Dissertation Defense WHAT: Nathan Eagle: "Machine Perception and Learning of Complex Social Systems" WHEN: Monday, April 25, 2005, 11:00 AM EST WHERE: Alex (Sandy) Pentland Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Director, Human Dynamics Group MIT Media Laboratory Pattie Maes Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Director, Ambient Intelligence Group MIT Media Laboratory J. Richard Hackman Cahners-Rabb Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology Harvard University ABSTRACT: The study of complex social systems has traditionally been an arduous process, involving extensive surveys, interviews, ethnographic studies, or analysis of digital behavior. Today, however, it is possible to use the unprecedented amount of information generated by pervasive mobile phones to provide insights into the dynamics of both individual and group behavior. Information such as continuous proximity, location, communication and activity data, has been gathered from the phones of 100 human subjects at MIT. Systematic measurements from these 100 people over the course of eight months has generated one of the largest datasets of continuous human behavior ever collected, representing over 300,000 hours of daily activity. In this thesis we describe how this data can be used to uncover regular rules and structure in behavior of both individuals and organizations, infer relationships between subjects, verify self-report survey data, and study social network dynamics. By combining theoretical models with rich and systematic measurements, we show that it is possible to gain insight into the underlying behavior of complex social systems. MIT Media Laboratory Home Page | Events Main Index