactions can occur in groups of three or more nodes and cannot be simply described just in terms of simple dyads. Until recently, little attention has been devoted to the higher-order architecture of real complex systems. However, a mounting body of evidence is showing that taking the higher-order structure of these systems into account can greatly enhance our modeling capacities and help us to understand and predict their emerging dynamical behaviors. Here, we present a complete overview of the emerging field of networks beyond pairwise interactions.
to appear in Physics Reports, 2020
Preprint

Complex networks have been successfully used to describe the spread of diseases in populations of interacting individuals. Conversely, pairwise interactions are often not enough to characterize social contagion processes such as opinion formation or the adoption of novelties, where complex mechanisms of influence and reinforcement are at work. Here we introduce a higher-order model of social contagion in which a social system is represented by a simplicial complex and contagion can occur through interactions in groups of different sizes. Numerical simulations of the model on both empirical and synthetic simplicial complexes highlight the emergence of novel phenomena such as a discontinuous transition induced by higher-order interactions. We show analytically that the transition is discontinuous and that a bistable region appears where healthy and endemic states co-exist. Our results help explain why critical masses are required to initiate social changes and contribute to the understanding of higher-order interactions in complex systems.
in Nature Communications, 2019
PDF Code DOI Press

We introduce a model for the emergence of innovations, in which cognitive processes are described as random walks on the network of links among ideas or concepts, and an innovation corresponds to the first visit of a node. The transition matrix of the random walk depends on the network weights, while in turn the weight of an edge is reinforced by the passage of a walker. The presence of the network naturally accounts for the mechanism of the adjacent possible, and the model reproduces both the rate at which novelties emerge and the correlations among them observed empirically. We show this by using synthetic networks and by studying real data sets on the growth of knowledge in different scientific disciplines. Edge-reinforced random walks on complex topologies offer a new modeling framework for the dynamics of correlated novelties and another example of co-evolution of processes and networks.
In Physical Review Letters, 2018
Preprint PDF DOI Press

Recent Publications

The complexity of many biological, social and technological systems stems from the richness of the interactions among their units. Over …
Preprint

Due to the emergence of new technologies, the whole electricity system is undergoing transformations on a scale and pace never observed …
Preprint PDF DOI

Global economic activity is networked through cross‐national linkages between firm headquarters, branches, and subsidiaries. Brokerage …
PDF DOI

Creativity, technology and innovation are the main driving forces of our modern world and they often trigger behavioural and cultural …
PDF DOI

Understanding the functional structure of contemporary cities can find many applications ranging from urban planning to local …
Preprint

Sexual contacts are the main spreading route of HIV. This puts sex workers at higher risk of infection even in populations where HIV …
Preprint

Complex networks have been successfully used to describe the spread of diseases in populations of interacting individuals. Conversely, …
PDF Code DOI Press

PDF DOI

PDF DOI

We introduce a model for the emergence of innovations, in which cognitive processes are described as random walks on the network of …
Preprint PDF DOI Press

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
September 2019 – Present
London

Visiting Lecturer

City, University of London

 
 
 
 
 
March 2019 – Present
London

Research Assistant

University College London

Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA)
 
 
 
 
 
January 2019 – August 2019
London

Teaching Fellow

Queen Mary University of London

School of Electronic Engineering & Computer Science
 
 
 
 
 
October 2017 – October 2018
London

Enrichment Doctoral Student

The Alan Turing Institute

 
 
 
 
 
September 2016 – Present
London

Postgraduate Research Student

Queen Mary University of London

Complex Systems and Networks Research Group
 
 
 
 
 
September 2016 – December 2018
London

Computational Support Assistant

Queen Mary University of London

Dynamical Systems and Statistical Physics Research Group
 
 
 
 
 
May 2016 – September 2016
Turin

Researcher

ISI Foundation

Data Science Lab - Mathematics & Foundation of Complex Systems Group
 
 
 
 
 
September 2015 – April 2016
Bern

Data Science Intern

United Nations - Universal Postal Union

Activities

Teaching

I am currenly Visiting Lecturer at City, University of London, for the course:

  • 2019⁄2020 Mathematics for Economists (MA1202).

I’ve been teaching Network Science at the School of Electronic Engineering & Computer Science (QMUL):

  • 2018⁄2019 Network Modeling and Performance (ECS724U/P).

I’ve been Teaching Assistant for the following courses at QMUL:

  • 2016⁄2017 Introduction to Statistics (MTH4106/MTH4206).
  • 2016⁄2017 Network Modeling and Performance (ECS724U/P).

Referee Activity

I’ve been a reviewer for the journals:

Chaos, EPJ Data Science, Physical Review E, Scientific Reports, Europhysics Letters, Chaos Solitons & Fractals, Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, Online Social Networks and Media.

Scholarships, Grants & Awards

  • 2019 Postgraduate Research Fund, QMUL.
  • 2017 Travel Grant for the Symposium on The Future of Urban Networks Research, Ghent University.
  • 2017 Turing PhD Enrichment Scolarship, The Alan Turing Institute.
  • 2017 Travel Grant for the Summer School on Methods for Computational Social Science, GESIS.
  • 2016 Research Studentship Queen Mary Principal’s Award, QMUL.

Conferences, Schools and Symposia

  • Sep 2019 Conference on Complex Systems 2019

    Singapore, SG.

  • Sep 2019 Workshop on Higher-order Interaction Networks: Dynamics, Structure, Data

    Oxford, UK.

  • Jun 2019 Complexity 72h Workshop

    Lucca, IT.

  • May 2019 European Physical Society (EPS) Conference on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems

    Stockholm, SE.

  • Apr 2019 MoN18 Eighteenth Mathematics of Networks meeting

    Oxford, UK.

  • Mar 2019 CompleNet 19 International Conference on Complex Networks

    Tarragona, ES.

  • Oct 2018 2nd Network Science Workshop

    London, UK.

  • Sep 2018 Conference on Complex Systems 2018

    Thessalokini, GR.

  • Jun 2018 NetSci 2018 International Conference on Network Science

    Paris, FR.

  • Feb 2018 BIFI International Conference 2018 on Complexity, Networks and Collective behaviour

    Zaragoza, ES.

  • Sep 2017 European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science

    London, UK.

  • Sep 2017 Symposium on The Future of Urban Networks Research

    Ghent University, BE.

  • Jul 2017 Summer School on Methods for Computational Social Science

    Sant’Antioco, IT.

  • Jun 2017 Cambridge Networks Day 2017

    University of Cambridge, UK.

  • Jan 2017 Mathematics and Economics of Energy Markets

    National Grid, Wokingham, UK.

  • Oct 2015 UN Conference on Global Addressing

    UPU, Bern, CH.

  • Nov 2015 UN Global Conference on Trade facilitation

    UPU, Bern, CH.

Contact

  • Mathematical Sciences Building, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, UK