Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Cristian Huepe, Northwestern University "Online opinions and interactions regarding Covid-19 vaccinations: a Complex Systems analysis"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Cristian Huepe - Adjunct Professor, Engineering Sciences & Applied Mathematics (ESAM), Northwestern University, and External Faculty, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Title:
Online opinions and interactions regarding Covid-19 vaccinations: a Complex Systems analysis
Abstract:
Digital social networks can significantly affect Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, if well-connected conversations emerge that discourage immunization. Although the information in these platforms could help understand and manage the communities and narratives that influence vaccination, it has rarely been used to help evaluate or guide public health policy.
I will present an interdisciplinary study in which we analyzed all Chilean tweets related to the Covid-19 vaccines and vaccination process produced during a period of 6 months, to examine quantitatively and qualitatively the structure and dynamics of their opinions and interactions in a society that achieved high levels of immunization while experiencing substantial sociopolitical conflict. We trained a machine learning algorithm to score the tweeting accounts from the most pro-vaccine to the most anti-vaccine. We show that four categories with distinct tweeting practices and connectivity naturally emerge: pro-vaccine activists, anti-vaccine activists, and moderates that promote or inhibit vaccination in discussions, which also play a key role. Accounts disfavoring vaccination tend to appear in the periphery of the interaction network, consistent with Chile’s high immunization levels, but are more active in addressing those favoring vaccination than vice-versa, which reveals a potential problem in communication policy. Our results highlight the importance of social networks and online interventions for successful immunization campaigns.
Speaker Bio:
CHuepeLabs develops research in complex systems, nonequilibrium physical dynamics and quantitative social sciences. Current efforts focus on collective motion, active matter, complex networks, modular-hierarchical evolutionary structures, and opinion formation.
CHuepeLabs is a global research team centered on the work of Cristián Huepe in Chicago and at NICO (Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems) & ESAM (Applied Math Dept.) at Northwestern University (USA). CHuepeLabs also include collaborative teams at the School of Systems Science of Beijing Normal University (China), the Middle East Technical University ODTÜ/METU (Turkey), and the Social Listening Lab SoL-UC (Chile).
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92818942739
Passcode: NICO22
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks w/ Northwestern Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speakers:
Yessica Herrera, Visiting Scholar, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: The Body Speaks: Visual Patterns of Psychological Stress
Aakriti Kumar, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: Evaluating Elements of Empathic Communication with Experts, Crowds, and Large Language Models
Tingyu "Mark" Zhao, PhD Student, Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences
Talk Title: Noise Filtering in Complex Networks
Sign Up:
Sign up to present at a future Lightning Talk session. NICO Lightning Talks are open to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95387714084
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Rosemary Braun, Northwestern University "The Scale of Life"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Rosemary Braun, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University
Title:
The Scale of Life
Abstract:
Living systems exhibit surprising and beautiful self-organization at all scales. At the atomic level, proteins self-assemble into macromolecular complexes. The function of these machines is orchestrated within the cell by regulatory networks, whose activity is in turn dictated by, and coordinated with, the cells environment. This coordination takes place across large spans of space and time: the size and lifetime of organisms as large as the blue whale. Populations and ecosystems of many organisms in turn exhibit remarkable emergent dynamics. Today, advances in single-cell assays enable us to probe the molecular state of every cell in a sample in high-dimensional detail. But is this the correct scale at which to probe living systems? What can we learn from this data, and how can we abstract from the microscopic details to macroscopic phenotypes? In this talk, I will discuss some of our recent work bridging the cell and tissue/organism scales, and discuss some challenges and opportunities for the future.
Speaker Bio:
Rosemary Braun is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences, Applied Mathematics [ESAM], and Physics at Northwestern University. A theoretical physicist by training, she earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois, followed by a Masters in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute (NIH) before joining Northwestern as a faculty member. Today, she works at the intersection of statistics, mathematics, and biology to develop computational tools for analyzing high-dimensional data. In addition to her Northwestern affiliations, she is also Associate Director of the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology, as well as external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97015976754
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)