Networks of Systems and Society - Lecture, Monday, 26 June 2017

The emergence of large networked systems has brought about new challenges to researchers and practitioners alike. While such systems perform well under normal operations, they can exhibit fragility in response to certain disruptions that may lead to catastrophic cascades of failures.  

ETH Global Lecture
Networks of Systems and Society

external pageMunther Dahleh
Massachuetts Institute of Technology
Director of Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

Free public lecture
Monday, 26 June 2017
5:00 p.m.

ETH Zurich, HG E 3
Rämistrasse 101
8092 Zürich

 

The emergence of large networked systems has brought about new challenges to researchers and practitioners alike. While such systems perform well under normal operations, they can exhibit fragility in response to certain disruptions that may lead to catastrophic cascades of failures. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as systemic risk, emphasizes the role of the system interconnection in causing such, possibly rare, events. The flash crash of 2010, the financial crisis of 2008, the New England power outage of 2003, or simply extensive delays in air travel, are just a few of many examples of fragility and systemic risk present in complex interconnected systems. 

In this free public lecture, Dr. Dahleh, MIT will discuss this emerging area for critical infrastructures. Such applications involve the interaction between physical systems and social networks. He will present simplified dynamic models from transportation systems and the power grid that highlight how such interactions impact fragility/resilience. He will also argue that co-design of both control strategies at the physical layer and incentive mechanism at the social layer is necessary to prevent fragility and systemic failures. Throughout the lecture, Dr. Dahleh will address questions related to information propagation in social networks, herding phenomenon, and the emergence of self-fulfilling crises. 

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